Returning from the Horizon: Introducing Urban Island Studies

Abstract

Island studies tends to focus on peripheral, isolated, and marginal aspects of island communities, while urban studies has showed scant awareness of islandness: Although many people research cities on islands, there is little tradition of researching island cities or urban archipelagos per se. Island cities (densely populated small islands and population centres of larger islands and archipelagos) nevertheless play import cultural, economic, political, and environmental roles on local, regional, and global scales. Many major cities and ports have developed on small islands, and even villages can fulfil important urban functions on lightly populated islands. Island concepts are also deployed to metaphorically describe developments in urban space. The journal Urban Island Studies explores island and urban processes around the world, taking an island approach to urban research and an urban approach to island research.

Reiterating the boundary: community discourse in light of proposed technological change on Vinalhaven Island, Maine, USA

“…Urban island centres offer their own locus of study (Grydehøj et al, 2015). There are potential parallels between the two distinct types of island communities in relation to the experience of space.…”

Marginalisation of the Dan fishing community and relocation of Sanya fishing port, Hainan Island, China

“…These immigrants made the port their home and source of livelihood. River delta islands possess spatial benefits that make them ideal for port functions, while limited land availability encourages the formation of highly dense urban centres on such port city islands (Grydehøj, 2015). This is precisely what has happened around Sanya Port.…”

“…These two port cities are Hainan's major economic hubs. In addition to being cities on the large island of Hainan, Haikou and Sanya are also 'island cities' in the sense that they are both "substantially or significantly located on one or more densely urbanised small islands" (Grydehøj et al, 2015), in this case the river delta islands from which the cities arose. As Sheng et al (2017) note, because of the importance of island spatiality for urbanisation processes and because of the prominence of island cities within China's urban networks, "spatially and historically sensitive geographical understandings of island city development are necessary if we are to understand Chinese urbanisation more broadly.…”

“…One possibility is external spatial development, through the expansion of the city into its terrestrial hinterlands or into the sea via land reclamation (Grydehøj, 2015). The other possibility is the reconstruction of the city's internal space.…”

Locating Zhuhai between land and sea: a relational production of Zhuhai, China, as an island city

“…One of the most significant contributions of urban island studies lies in its will to resist the temptation to romanticize the definition of 'island' through the standard of perfect insularity from the mainland. From this perspective, islands that are linked to the mainland by bridge, tunnel, or causeway and islands that have merged with the mainland through land reclamation are recognized as true islands (Grydehøj et al, 2015). With just a slight bit of exaggeration, it could be said that an island city only exists as the intersecting and crisscrossing of a series of spatial relations.…”