Islands as legible geographies: perceiving the islandness of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland)

Abstract

Despite considerable research within the field of island studies, no consensus has yet been reached as to what it is that makes islands special. Around the world, islands and archipelagos are shaped by diverse spatialities and relationalities that make it difficult to identify clear general characteristics of islandness. This paper argues that one such 'active ingredient' of islandness, which is present across many forms of island spatiality, is the idea that islands are 'legible geographies': spaces of heightened conceptualisability, spaces that are exceptionally easy to imagine as places. The paper uses the case of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) to show how island geographical legibility has influenced a territory's cultural and political development over time, even though Kalaallit Nunaat is such a large island that it can never be experienced as an island but can only be perceived as an island from a satellite or cartographic perspective. I ultimately argue that islandness can have significant effects on a place's development but that it can be difficult to isolate these effects from other factors that may themselves have been influenced by islandness.

Mainland development policy in an autonomous subnational island jurisdiction: spatial development and economic dependence in Jeju, South Korea

“…Islands-characterised by smallness, boundedness, and isolation-often prove attractive as sites that people can infuse with imagined qualities (Grydehøj, 2018). Islands are also attractive from the perspective of political economy, with attributes of island spatiality making it easier for rulers-both islanders and mainlanders-to gain and maintain power (Baldacchino, 2012).…”

Critical approaches to island geography

“…Indeed, although the status of being surrounded by water may be something absolute, many of the characteristics frequently associated with "islandness" are resolutely relative. 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. 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.…”

“…As Baldacchino (2008) noted a decade ago, island studies struggles with its position relative to colonial and neocolonial power. This "epic feat of deduction" (Grydehøj, 2017) ignores the varied spatial and relational contexts that give precise formations of islandness meaning as well as the culturally specific values with which islands are imbued. All too often, island geographers have begun with their own perspective on a particular island case or set of regional island cases and used this as a starting point for generalisation.…”

“…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. Most radically, theories of the Anthropocene challenge our understanding of "relation" itself (Pugh, 2018).…”

“…It is thus that otherwise-skilled researchers may straightforwardly apply development theory from the Pacific to the Caribbean, may ask that East Asian archipelagos live up to North Atlantic island ideals, and may assume that every island tourist shares the mindset of the author's own culture. This "epic feat of deduction" (Grydehøj, 2017) ignores the varied spatial and relational contexts that give precise formations of islandness meaning as well as the culturally specific values with which islands are imbued. It also ignores the frequently unreflected power relationships in which our scholarship is entangled.…”