Open AccessEnvisioning the archipelago
Author(s) -
E Stratford,
Godfrey Baldacchino,
Elizabeth MacMahon,
Carol Farbotko,
Andrew Harwood
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
island studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.2
H-Index - 21
ISSN - 1715-2593
DOI - 10.24043/isj.253
Subject(s) - archipelago , nexus (standard) , mainland , relation (database) , mainland china , epistemology , geography , sociology , china , archaeology , philosophy , computer science , database , embedded system
Certain limitations arise from the persistent consideration of two common relations of islands in the humanities and social sciences: land and sea, and island and continent/mainland. What remains largely absent or silent are ways of being, knowing and doing—ontologies, epistemologies and methods—that illuminate island spaces as inter-related, mutually constituted and co-constructed: as island and island. Therefore, this paper seeks to map out and justify a research agenda proposing a robust and comprehensive exploration of this third and comparatively neglected nexus of relations. In advancing these aims, the paper’s goal is to (re)inscribe the theoretical, metaphorical, real and empirical power and potential of the archipelago: of seas studded with islands; island chains; relations that may embrace equivalence, mutual relation and difference in signification.