WHY ISLAND STUDIES?

Island Studies as an Emerging Discipline
by Dr. Barry Bartmann, Political Studies, UPEI

Over the last decade within both the academic and public policy communities, there has been a growing interest in the life and experience of islands across the world. Most particularly, interest has been growing in researching small islands (that is, islands with small populations). Typically, islands with small populations are also very small territorially, and these two aspects of their smallness tend to be concomitant and mutually reinforcing.

There are scores of such islands in every one of the world's great oceans and seas. To be sure, island societies, even small islands, vary dramatically in their physical size and their total land area; in their location, either in favourable and hospitable situations or in truly challenging ones, wherein they cope with natural hardships of harsh conditions; in their natural resource bases, both on land and in the surrounding sea; and in their prospects for self-reliant economic development. They differ, too in the extent to which they are home to ethnic cleavages; in the nature of their political cultures; in their particular historical experiences and their vulnerability to external interventions; in their ecological fragility; and in the extent which they are perceived or perceive themselves as insular and peripheral, with the attendant consequences for their prospects.

Yet, in spite of such a tapestry of diversity, or perhaps because of it, both scholars and international public servants have become fascinated by the world of small islands, intrigued by their commonalities as well as their differences. In part, this is in response to the political affirmation of so many small islands in the wake of decolonization. Previously, awareness of island societies was largely confined to those loyal civil servants who worked in the dark and dusty rooms of their respective colonial offices. In most cases, colonial governance ensured sufficient stability that these little flecks of imperial pride never crossed the pages of the morning paper, let alone the consciousnesses of most people in the metropole. But the siren call of national self- determination aroused the political expectations of even the smallest islands in the most distant reaches of the world's oceans. Soon virtually every small colonial island territory achieved its independence and took its position in the United Nations and in other important international and regional councils. The establishment of the Association of Small Island States in the General Assembly has suddenly lent new urgency to critical island issues in the larger international arena. Such a dedicated agenda was unlikely 15 years ago. This year's admission of the tiny Pacific island state of Tuvalu to the United Nations, the last remaining island state to join (along with the shamefully delayed liberation of East Timor), lends credence to the new-found visibility of small islands and island issues in the international system.

The growing importance of islands is also reflected in the Commonwealth, home to dozens of island states. In so many of its research publications and its development projects, the particular problems of small islands loom especially large. The Commonwealth is composed not only of many small sovereign island states but a long list of dependent territories, such as Bermuda or the Isle of Man, which nonetheless enjoy wide latitudes of genuine autonomy, and which are mobilizing their own efforts to pursue those economic and political issues which seem so strikingly apparent in small island societies.

These major developments have spawned a variety of island-based interdisciplinary research programmes, not only in such major institutions as the United Nations and the European Union, but also in various universities and research institutes around the world. These efforts in turn have resulted in numerous international conferences dedicated to the special problems of islands, and indeed the opportunities, for small islands in an age of globalization. These gatherings are contributing to what is now a very large network of scholars from across the disciplines examining topics including prospects for specific animal and plant species in islands; off shore oil explorations and mining; fish conservation and aquaculture; crop diversification in low lying islands and atolls; mechanisms for rapid adjustment in island economies; building and exploiting international communications networks to overcome historical impediments of distance and high-cost travel; and managing the influx of tourists in extremely small societies, not to mention such attendant issues as waste management challenges in some of the huge tourist markets thriving in very small island territories. As any islands conference programme would suggest, the list of research topics is huge. Already, interchange among scholars has created an expanding body of literature and the establishment of research institutes which seek first to look at the very distinctive features of island life, its impeccably precise physical and geographic definition and the typically powerful sense of island identity which that encourages, and second to see islandness in the context of the many challenges and opportunities which confront these small societies.

Researchers and institutes at the University of Prince Edward Island have already made important contributions to Island Studies, and the University shows potential to continue and expand its contribution.