By building the PIM Initiative, the European and International Delegation of France’s Conservatoire du Littoral et des Rivages Lacustres (Coastal Protection Agency) aims to use small islands as laboratories to unite actors and build ambitious environmental policies in the western Mediterranean basin. This study examines the position of these small islands as a relevant model for conservation policies and actions. It is based on data collected during a two-year immersion in the PIM Initiative and uses several methodological and analytical tools. While working on the small islands of the Mediterranean basin, the PIM Initiative uses three main techniques: building a collective, gathering environmental data, and spreading a representation of these territories to wider publics. These techniques are analyzed using the framework of the circulatory system of scientific facts (Latour, 1999). This analysis highlights three preconceptions: (i) small islands group a limited number of actors, (ii) islands attract and facilitate consensus, and (iii) actions implemented on small islands can be replicated on larger islands and the mainland. The article concludes by discussing how the PIM Initiative is poised between considering small islands as laboratories which should become models for environmental policies, or as key sensors, specific territories which highlighted some broader features.
{"title":"Small Islands and Islets: Laboratories or Key Sensors for Environmental Policies in the Mediterranean Basin?","authors":"Orianne Crouteix","doi":"10.24043/001c.120295","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24043/001c.120295","url":null,"abstract":"By building the PIM Initiative, the European and International Delegation of France’s Conservatoire du Littoral et des Rivages Lacustres (Coastal Protection Agency) aims to use small islands as laboratories to unite actors and build ambitious environmental policies in the western Mediterranean basin. This study examines the position of these small islands as a relevant model for conservation policies and actions. It is based on data collected during a two-year immersion in the PIM Initiative and uses several methodological and analytical tools. While working on the small islands of the Mediterranean basin, the PIM Initiative uses three main techniques: building a collective, gathering environmental data, and spreading a representation of these territories to wider publics. These techniques are analyzed using the framework of the circulatory system of scientific facts (Latour, 1999). This analysis highlights three preconceptions: (i) small islands group a limited number of actors, (ii) islands attract and facilitate consensus, and (iii) actions implemented on small islands can be replicated on larger islands and the mainland. The article concludes by discussing how the PIM Initiative is poised between considering small islands as laboratories which should become models for environmental policies, or as key sensors, specific territories which highlighted some broader features.","PeriodicalId":51674,"journal":{"name":"Island Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141824292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Luis Manuel Jerez-Darias, Josefina Domínguez-Mujica
Throughout history the North Atlantic archipelagos have projected themselves outwards thanks to travel and the innate capacity of their inhabitants to relate to other peoples. This research aims to reveal their nodal character on the stage of global mobility, using a detailed statistical analysis of their migration trends since the 1960s. To this end, it is necessary to recognise the rhythms of the migration transition and its parallelism with the socio-economic development of the island spaces themselves. In addition, common features can be identified in their recent migration patterns in which a great diversification of origins and destinations predominates, as well as a multiplicity of motivations. With this aim, migration in these archipelagos is interpreted from a temporal and spatial perspective, redefining the historical concept of “Atlanticity,” and allowing to identify the strategic position they play in the geography of human mobility in times of global capitalism.
{"title":"The Time-Space Regimes of Human Mobility in the North Atlantic Island Spaces (Iceland, Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, and Cape Verde)","authors":"Luis Manuel Jerez-Darias, Josefina Domínguez-Mujica","doi":"10.24043/001c.120293","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24043/001c.120293","url":null,"abstract":"Throughout history the North Atlantic archipelagos have projected themselves outwards thanks to travel and the innate capacity of their inhabitants to relate to other peoples. This research aims to reveal their nodal character on the stage of global mobility, using a detailed statistical analysis of their migration trends since the 1960s. To this end, it is necessary to recognise the rhythms of the migration transition and its parallelism with the socio-economic development of the island spaces themselves. In addition, common features can be identified in their recent migration patterns in which a great diversification of origins and destinations predominates, as well as a multiplicity of motivations. With this aim, migration in these archipelagos is interpreted from a temporal and spatial perspective, redefining the historical concept of “Atlanticity,” and allowing to identify the strategic position they play in the geography of human mobility in times of global capitalism.","PeriodicalId":51674,"journal":{"name":"Island Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141826753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the 16th and 17th centuries, under the influence of the Portuguese Empire’s overseas expansion and cultural integration, the island city of Macau became an important international trading port in the Eastern Sea, with close ties to the Asian port cities governed by Portugal. This study introduces a new method for comparing urban morphological layouts using machine learning and investigates the potential benefits of combining urban morphological analysis with machine learning techniques. In addition, a combination of urban morphology theory and machine learning is used to excise samples of urban morphology from Portuguese urban geographical information maps. The morphological characteristics of port city areas are further extracted, and training labels for typical Portuguese urban textures are established. Using the YOLOv4 object detection algorithm, the results are compared with the urban textures of typical island and port cities of the Asian Silk Road—Goa in India, Malacca in Malaysia, Macau in China, and Dili in Timor-Leste—revealing the similarities and differences among the port cities in Asia influenced by traditional Portuguese urban practices. The results reveal the relationship between maritime trade and urban form.
