Island societies and mainland nation-building in the Mediterranean: Sardinia and Corsica in Italian, French, and Catalan nationalism

Abstract

ABSTRACT:In the history of Modern Europe, islands have generally been considered as passive spaces. Historically, however, Mediterranean island societies have played important-and often active-roles in the formation of nation-states and in nation-building processes. Little attention has been paid to the ways in which island societies have affected mainland nationalism. This article argues that Mediterranean islands offered rhetorical and symbolic elements that proved useful for the construction of mainland European national identities, largely because islandness, from a continental perspective, was seen as capable of conserving authenticity. This article draws upon the Mediterranean island case studies of Sardinia and Corsica and their relationships to Catalan nationalism, French nationalism, and Italian nationalism as well as wider nation-building processes.

Islands of enclavisation: Eco‐cultural island tourism and the relational geographies of near‐shore islands

“…In this regard, Qi'ao Island has much in common with the fates of other islands close to the continent, the islandness of which has often been deployed for various identity constructions, such as the Baltic Sea islands studied by Edquist and Holmén (2015) and the Mediterranean island studied by Farinelli (2017). In this regard, Qi'ao Island has much in common with the fates of other islands close to the continent, the islandness of which has often been deployed for various identity constructions, such as the Baltic Sea islands studied by Edquist and Holmén (2015) and the Mediterranean island studied by Farinelli (2017).…”

“…Island history is thus linked to national identity. In this regard, Qi'ao Island has much in common with the fates of other islands close to the continent, the islandness of which has often been deployed for various identity constructions, such as the Baltic Sea islands studied by Edquist and Holmén () and the Mediterranean island studied by Farinelli (). However, in contrast to the continuous tension between autonomy and heteronomy embodied in the historical imaginings of islands by a “regional intellectual elite” (Edquist & Holmén, , p. 9), Qi'ao's identity formation follows a simpler trajectory, going from virtually nothing to finally something , in which a trinity of national history, party history and island history can be found.…”

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

“…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). Historically, many archipelagic and island peoples have been drawn into imperial and colonial processes, ultimately acquiring external borders and internal administrative divisions that suit the purposes of the mainland powers (Farinelli, 2017;Favole & Giordana, 2018;Grydehøj et al, 2019;Lee et al, 2017). Some islands are viewed as sacred, some are viewed as prisons, some are viewed as prizes for imperial expansion-and some are viewed as all of these things simultaneously (Raoulx & Fleury, 2017;Luo & Grydehøj, 2017;Mountz & Briskman, 2012;Gillis, 2007;Lowenthal, 2007).…”

Relationality and island studies in the Anthropocene

“…A concern for relational island geographies is prevalent today in a wide range of geographical locations; for example, in research on the Caribbean (Dash, 2006;Pugh, 2016;Sheller, 2009), China (Hong, 2017), Chile (Hidalgo et al, 2015), Taiwan (Tsai, 2003;Lee et al, 2017), New Caledonia (Korson, 2017), New Zealand (Kearns & Collins, 2016), Sardinia and Corsica (Farinelli, 2017), the Aegean , Oceania (Farbotko et al, 2016), and the archipelagic Americas (Roberts & Stephens, 2017), but also in research on archipelagic information systems (Vaitis et al, 2007), island literatures (Crane & Fletcher, 2017;Redd, 2017;Graziadei et al, 2017), island diasporas (Martínez-San Miguel, 2014), and translocal social movements (Davis, 2017). In many different ways there has been a concerted effort to radically decentre notions of the static island and instead emphasize mobile, multiple and interconnected relational forms (Baldacchino, 2006;Clark & Tsai 2009;Fletcher, 2011;Hau'ofa;2008;Mountz, 2015;Sheller, 2009;Steinberg, 2001).…”