Indonesia was built based on a set of core principles to show that the nation is a united entity. However, reality shows inequality in social life. One of them is the education disparity that can be seen in the unqualified teachers, limited access to educational sources, and inadequate infrastructure. Analysing four films, *Sokola Rimba*, *Tanah Surga Katanya*, *Jembatan Pensil*, and *Di Timur Matahari*, this study argues that despite unifying national principles, significant asymmetries persist between Java, the political centre, and peripheral islands. Utilising David Chandler and Jonathan Pugh’s variables of inter-island relations—resilience, patchworks, correlation, and storiation—the analysis demonstrates that educational challenges are intrinsically interwoven with the dynamics in the islands’ lives, invariably involve complex entanglements between human and non-human actors, and the relationship between islands. The findings reveal that education functions dually: as a potential solution for community empowerment, and as a direct consequence of relational disparities.
Traditional medicine was once ubiquitous on islands and a valued component of local environmental knowledge. Its practice has declined and been partly superseded by biomedicine in every island context. A comprehensive initial comparative review of contemporary studies from more than forty mainly tropical and sub-tropical islands indicates that the number of medicinal plants in use, and the range of uses, has fallen fastest in European and Caribbean islands and more slowly in Pacific islands, where biomedicine is more recent and less accessible, and generational knowledge transmission is more likely. However, the practice and reception of traditional medicine is increasingly confined to older people and centred on minor ailments. The uneven loss of medicinal plants in island contexts is a significant component in the decline of biodiversity, through entanglements and material encounters with habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, modern education, migration and employment, monetisation, and attitudes to medical practice. Recent times have seen greater retention, medical pluralism, and a partial revival in islands and diasporas as local Indigenous values stress more holistic perspectives on identity and wellbeing.
Tidal flooding is a recurring risk to women anchovy processors in Pasaran Island, Indonesia, as their livelihoods are directly linked to coastal ecosystems. This study explores women's understanding of tidal flooding, evaluates their livelihoods' vulnerability, and explores the adaptive responses undertaken in response to this recurring risk. A mixed-methods research design was employed to collect data from 48 respondents (census). The collection of data was conducted in November and December 2024. The analytic tools employed include Likert scale questionnaires, the Livelihood Vulnerability Index based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guidelines (LVI-IPCC), and the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA). From the study, it was discovered that women grasp tidal flooding as a natural and cyclical phenomenon governed primarily by the moon's gravitational power. It usually hinders their daily mobility and access to city markets, though. Social capital and past experience of flooding enhance preparedness and adaptive capacity. Total vulnerability was high, with tidal flooding and climatic uncertainty the primary drivers found. Women retaliated by adopting multiple livelihood strategies, including the purchase of other locations' processed products of anchovies, diversification into service and trade activities, and making arrangements for the out-migration of members of their households to destinations with more economic opportunities. Other households are passive and quite exposed. The study emphasized the imperative of regionally based adjustment measures that are gender-sensitive and inclusive, to be directed at enhancing the resilience of women of the coast in small island ecosystems.
Under conditions of limited space, ecological fragility, and relative isolation, construction and development on islands are not merely auxiliary instruments of sustainable development; rather, they constitute key processes that continuously shape island social-ecological systems. Drawing on a review of existing scholarship, this paper argues that island sustainability research remains largely framed by the paradigm of 'balancing development and protection', while lacking systematic attention to the spatial logics, institutional conditions, and societal implications of construction and development. The five interdisciplinary empirical studies included in this special section advance the agenda of sustainable island construction from multiple dimensions. Building on these discussions, this paper proposes a theoretical perspective of islandness-oriented sustainable construction and development, emphasizing construction as a critical mediator linking development objectives with sustainability goals. It further develops a framework of 'structural tensions–operational principles' and articulates three core logics of island construction: strategic foresight, nodal leverage, and multi-dimensional synergy. Through an integrative discussion, this special section seeks to foster closer dialogue among spatial construction, ecological governance, and social practice within island sustainability research, and to provide a research agenda for exploring context-sensitive pathways toward sustainable island futures.