{"title":"The Correlation Between Asian Port Cities and Traditional Portuguese Urban Forms Based on Map and Machine Learning Analyses","authors":"Yile Chen, Liang Zheng, Jianyi Zheng","doi":"10.24043/001c.118786","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24043/001c.118786","url":null,"abstract":"In the 16th and 17th centuries, under the influence of the Portuguese Empire’s overseas expansion and cultural integration, the island city of Macau became an important international trading port in the Eastern Sea, with close ties to the Asian port cities governed by Portugal. This study introduces a new method for comparing urban morphological layouts using machine learning and investigates the potential benefits of combining urban morphological analysis with machine learning techniques. In addition, a combination of urban morphology theory and machine learning is used to excise samples of urban morphology from Portuguese urban geographical information maps. The morphological characteristics of port city areas are further extracted, and training labels for typical Portuguese urban textures are established. Using the YOLOv4 object detection algorithm, the results are compared with the urban textures of typical island and port cities of the Asian Silk Road—Goa in India, Malacca in Malaysia, Macau in China, and Dili in Timor-Leste—revealing the similarities and differences among the port cities in Asia influenced by traditional Portuguese urban practices. The results reveal the relationship between maritime trade and urban form.","PeriodicalId":51674,"journal":{"name":"Island Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141349667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As “the island at the center of the world,” Manhattan has inspired countless writers and has served as a spatial archetype in science fiction’s world-building. From the interdisciplinary perspective of literature and economics, this article discusses the crisis imagination of the “bubble metropolis” in five contemporary Manhattan-related science fiction novels including Cities in Flight (1970), The Blister (1975), Terminal World (2010), Zone One (2011), and New York 2140 (2017). The spatial variety of Manhattan Island in these science fiction novels is closely combined with its economic condition. The characters, plots, and spatial imagery of these novels gather to reflect the different stages of the operation of a bubble economy, illustrating a historical cycle of capitalism that can never be escaped. Manhattan Island has long been the symbol of the world’s rush for wealth. The fear of economic recession, environmental degradation, and class conflict have formed the special geographical features of the island in the future. The crisis imagination of the “bubble metropolis” also seeks to stimulate critical thinking on economic ethics, urban design, and high technology, calling for social justice and public welfare.
{"title":"The Bubble Metropolis: Manhattan Island Crises in Contemporary Science Fiction","authors":"Wang Liao","doi":"10.24043/001c.94618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24043/001c.94618","url":null,"abstract":"As “the island at the center of the world,” Manhattan has inspired countless writers and has served as a spatial archetype in science fiction’s world-building. From the interdisciplinary perspective of literature and economics, this article discusses the crisis imagination of the “bubble metropolis” in five contemporary Manhattan-related science fiction novels including Cities in Flight (1970), The Blister (1975), Terminal World (2010), Zone One (2011), and New York 2140 (2017). The spatial variety of Manhattan Island in these science fiction novels is closely combined with its economic condition. The characters, plots, and spatial imagery of these novels gather to reflect the different stages of the operation of a bubble economy, illustrating a historical cycle of capitalism that can never be escaped. Manhattan Island has long been the symbol of the world’s rush for wealth. The fear of economic recession, environmental degradation, and class conflict have formed the special geographical features of the island in the future. The crisis imagination of the “bubble metropolis” also seeks to stimulate critical thinking on economic ethics, urban design, and high technology, calling for social justice and public welfare.","PeriodicalId":51674,"journal":{"name":"Island Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140376121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Affect towards islands is a unique approach to engage with in discussions of the phenomenology of fictional islands. This affect complements the already identified tropes within island poetics: those of sensorial exploration, spatial practices, and textural detailing of islands. This article turns to a work of fiction about a fictional island based on the island city of Kochi in south India to unpack an alternative aesthetic of spatiality, the kind that changes the personal/political relationship to personal/spatial one. We argue that the novel, Litanies of Dutch Battery (the novel in question) by N.S. Madhavan, expands inquiries into phenomenology of fictional islands by making space for corporeal memory and collective memory in storytelling. These memory-oriented narrative devices, we suggest, “provincialize” island poetics to add a hermeneutic of postcolonial angst to the repertoire of formal features of literary islandness.
