Island Studies

Off-grid Mobilities: Incorporating a Way of Life

by Phillip Vannini

Published in Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies

Drawing from sensory ethnography, the present multimodal writing—accompanied by photography and digital... more Drawing from sensory ethnography, the present multimodal writing—accompanied by photography and digital video—documents and interprets the mobilities of off-grid living on Lasqueti Island, British Columbia, Canada. The data presentation focuses in particular on the embodied experience of off-grid inhabitation, highlighting the sensory and kinetic experiences and practices of everyday life in a community disconnected from the North American electrical grid and highway network. The mobilities of fuel and energy are presented in unison with ethnographic attention to the taskscape of everyday activities and movements in which off-grid islanders routinely engage. The analysis, based on Tim Ingold's non-representational theory on place, movement, and inhabitation, focuses on how the material and corporeal mobilities of off-grid life body forth a unique sense of place.

Island, Islandness, Vulnerability and Resilience

by C. Michael Hall

Hall, C.M. (2012) Island, islandness, vulnerability and resilience. Tourism Recreation Research, 37, in press. (this is a copy of the initial draft)

This paper is a response to a research probe in Tourism Recreation Research on 'Island Tourism or Tourism on... more This paper is a response to a research probe in Tourism Recreation Research on 'Island Tourism or Tourism on Islands?'. The paper discusses issues surrounding the field of island studies and the significance of islandness. The paper argues that islands serve as a valuable framework for examining both natural and social science issues. The paper extends MacArthur and Wilson's theory of island biogeography to the human ecology of islands and suggests that it can be applied to the understanding of adaptation, resilience, and vulnerability in island tourism. The model may also provide a basis for better understanding the notion of steady-state tourism. From this approach the equilibrial or steady state number of businesses is reached at the intersection of the rate of immigration of new businesses, not already on the island, and the emigration or closure (extinction) of businesses on the island, along with the capacity of businesses to innovate and adapt (which is analagous to species evolution over time and the occupation of new ecological niches). Immigration rates are postulated to vary as a function of distance, and closure rate as a function of island area and resources that determine the competition for finite natural and human capital. The equilibrium point at which I equals E is, of course, never completely constant as it will shift over time in relation to a range in external and internal factors however the key point is that there is a ‘capacity’ to how many businesses – or people, including visitors – can successfully inhabit a finite area over time without there being loss of natural capital

Archaeology, Aquapelagos and Island Studies

by Helen Dawson

International Journal of Research into Island Cultures 6(1):17-21

The burgeoning concept of the aquapelago is reviewed here in general terms and specifically in light of its... more The burgeoning concept of the aquapelago is reviewed here in general terms and specifically in light of its applicability to archaeology, where a comparable debate has been taking place over the development of an archaeology of the sea to match that of the islands. The study of the sea in its own right is a promising approach, nonetheless we should still aim to address the continuum formed by islanders, land and sea.

Review of Melanie A. Murray, Island Paradise: The Myth. Amsterdam - New York: Rodopi, 2009

by Enrica Picarelli

Appeared in Anglistica AION, 14.1 (2010)

Doing islandness: a non-representational approach to an island’s sense of place

by Phillip Vannini

Co-authored with Jonathan Taggart

This paper presents both an empirical characterization and a theoretical treatment of an island as practice. Through... more This paper presents both an empirical characterization and a theoretical treatment of an island as practice. Through video and ethnographic description we describe and interpret how one kind of islandness is done. Thus we understand islandness corporeally, affectually, practically, intimately, as a visceral experience. Basing our conceptual treatment on the non-representational idea of dwelling, we approach place as a kind of practice. We view the key performances through which an island becomes such as practices of incorporation. Inhabitants, we believe, incorporate a place not by way of mental design or blueprints, or by way of signifying comparisons and juxtapositions, but rather by sheer practical, creative, skillful engagement with its affordances. Thus we understand the practices of an islander as someone who assembles together an island by way of making use of whatever is at hand, solving going concerns as they present themselves.

Read more: http://publicethnography.net/projects/it-me-or-does-paper-move

Negotiating heritage and tradition: identity and cultural tourism in Ærø, Denmark

by Adam Grydehoj

'It's a funny thing that they were all bad men': cultural conflict and integrated tourism policy in Shetland, UK

by Adam Grydehoj

Branding from above: generic cultural branding in Shetland and other islands

by Adam Grydehoj

Uninherited heritage: tradition and heritage production in Shetland, Åland and Svalbard

by Adam Grydehoj

Published in "International Journal of Heritage Studies"

Nothing but a Shepherd and His Dog: Social and Economic Effects of Depopulation in Fetlar, Shetland

by Adam Grydehoj

Published in "Shima"

Historiography of Picts, Vikings, Scots, and Fairies and Its Influence on Shetland’s Twenty-First Century Economic Development

by Adam Grydehoj

A thesis presented for the degree of PhD in Ethnology and Folklore at the University of Aberdeen, 2009.

Making use of knowledge from a wide range of disciplines, this thesis analyses the interactions of culture and... more Making use of knowledge from a wide range of disciplines, this thesis analyses the interactions of culture and economy, particularly regarding the influence of nineteenth-century historiography, on Shetland’s present-day economic development.

