Book review : Geography of small islands : outposts of globalisation

Abstract

Given their self-evident geographies and the inevitable administrative totalities that they suggest, islands (and archipelagos) feature prominently amongst small states and territories. Geography of small islands: Outposts of globalisation is an important and timely contribution to island studies scholarship. It is a definitive and all-inclusive volume offering a detailed account of the spatiality of islands, a key concept at the heart of the interdisciplinary field of island studies, in the context of globalization. At the same time, after undertaking such a comprehensive presentation, in the concluding chapter Ratter further calls for a Gestaltwechsel, that is a transformation or a paradigm shift, or as the author herself puts it "a change of perspective in the epistemology of islands" (p. 208). [excerpt]