The cultural memory of the transatlantic slave trade has received significant attention in recent years through both the raising and removal of monuments across the Atlantic world. However, dominant modes of remembrance have tended to neglect the Caribbean island landscapes and places upon which slavery took place. In the Anglophone Caribbean, statues and memorials have tended to focus on significant male liberators and warriors—such as “Bussa” in Barbados or “Cuffy” in Guyana—as postcolonial governments attempted to shore up national identities through a gendered and often hypermasculine form of commemoration that followed Eurocentric modes of statuary culture. These statues were erected as the sites of former sugar plantations regularly fell to neglect, privatization, and abandonment; rendering them ‘sites of forgetting’ which played little part in shaping collective memories of the past. This article reconsiders the site of a former sugar plantation, Balenbouche Estate, on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia, as a commemorative landscape. Spanning archaeology, oral history, poetry, sound studies, archival research, and community co-curation, it offers a case study which emphasises how a multi-disciplinary approach can help to re-evaluate neglected landscapes that have become ‘sites of forgetting’. This approach reconciles more widely recognised forms of public commemoration with the hidden histories of former plantations, emphasising their capacity to tell the stories of enslaved individuals who had little power to formally shape the spaces and histories of where they lived, and whose knowledge was and is still undervalued. The article concludes with a call to include broader perspectives in the ongoing process of commemorating neglected plantation sites, and advocates for more creative and inclusive forms of remembrance. An appendix containing the first publication of poems by eight prominent Saint Lucian writers who participated in workshops at the site will also be included.
Many reports of low-lying islands dealing with climate change impacts presume that forced migration is the expected and inevitable response, leading to the theorization of climate migration (sometimes termed ‘climigration’) for islanders. In reality, islanders tend to express a preference for staying in their homes and adapting, as demonstrated by Maldives. Through a longitudinal study involving on-site research in 2013, 2017, and 2023, we conducted 38 interviews with 25 Maldivian leaders. The interviews conducted during this time period document a shift from assuming mass migration due to climate change to a preference for staying in the country by adapting, especially through the construction of artificial islands. Low-lying islands facing the impacts of climate change should not assume that forced migration is inevitable because islanders can and, as our research shows, do make every effort to adapt locally instead of going elsewhere.
This paper explores the role of local food markets in the planning and development of complex and dynamic everyday gendered spaces that contribute to island resilience and sustainable development. Based on the case study of Sakaemachi Market in Okinawa, Japan, the research analyses the market in the context of postwar reconstruction, gendered labor, and the politics of Okinawa, a society built on a village-based communal structure centered on *shima*. The name of the market, meaning 'Prosperous Town', anticipates its current role in the protection and promotion of kinship, locality, and collective care. Results show market narratives embedded in historical and spatial foundations that articulate the gendered memory of the evolution from postwar reconstruction to community formation. Results also show the market’s contemporary functions and social infrastructure, the intergenerational labor and cultural transmission involved, and the revitalization and resistance to redevelopment through a constant negotiation of change and continuity.
Islands often present geographic challenges that hinder the efficient distribution of daily necessities and emergency logistics, affecting island resilience. Local shops, such as convenience stores, are critical for strengthening island distribution networks and supplying necessities, particularly during emergencies. This paper examines the allocation of micro-retail infrastructure within island emergency logistics systems, with the Tianao-Huangsha rural settlements of Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, China serving as a case study. Methods include field study, questionnaires, and quantitative statistics to assess the planning of the supply of daily necessities during emergencies. 285 participants were surveyed through a stratified random sampling method to ensure diverse representation of community demographics. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire aimed at assessing residents’ needs and satisfaction with emergency logistic services. The quantitative analysis employed statistical techniques to evaluate the relationship between local shop accessibility and emergency logistics effectiveness. This study proposes an emergency logistics model that incorporates local shops. The findings include: 1) Micro-retail infrastructure can serve a dual role in supporting daily consumption and distributing emergency supplies, thereby enhancing emergency response capabilities; 2) Micro-retail infrastructure could be integrated into emergency logistics system in terms of policies, administrations, public-private negotiations, and incentives. The findings offer insights on embedding micro-retail infrastructure into emergency planning towards the enhancement of island resilience and living environment.
