Island studies : critical concepts in geography : volume IV : venturing beyond nissology [Introduction]

Abstract

Island studies has come of age. Island studies journals have been founded, island studies texts have been published, SIDS and AOSIS are part of the world stage, and we have this Major Works series. Perhaps it is time for island studies to have a mid-life crisis or even to show the onset of senescence as it intermingles with other fields. Livelihoods, sustainability, globalisation, vulnerability, security, holistic synergies, resilience, political economy, transformation, and more – all the populist buzzwords pervading many discourses have been applied to island studies, usually neglecting the long history of those terms and the origins of the importance of islands. Thus, islands, islanders, island communities, and island¬ness play prominent roles in development studies and its offshoots, sometimes still being iconised as small and isolated cultures and economies.