Shetland’s local identity concept is strongly influenced by this North Sea archipelago’s Norse history. This is in part the result of the islands’ late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century national romantic literature, which was inspired by Continental and mainland British trends in anthropology and philology. The theories of fairy origins proposed in the 1890s by the Edinburgh anthropologist David MacRitchie exerted a great influence on Shetland writers. His theories – since shown to be incorrect – led to the historiographic dehumanisation of the islands’ pre-Norse population and permitted the complete valorisation of the Vikings, most notably in the work of the Shetland author Jessie Saxby. Since the 1930s, a variation of MacRitchie’s theory has been repeated in nearly every local book concerning Shetland folk belief.

These conceptions of history continue to inform the sense of local identity felt by many Shetlanders. This has come into conflict with the local government’s efforts at place brand, tourism, heritage, and economic development, all of which tie into a broader struggle between fostering Shetland’s national awareness and expanding Shetland’s jurisdictional capacity. Particular attention is paid to how history is used variously by the community to express exclusivity and by the local government to promote inclusivity.

Autonomy Initiatives and Quintessential Englishness on the Isle of Wight

by Adam Grydehoj

Four new additions to the marine flora of Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Tropical western South Atlantic Ocean

by Daniela R. P. Fernandes

A preliminary survey for avian pathogens in columbiform birds on Socorro Island, Mexico

by Juan Martínez-Gómez

Pacific Conservation Biology 17: 11–21. 2011.

To assess the potential disease risks posed by resident Columbiformes to the reintroduction of the Socorro Dove... more To assess the potential disease risks posed by resident Columbiformes to the reintroduction of the Socorro Dove Zenaida graysoni to Socorro Island, Mexico, the endemic Socorro Ground Dove Columbina passerina socorrensis and the recently arrived Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura, were screened for ecto- and endoparsites, haemosporidia, Trichomonas gallinae, Chlamydophila psittaci and avian pox. All of the Mourning Doves and Socorro Ground Doves sampled appeared healthy upon capture. We detected Haemoproteus spp. in 88% of Mourning Dove and 30% of Socorro Ground Dove samples using microscopy. Two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) DNA amplification methods detected either Haemoproteus spp. or Plasmodium spp. Pooling results from both tests yielded positives in 100% of the Mourning Doves and 52% of the Socorro Ground Doves. A nested PCR detected Leucocytozoon spp. in 94% of the Mourning Doves and 61% of the Socorro Ground Doves sampled. Thus, at least two genera of haemosporidia are present in columbids of Socorro Island. Microscopy for T. gallinae yielded positives in 33% of Mourning Dove and 30% of Socorro Ground Dove samples. C. psittaci was not detected using PCR on either cloacal swab samples or tissue samples from tested Mourning Doves or Socorro Ground Doves. Necropsies revealed neither lesions indicative of the wet form of avian pox, nor internal lesions associated with trichomoniasis. These results suggest that Socorro Doves selected for reintroduction should be screened carefully to evaluate potential immunological challenges by native haemosporidians and to avoid introduction of other diseases apparently absent from native Columbiformes on Socorro Island.

A Late Messinian Palynoflora with a Distinct Taphonomy

by Fridgeir Grimsson

2011
Thomas Denk, Fridgeir Grimsson, Reinhard Zetter, Leifur A Simonarson
Springer
Chapter 9

Splendid Isolation: ‘Philosopher’s islands’ and the reimagination of space

by Angus Cameron

Published online in Geoforum, January 2012

This paper argues that the metaphorical figure of the island plays an important but profoundly ambiguous role in the... more This paper argues that the metaphorical figure of the island plays an important but profoundly ambiguous role in the imagination of social space. The paper argues that ‘utopic’ islands have historically provided a fictional domain of experimentation that has informed the constitution of ‘real’ state spaces. From the 16th to 20th centuries this took the form of an increasingly consolidated and ‘global’ endotopia: a world, exemplified by the ‘political’ map, full of state spaces constituted as interiors. More recently, islands have served a very different metaphoric function, being used to create and legitimise spaces of exteriority – ‘xenospaces’ such as the online worlds of the ‘metaverse’ and the arcane legal/financial spaces of offshore – which in combination constitute an emergent xenotopia. The ‘philosopher’s island’ (Mackay, 2010), therefore, represents a complex and polyvalent spatial form that serves to continuously and expediently redefine the nature of social space.

Landnám: The Settlement of Iceland in Archaeological and Historical Perspective

by Kevin P. Smith

Published in "World Archaeology", 1995

The Norse settlement of Iceland established a viable colony on one of the world's last major uninhabited land masses.... more The Norse settlement of Iceland established a viable colony on one of the world's last major uninhabited land masses. The vast corpus of indigenous Icelandic traditions about the country's settlement makes it tempting to view this as one of the best case studies of island colonization by a pre-state society. Archaeological research in some ways supports, but in other ways refutes the historical model. Comparison of archaeological data and historical sources provides insights into the process of island colonization and the role of the settlement process in the formation of a culture's identity and ideology.

The Biogeographic History of Iceland - The North Atlantic Land Bridge Revisited

by Fridgeir Grimsson

2011
Thomas Denk, Fridgeir Grimsson, Reinhard Zetter, Leifur A Simonarson
Springer
Chapter 12

Floristic turnover in Iceland from 15 to 6 Ma - extracting biogeographical signals from fossil floral assemblages

by Fridgeir Grimsson

2007
Fridgeir Grimsson, Thomas Denk
Journal of Biogeography

Síðmíósen setlög við Hreðavatn

by Fridgeir Grimsson

2007
Fridgeir Grimsson
Natturufraedingurinn