This research extends the current understanding of tourist loyalty for small island destinations. Using cumulative prospect theory, we establish and test research models to examine the such underlying determinants as motivation, the theory of planned behavior, image, and risk factors on tourist loyalty. Through the adoption of necessity and sufficiency logic, this research successfully identifies four exclusive conditions for tourist loyalty: necessary and sufficient, necessary but insufficient, unnecessary but sufficient, and unnecessary and insufficient. Subjective norm and affective image were found to be critical aspects required for the occurrence and enhancement of tourist loyalty. Additionally, through case-based analysis, the study reveals that multiple necessary conditions and complex combinations of the above antecedents can also impact tourist loyalty, emphasizing the intricate nature of the factors influencing tourist loyalty in small island destinations. Theoretical significance and practical implications are discussed.
This paper explores the dynamics of marginality and geographic peripherality at the island level, focusing on accessibility within Italy’s two largest islands, Sicily and Sardinia, and exploring their internal variability. It assesses spatial inequalities faced by populations in the islands' inner areas by leveraging the SNAI (National Strategy for Inner Areas) classification and analyzing travel times from municipalities (Local Administrative Units—LAU) to major cities, key urban centers providing essential services, and primary transport infrastructure. Travel times, measured in minutes, are derived using GIS tools and reflect the TomTom road network data. Results show that internal travel times are particularly long on both islands and highlight that insularity is not a homogeneous concept but instead exhibits significant within-island differences. In Sardinia, the eastern part is the most disadvantaged, while in Sicily, the disadvantage is more dispersed, affecting multiple areas. The findings offer valuable insights into the challenges of insularity and contribute to discussions on regional development, spatial equity, and policy strategies to improve accessibility for island communities.
Through a decolonial lens, and using Cyprus as a case study, the paper examines how contemporary photography and artistic practices can play a pivotal role in re-making islands by reclaiming alternative local perspectives. In doing so, such practices challenge existing hierarchies of meaning, unsettle dominant historic narratives and representations, and reassess meaning from _within_. The work of Cyprus-born and -based photographer Stelios Kallinikou is further examined, especially his decade long investigation of the Akrotiri Peninsula, a site of archaeological, geological, and historical significance, and an example of a space where colonialism and settlement have shifted the landscape and its water ecologies. The paper adopts the terms (diss)assemblage and ‘trope’ –meaning a turn, a change, a direction – to discuss the processes of making and unmaking islands (the trope of the island), especially through the production of the photographic image (the trope of the photograph), historically by the imperial gaze, and in the present by a contemproary artist whose work reframes landscapes both physical and imaginative. The discussion also unearths how both dominant and dormant narratives continue to impact on and shape a sense of islandness that remains negotiated and in constant flux.
Maps and mapping practices aid in understanding spatial phenomena and shape our conceptualization and representation of place. Historically, maps have long served colonial projects of conquest, exerting power over territories, resource extraction, and violence all while privileging the world vision of a few colonial powers. These power dynamics remain embedded in the ways we often visualize and represent place through mapping today. Despite the prevalence of colonial ways of mapping, a range of initiatives have sought to counter colonial cartographic traditions. But how can these diverse initiatives help inform a decolonial approach and framework? And what is the potential of the map to be used as a generative tool to subvert colonial ways of understanding place, to construct and imagine alternative futures? Following Jacques Derrida's thinking that “there is no world only islands” (Pugh and Chandler, 2021, p. 136) we center islands as a geographical entity crucial in the colonial quest which at the same time has been historically and presently misrepresented. Through thinking with and learning from island ontologies, we aim to conceptualize and illustrate how mapping islands marks coloniality as well as how we could subvert colonial cartographic traditions. In putting decolonial theory in conversation with the mapping of islands, we articulate a praxis of subversion, relationality, and plurality to contest colonial projects, and construct decolonial futures. These points will be illustrated with examples from art exhibitions and maps.
