Doing Research On, With and About the Island: Reflections on Islandscape
Even though the relational turn within Island Studies has long revoked the equation of islands with insularity, disconnectedness and backwardness, these ascriptions are still often deterministically attributed to islands, mainly by non-island scholars. Thereby these designations are not only reprodu...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Island Studies Journal
2020-05-01
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| Series: | Island Studies Journal |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.107 |
| _version_ | 1797771188615774208 |
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| author | Sarah Nimführ Laura Otto |
| author_facet | Sarah Nimführ Laura Otto |
| author_sort | Sarah Nimführ |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Even though the relational turn within Island Studies has long revoked the equation of islands with insularity, disconnectedness and backwardness, these ascriptions are still often deterministically attributed to islands, mainly by non-island scholars. Thereby these designations are not only reproduced, but connections, dynamics, different forms of embeddedness and entanglements remain overlooked. This paper has two main goals: (1) Adding to the relational turn in Island Studies by not only arguing for more inductive approaches to seriously engage with these situated and changing manifestations and meaningmakings of islands, and (2) by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Malta, we introduce the concept of ‘islandscape’ (Broodbank 2000) to the Island Studies literature. Through the lens of islandscape, islands can be researched as nodal points of the local, national and global without reproducing ‘islandism’ while still acknowledging the importance of the island. The combination of -scape and assemblage-thinking which is already present within Island Studies makes it possible to address the tension between global and local and, rather, to look at which concrete, situated assemblages emerge within islandscape. In this sense, we propose to think of the island as islandscape from the very beginning of research, then to show how this islandscape is actually constituted and then to describe partial moments of stabilisation in terms of assemblages. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T21:33:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c503a124211a4a899a88340d8e61eb66 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1715-2593 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T21:33:53Z |
| publishDate | 2020-05-01 |
| publisher | Island Studies Journal |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Island Studies Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-c503a124211a4a899a88340d8e61eb662023-07-27T13:46:19ZengIsland Studies JournalIsland Studies Journal1715-25932020-05-01151Doing Research On, With and About the Island: Reflections on IslandscapeSarah NimführLaura OttoEven though the relational turn within Island Studies has long revoked the equation of islands with insularity, disconnectedness and backwardness, these ascriptions are still often deterministically attributed to islands, mainly by non-island scholars. Thereby these designations are not only reproduced, but connections, dynamics, different forms of embeddedness and entanglements remain overlooked. This paper has two main goals: (1) Adding to the relational turn in Island Studies by not only arguing for more inductive approaches to seriously engage with these situated and changing manifestations and meaningmakings of islands, and (2) by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Malta, we introduce the concept of ‘islandscape’ (Broodbank 2000) to the Island Studies literature. Through the lens of islandscape, islands can be researched as nodal points of the local, national and global without reproducing ‘islandism’ while still acknowledging the importance of the island. The combination of -scape and assemblage-thinking which is already present within Island Studies makes it possible to address the tension between global and local and, rather, to look at which concrete, situated assemblages emerge within islandscape. In this sense, we propose to think of the island as islandscape from the very beginning of research, then to show how this islandscape is actually constituted and then to describe partial moments of stabilisation in terms of assemblages.https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.107 |
| spellingShingle | Sarah Nimführ Laura Otto Doing Research On, With and About the Island: Reflections on Islandscape Island Studies Journal |
| title | Doing Research On, With and About the Island: Reflections on Islandscape |
| title_full | Doing Research On, With and About the Island: Reflections on Islandscape |
| title_fullStr | Doing Research On, With and About the Island: Reflections on Islandscape |
| title_full_unstemmed | Doing Research On, With and About the Island: Reflections on Islandscape |
| title_short | Doing Research On, With and About the Island: Reflections on Islandscape |
| title_sort | doing research on with and about the island reflections on islandscape |
| url | https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.107 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sarahnimfuhr doingresearchonwithandabouttheislandreflectionsonislandscape AT lauraotto doingresearchonwithandabouttheislandreflectionsonislandscape |