对岛屿的情感是讨论虚构岛屿现象学的一种独特方法。这种情感补充了岛屿诗学中已被确认的传统：感官探索、空间实践和岛屿的纹理细节。本文以印度南部岛屿城市高知（Kochi）为原型，通过一部关于虚构岛屿的小说作品来解读另一种空间美学，一种将个人/政治关系转变为个人/空间关系的美学。我们认为，N.S. Madhavan 的小说《Litanies of Dutch Battery》（即本小说）通过在叙事中为肉体记忆和集体记忆留出空间，拓展了对虚构岛屿现象学的探究。我们认为，这些以记忆为导向的叙事手段 "省略 "了岛屿诗学，在文学岛屿性的形式特征中加入了后殖民焦虑的诠释学。
{"title":"Provincializing Island Poetics: The Personal as the Spatial in N S Madhavan’s Litanies of Dutch Battery","authors":"Soni Wadhwa, Jintu Alias","doi":"10.24043/001c.94614","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24043/001c.94614","url":null,"abstract":"Affect towards islands is a unique approach to engage with in discussions of the phenomenology of fictional islands. This affect complements the already identified tropes within island poetics: those of sensorial exploration, spatial practices, and textural detailing of islands. This article turns to a work of fiction about a fictional island based on the island city of Kochi in south India to unpack an alternative aesthetic of spatiality, the kind that changes the personal/political relationship to personal/spatial one. We argue that the novel, Litanies of Dutch Battery (the novel in question) by N.S. Madhavan, expands inquiries into phenomenology of fictional islands by making space for corporeal memory and collective memory in storytelling. These memory-oriented narrative devices, we suggest, “provincialize” island poetics to add a hermeneutic of postcolonial angst to the repertoire of formal features of literary islandness.","PeriodicalId":51674,"journal":{"name":"Island Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140245227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mark C. J. Stoddart, Ásthildur E. Bernharðsdóttir, Yixi Yang
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a framework that makes the concept of “sustainable development” more actionable. The nature of island societies — where political jurisdictions overlap in complex ways with land and oceanic ecologies — makes the question of who is responsible for SDG implementation and governance particularly important. We compare SDG interpretations and perceptions of SDG governance in Iceland and Newfoundland using survey and focus group data with stakeholders from government, business, labour, civil society, academia, and youth. Our research questions are as follows: How do research participants view the SDGs in relation to ensuring sustainable futures for their respective island societies? How do research participants view the roles of government and other institutions in implementing sustainability? Answering these questions gives insight into a third theoretically valuable question: Is it the state versus subnational jurisdiction distinction, or is it the common small polity/island dynamics of these cases that is important for understanding the interpretations of the SDGs and their implementation? The interpretations of regionalizing and localizing the SDGs are similar across our two cases, which lends support to a small polity/islandness view of how the SDGs are translated for island societies.
{"title":"Regionalizing the Sustainable Development Goals for Island Societies: Lessons From Iceland and Newfoundland","authors":"Mark C. J. Stoddart, Ásthildur E. Bernharðsdóttir, Yixi Yang","doi":"10.24043/001c.94616","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24043/001c.94616","url":null,"abstract":"The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a framework that makes the concept of “sustainable development” more actionable. The nature of island societies — where political jurisdictions overlap in complex ways with land and oceanic ecologies — makes the question of who is responsible for SDG implementation and governance particularly important. We compare SDG interpretations and perceptions of SDG governance in Iceland and Newfoundland using survey and focus group data with stakeholders from government, business, labour, civil society, academia, and youth. Our research questions are as follows: How do research participants view the SDGs in relation to ensuring sustainable futures for their respective island societies? How do research participants view the roles of government and other institutions in implementing sustainability? Answering these questions gives insight into a third theoretically valuable question: Is it the state versus subnational jurisdiction distinction, or is it the common small polity/island dynamics of these cases that is important for understanding the interpretations of the SDGs and their implementation? The interpretations of regionalizing and localizing the SDGs are similar across our two cases, which lends support to a small polity/islandness view of how the SDGs are translated for island societies.","PeriodicalId":51674,"journal":{"name":"Island Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140256471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper studies the entrepreneurial phenomenon on a remote island to assess the effects of the spatial location on the entrepreneurial process. A qualitative approach was adopted to conduct this research, through a multiple-case study of 8 entrepreneurs from the island of Madeira, an autonomous Portuguese region in the Atlantic. The primary goal of this study is to characterize the entrepreneurial process in remote islands. This study adopts Bygrave’s (2009) definition and model of the entrepreneurial process. The findings show that the geographical environment on remote islands influences most phases of the entrepreneurial process. The identification of business opportunities will vary greatly between sectors of activity. Additionally, island-based entrepreneurs were more motivated by push factors, which suggests that the entrepreneurial landscape in remote islands will be populated by necessity entrepreneurs. Moreover, findings also demonstrate that remote island entrepreneurs are more preoccupied with firm survival than they are with growth. Finally, this study also discusses the impact of advances in information technologies on the entrepreneurial process on small and remote islands.