Shamian Island is located in Guangzhou, China. Thanks to its unique history and official planning and protection, it has preserved a rich variety of cultural landscapes. On social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu (RedNote) and Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok), Shamian Island is listed as a popular check-in scenic spot in Guangzhou. This paper uses in-depth interviews and text analysis methods to explore how a digital sense of place is created on Shamian Island in China’s mediatized society, elucidating relationship construction and emotional connections between individuals and the island. The Shamian Island presented by the media is described as nice, fun, and attractive. People appreciate the charm of the island’s European-style buildings online, which triggers their yearning for exotic customs. During the offline check-in and tourism practices on Shamian Island, tourists have completed a series of actions to travel to actual places in order to participate in media narratives. Shamian Island is separated from the mainland by a stretch of water, and its elusive island nature brings about a particular experience. When interacting with the place, individuals continuously strengthen their own roles and participate in reproducing the local image. Media dissemination has constructed the perception of Shamian Island as a place and promoted emotional connections among tourists, local residents, and Shamian Island. Shamian Island is not only a geographical coordinate but also a social space that carries individual and collective memories.
Poland never possessed noticeable island territories, leading to the natural conviction that a mainland sensitivity dominated. This was also signaled in the shift from the older name for an island, ostrów, meaning a place surrounded by water, to the modern word wyspa, indicating the accumulation of some material. As contemporary Polish literature reveals, there has been a significant shift in Polish representations of islandic experiences, with imaginative travels to islands gradually being replaced by records of personal encounters. In analyzing this turn through case studies, the paper itself will shift in its approach from constructivist to post-constructivist literary criticism. In her short story Wyspa, Olga Tokarczuk builds a performative intertextual geography to question the masculine myth of Robinsonade texts. In a series of books on Iceland, Hubert Klimko-Dobrzeniecki notes the impact of islandic entrapment and transforms his Polish identity according to an archipelagic pattern. Maciej Wasielewski visits a Pacific island where sexual abuses occurred and creates a phenomenology of the island losing its utopian potential and sliding into dystopia. Lastly, Piotr Oleksy describes the geography and history of 44 islands in the estuary of the Oder River, where he spent his childhood, and challenges Polish mainland identity writing from the marginalized position of a Polish islander. Poland’s case as a European culture without overseas colonies (and being colonized itself during the nineteenth century), studied through the lens of its contemporary literature, demonstrates the growing importance of overlooked islandic testimonies within countries dominated by mainland thinking. One of the reasons for this is today’s environmental sensitivities, since the island story is always to some degree also a parable of the fate of mankind, which seems appealing in light of the global climate crisis.
A holistic agenda for sustainable human development of tourism is lacking in Small Island States (SIS). The main goal of this research is to provide an integrative framework for measuring employee well-being in tourism-dependent SIS. The first part of this research is based on a review of the literature on employee well-being measurement in the tourism sector. Then we present a multi-level model of sustainable human development in tourism, distinguishing three levels of employee well-being. The second part of this article focuses on the fieldwork and expertise of the authors on well-being measurement in five SIS during 2019-2022. Thus, we provide a framework for measuring employee well-being in SIS by conducting a comprehensive diagnosis of islanders' workplace conditions and well-being.
Islandness serves as a pivotal theoretical concept in island studies, essential for understanding the distinctiveness and significance of islands. It should not be reduced to a universal or static abstraction of common insular traits; rather, it embodies internal tensions and diversity. A comprehensive grasp of islandness requires deep engagement with varied island types across regions, examining local social developments and historical contexts to apprehend the core and essence of island societies, while situating islands within their broader regional contexts to understand their relationships with surrounding mainlands and seas. Through long-term ethnographic fieldwork on Tao Island, located off China’s eastern coast, this study reveals how both mainland agrarian traditions, represented by land, and maritime influences collectively shape fringing island societies. Land reclamation acted as a catalyst for Tao Island’s social formation while fostering internal and external solidarity. When natural disasters necessitated livelihood adaptation, village cadres led the community in embracing mariculture—an integration of land and sea—enabling residents to overcome crisis. The Tao Island case exemplifies the dual terrestrial-maritime character of fringing island societies, which this article conceptualizes as 'land-sea amphibiousness'. This conclusion arises not from a mainland-centric perspective, but from empirical engagement with the island’s social realities. Carefully examining the history and social transformations of island societies can thus advance renewed critical reflections on islandness.
