Gendered consequences of mobility for adaptation in small island developing states: case studies from Maafushi and Kudafari in the Maldives

Abstract

ABSTRACT:In recent years island communities have actively adapted in response to a complex combination of changes that has shaped life on the islands, and this has had gendered consequences. The gender ramifications of adaptation on islands are still largely neglected in adaptation policies, although they are increasingly being addressed in the scientific literature. Understanding gendered consequences is indispensable for a critical comprehension of adaptation on islands. It would help avoid the formulation of adaptation policies that tend to focus only on technical problems and solutions. Such solutions potentially run the risk of reducing island problems to only biophysical issues such as sea level rise or problems attributed to the size and isolation of the islands. This paper investigates the consequences of adaptation for the mobility of both women and men on two islands in the Maldives, a small island developing state (SIDS) that has experienced unprecedented changes in recent decades. The focus on mobility stems from the fact that it forms an integral social and cultural part of island life. Although gender and mobility are intrinsically linked, the gendered consequences of adaptation for mobility are understudied. This study used qualitative interviews to collect narratives. The results show that the adaptation interviewees describe from their living memory has only exacerbated gender inequality by influencing the mobility of men and women in different ways.

Anthropocene Islands: Entangled Worlds

“…What we focus upon in this book is the various ways in which Indigenous islanders are understood to contribute to different ways of 'being' (ontology) and 'knowing' (onto-epistemology) from Moderns in debates about the Anthropocene. 13 Explicitly feminist approaches to island studies scholarship which operate in these ways have also been developed by many other researchers, including, most recently, Karides (2016Karides ( , 2017, Lama (2018), Coss (2020, and in the collection Gender and Island Communities, edited by Gaini and Nielsen (2020).…”

Gendered dimensions of migration in relation to climate change

“…Thus, the meaning of migration as a process goes beyond just representation in the form of physical movement and experience in the place of origin and destination. For instance, mobility, and for that matter immobility, has effects that may go beyond the concrete experience itself and could lead to conditions of livelihood security/insecurity, availability and accessibility to resources, or lack of opportunities that could all shape or produce new experiences (Lama, 2018). The realization of mobility could thus represent freedom, progress and even empowerment (Uteng & Cresswell, 2008).…”

“…To understand how gender is shaped requires mobility, and for that matter migration (a form of mobility), to be conceptualized not just as a mere form of physical movement but also acquiring a social and existential dimension (Kronlid & Grandin, 2014;Lama, 2018). The physical movement itself can also fall on a spectrum of temporary to permanent, seasonal to singular, and from voluntary to forced.…”

Critical approaches to island geography

“…Especially important has been the "relational turn," recognised by Pugh (2013Pugh ( , 2016 as crucial to understanding island and archipelagic processes, and providing theoretical foundations for diverse scholars (e.g., Favole & Giordana, 2018;Grydehøj, 2015;Hayward, 2012;Hong, 2017;Swaminathan, 2014). Similarly, although geography tempts us to regard archipelagos as single units, the various islands of the Maldives (Lama, 2018), Kinmen (Lee et al, 2017), Federated States of Micronesia (Perkins & Krause, 2018), and Zhoushan (Yue et al, 2017) each present unique experiences, characteristics, and relationships. Boundedness (clearly demarcated spatial limits), smallness (small population, land area, economic size), isolation and remoteness (separation from other land areas), and littorality (land-water interactions) may be identified as key aspects of islandness, yet all are also in the eye of the beholder.…”

“…For a person living in London, Canvey Island may seem a remote backwater (Hayward, 2018); for a person overwintering on the Kerguelen Islands (Prince, 2018), Canvey may seem a veritable metropolis. Similarly, although geography tempts us to regard archipelagos as single units, the various islands of the Maldives (Lama, 2018), Kinmen (Lee et al, 2017), Federated States of Micronesia (Perkins & Krause, 2018), and Zhoushan (Yue et al, 2017) each present unique experiences, characteristics, and relationships. At a fundamental level, the relationality of island geography is such that recognition of a place as an island is culturally and temporally conditioned (Ducros, 2018;Grydehøj, 2018aGrydehøj, , 2018b.…”