{"title":"The Entrepreneurial Process in a Remote Island Context: The Case of Madeira","authors":"Carmen Freitas","doi":"10.24043/001c.90535","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24043/001c.90535","url":null,"abstract":"This paper studies the entrepreneurial phenomenon on a remote island to assess the effects of the spatial location on the entrepreneurial process. A qualitative approach was adopted to conduct this research, through a multiple-case study of 8 entrepreneurs from the island of Madeira, an autonomous Portuguese region in the Atlantic. The primary goal of this study is to characterize the entrepreneurial process in remote islands. This study adopts Bygrave’s (2009) definition and model of the entrepreneurial process. The findings show that the geographical environment on remote islands influences most phases of the entrepreneurial process. The identification of business opportunities will vary greatly between sectors of activity. Additionally, island-based entrepreneurs were more motivated by push factors, which suggests that the entrepreneurial landscape in remote islands will be populated by necessity entrepreneurs. Moreover, findings also demonstrate that remote island entrepreneurs are more preoccupied with firm survival than they are with growth. Finally, this study also discusses the impact of advances in information technologies on the entrepreneurial process on small and remote islands.","PeriodicalId":51674,"journal":{"name":"Island Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140492988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Although there are many widely perceived attractions to living on a small island, island life is not without its challenges. The physical aspects of these are well rehearsed. The psychological ones, less so. Drawing on social psychological theories, we analyse the experience of living on small islands, with a focus on two small British islands. Data were collected through ethnographic fieldwork, involving observations and interviews with small island inhabitants. We found a range of factors impacting them psychologically, including several that suggest identity and social identity theories may provide a useful psychological lens for understanding these communities. There were also other psychological features identified that suggest a self-perception of vulnerability. These were reflected in concerns around the precarity of employment, but also evident in islanders’ discourses around health (both physical and mental). These findings echo previous authors’ assertions concerning the existence of an ‘island psychology’ evident in the experiences of island residents, but also contribute to discussions around its origins and mechanisms of influence - which we argue have been hitherto, relatively atheoretical. Importantly, a better understanding of island experience, and the relevant theoretical frameworks, can assist in supporting the wellbeing of islanders and the sustainability of their communities.
{"title":"Social Psychological Perspectives on Islandness: Identities, Vulnerabilities and Precarities","authors":"Kate Matheson, Chris Pawson, Peter Clegg","doi":"10.24043/001c.92155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24043/001c.92155","url":null,"abstract":"Although there are many widely perceived attractions to living on a small island, island life is not without its challenges. The physical aspects of these are well rehearsed. The psychological ones, less so. Drawing on social psychological theories, we analyse the experience of living on small islands, with a focus on two small British islands. Data were collected through ethnographic fieldwork, involving observations and interviews with small island inhabitants. We found a range of factors impacting them psychologically, including several that suggest identity and social identity theories may provide a useful psychological lens for understanding these communities. There were also other psychological features identified that suggest a self-perception of vulnerability. These were reflected in concerns around the precarity of employment, but also evident in islanders’ discourses around health (both physical and mental). These findings echo previous authors’ assertions concerning the existence of an ‘island psychology’ evident in the experiences of island residents, but also contribute to discussions around its origins and mechanisms of influence - which we argue have been hitherto, relatively atheoretical. Importantly, a better understanding of island experience, and the relevant theoretical frameworks, can assist in supporting the wellbeing of islanders and the sustainability of their communities.","PeriodicalId":51674,"journal":{"name":"Island Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140492729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite the vibrant and growing island studies scholarship exploring the unique characteristics of Islands and Islandness, which is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, there has been little research into the unique characteristics associated with the appreciation of the Rule of Law and island identity in an island context. Similarly, although within legal scholarship there has been much exploration at international, European, and national levels of the importance of appreciation of the Rule of Law and its role in helping to reduce the risk of arbitrariness, there has been little consideration in an island context of why the importance of the appreciation of the Rule of Law matters. Building upon both fields of scholarship, the present article uses the Isle of Man as a lens to explore, firstly, why the importance of the appreciation of the Rule of Law in an Island context matters from a legal perspective. Secondly, how exploring the unique characteristics associated with the appreciation of the Rule of Law in an island context provides a greater understanding of the uniqueness of island identity and islandness. The present article is therefore a novel contribution to legal scholarly literature and a timely addition to island study literature.
