1 Doing research on, with and about the island: Reflections on islandscape

Abstract

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.

Island settings and their influence on geographical research methods

“…It could be an islander who lives sporadically on an island or a non‐islander studying islands. Outsiders have the potential to bring fresh perspectives to island dynamics, and yet, the limitations of their epistemologies need to be acknowledged (Nimführ & Otto, 2020). In my case, the rise of a sharing economy in the accommodation sector and the possibility of being hosted by locals and interacting with them during my stays on the islands helped me address the outsider effect.…”

Out of character: Reiterating an island’s imaginaries in the face of a changing identity

“…Researchers such as Baldacchino (2012, 2013), DeLoughrey (2001 and Nimführ and Otto (2020) argued that islands have been routinely objecti ed and branded as small, insular, secluded, aesthetic, a haven for leisure and relaxation etc.…”

“…It has been argued that an island derives its status, characteristics or islandness from its relation or linkage with its mainland counterpart (Grydehøj, 2018). Hence, islands have been positioned as part of complex and interconnected networks, mobilities, spatial ows and assemblages of for example, culture, politics, and epistemology (Rankin, 2016;Roberts and Stephens, 2013;Stratford, 2016;Pugh, 2018;Nimführ and Otto, 2020). In other words, "an island is a world; yet an island engages the world" (Baldacchino, 2012, p59).…”

Archipelagic geographies, civil society, and global development

“…Islands are then co‐constructed through their diverse relations with the mainland and with other islands. As Nimführ and Otto (2020) contend, islands can be theorised as nodal points within scalar flows, emphasising their ‘relational rootedness’ (Baldacchino, 2020; Hong, 2017; Pugh, 2016, p. 1054). Glissant (1997) accentuates the connectivity of islands, seeing the Caribbean as a region that is continually being (re)produced through encounters, with the idea of islands as isolated intimately connected with Western dominance and the violence of Empire.…”