The research addresses the representation of selected Adriatic islands, subcategorised with respect to their size, on early modern nautical charts and geographical maps employing two concurrent approaches. The first approach inspects their positioning relative to one another and in absolute terms, and their visual appearance. Particular emphasis was placed on their dimensions in relation to a modern map, which were quantified utilising the Local Map Scale Index (LMSI). The second approach focuses on the toponymical content, and examines their distribution and varieties, including some notable aspects of naming certain islands. The findings indicate that small remote islands such as Palagruža and Pianosa were rendered as the most exaggerated, presumably due to their significance for terrestrial navigation, and that early modern geographical maps depicted islands larger than contemporary printed nautical charts. Research has established that most of the islands on old maps were designated by Venetian names rather than by the names used by their inhabitants, reflecting the influence of Venice as the dominant political and economic power in the Adriatic. In this process, greater emphasis was placed on naming the more important islands of the outer chain and the offshore islands relevant to maritime navigation, regardless of their size. Although the nature of these phenomenologically distinct map elements hinders the establishment of a convincing quantitative correlation and causal relationship between their manifestation and distribution, they are complementary as they collectively improve spatial orientation and reflect historical geographical understanding during the examined period. Consequently, the study aims to introduce a novel cartometric and analytical methodology to enhance the present understanding of island representations on early modern charts and maps overall.
Island tourism faces challenges due to evolving issues and limited participation from diverse and marginalised groups, undermining efforts towards sustainability. To address these challenges, this study advances a co-design approach that foregrounds the role of infrastructure as an enabling foundation for ongoing participation and collaborative innovation. It draws on a six-month co-design project on Mayu Island in Southeast China, a community in transition from fishing to tourism. Instead of directly proposing solutions or development ideas, the design teams engaged government officials, business owners, residents, and tourists through a set of socio-material arrangements, including mapping, an interactive exhibition, and co-design workshops. This process yielded two collaboratively developed solutions: a new cleaning schedule to address beach litter and the repurposing of an underutilised parking lot to support vendors. Building on these outcomes, a co-design infrastructure is proposed, comprising three interconnected components: mapping (surfacing complex relationships), narrating (embedding lived narratives), and deriving (enabling exploration of new possibilities). The findings demonstrate how the co-design infrastructure process brings diverse voices to the surface, fosters collective meaning-making, and supports adaptive problem-solving. Furthermore, the features of islandness specific to Mayu Island are analysed to highlight how they shape co-design strategies and outcomes, reinforcing the importance of context-sensitive approaches in island settings. Ultimately, the study demonstrates how co-design infrastructure processes can support more grounded and enduring forms of island tourism development.
The archipelagic geography of the province of Chiloé (Chile) makes it one of the most vulnerable places in the country to climate change. In this paper, the consequences of climate change in Chiloé are analyzed using two methodological approaches in an effort to improve our understanding of this threat. Firstly, the Low Elevation Coastal Zones (LECZ) have been identified using the 16 m isohypse as a reference. This threshold aligns with the maximum run-up of tsunamis recorded in Chile. Consequently, it has been determined that the LECZ contain a quarter of Chiloé's urban infrastructure, as well as 665 specific elements of significant socio-economic value. Secondly, the potential impact of climate change on the most pressing socio-ecological conflicts, particularly those related to water stress and salmon farming, has been examined. Issues such as the occurrence of red tides, the proliferation of invasive species, or the reliance on water trucks for summer water supply are likely to become more frequent in the future. In conclusion, it is evident that climate change not only introduces new challenges to the region but also exacerbates existing coastal-marine problems. The development of a specific instrument to address this phenomenon in the province of Chiloé is therefore crucial to reduce the effects of climate change.
This article embarks on a comparative analysis to uncover the role of the island as a liminal space in William Shakespeare's The Tempest and the television series Lost, exploring its function in facilitating redemption, fantasy, and transformation. The study elucidates how both narratives utilize the island not merely as a setting but as a crucial catalyst for character evolution and thematic depth. Through an examination of geographical, temporal, and psychological dimensions of liminality, the article demonstrates the island's pivotal role as a space where human complexity, the quest for identity, and aspirations towards redemption unfold. The comparative inquiry highlights narrative and thematic correspondences, underlining the interpretive richness offered by the concept of liminality within literary and media studies. This analysis accentuates the enduring significance of liminal spaces in fostering significant personal and collective transformations, despite disparities in medium and historical context.