{"title":"Islandness and Appreciating the Importance of the Rule of Law in a 21st Century Island Context: The Case of the Isle of Man","authors":"Kate Farrant Shaw","doi":"10.24043/001c.92262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24043/001c.92262","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the vibrant and growing island studies scholarship exploring the unique characteristics of Islands and Islandness, which is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, there has been little research into the unique characteristics associated with the appreciation of the Rule of Law and island identity in an island context. Similarly, although within legal scholarship there has been much exploration at international, European, and national levels of the importance of appreciation of the Rule of Law and its role in helping to reduce the risk of arbitrariness, there has been little consideration in an island context of why the importance of the appreciation of the Rule of Law matters. Building upon both fields of scholarship, the present article uses the Isle of Man as a lens to explore, firstly, why the importance of the appreciation of the Rule of Law in an Island context matters from a legal perspective. Secondly, how exploring the unique characteristics associated with the appreciation of the Rule of Law in an island context provides a greater understanding of the uniqueness of island identity and islandness. The present article is therefore a novel contribution to legal scholarly literature and a timely addition to island study literature.","PeriodicalId":51674,"journal":{"name":"Island Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140491972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
For Japan, “Nan’yō” is a geographical concept as well as a historical and cultural one. Taking the mid-Meiji period, post-World War I and II periods, and the beginning of the 21st century as its nodes, this paper examines various texts and compares the historical background of the South Sea Islands as imagined in Japanese science fiction, with a focus on both literature and films. The works of the four periods, through a distant view, close view, reconstruction and retrospection of the South Sea Islands, respectively, portray “Nan’yō” as a distant country for ambitious expansion; an earthly paradise of colonial ideals; a dangerous and exotic foreign land; and a mysterious world overrun with primitive civilization, with the aborigines are portrayed as ignorant and backward, and sometimes even being cast as unfamiliar and potentially threatening Others. Unlike the typical (anti-)utopian narrative, the Japanese “Nan’yō fantasy” is based on the political discourse model of civilization-backwardness, in which the differing attitudes towards the natural environment and primitive tribes reflect Japan’s ambivalence in defining its self-positioning within the cultural crossroads of the East and the West. This portrayal of Nan’yō is a product of the close interconnection between the mass media and the spirit of the times: a reflection of personal ideals and national destiny, as well as a collective vision interacting with social reality.
{"title":"Distant Country, Paradise, Wilderness, or Mysterious World: The Changing Image of the South Sea (Nan’yō) Islands in Japanese Science Fiction","authors":"Hui Jiang, Lin Cheng, Nengying Chen","doi":"10.24043/001c.90560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24043/001c.90560","url":null,"abstract":"For Japan, “Nan’yō” is a geographical concept as well as a historical and cultural one. Taking the mid-Meiji period, post-World War I and II periods, and the beginning of the 21st century as its nodes, this paper examines various texts and compares the historical background of the South Sea Islands as imagined in Japanese science fiction, with a focus on both literature and films. The works of the four periods, through a distant view, close view, reconstruction and retrospection of the South Sea Islands, respectively, portray “Nan’yō” as a distant country for ambitious expansion; an earthly paradise of colonial ideals; a dangerous and exotic foreign land; and a mysterious world overrun with primitive civilization, with the aborigines are portrayed as ignorant and backward, and sometimes even being cast as unfamiliar and potentially threatening Others. Unlike the typical (anti-)utopian narrative, the Japanese “Nan’yō fantasy” is based on the political discourse model of civilization-backwardness, in which the differing attitudes towards the natural environment and primitive tribes reflect Japan’s ambivalence in defining its self-positioning within the cultural crossroads of the East and the West. This portrayal of Nan’yō is a product of the close interconnection between the mass media and the spirit of the times: a reflection of personal ideals and national destiny, as well as a collective vision interacting with social reality.","PeriodicalId":51674,"journal":{"name":"Island Studies Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138589674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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