Relational geography of a border island: local development and compensatory destruction on Lieyu, Taiwan

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The paper considers Lieyu island from a relational geography perspective, relative to the islands of Kinmen, Xiamen, and Taiwan. Lieyu retains its natural landscape and military heritage in part due to its remote location and military restrictions relative to nearby Kinmen Island. Local politicians harness Lieyu's archipelagic relationality and sense of underdevelopment relative to other islands in its archipelago to gain financial subsidies for infrastructure development. Such infrastructure projects (including fixed links) endanger Lieyu's sense of islandness and island place. We introduce the term 'compensatory destruction', which involves destroying existing place-based values or attributes in the process of implementing new values in the name of development. Although compensatory destruction is not necessarily bad, care must be taken to ensure that development projects serve the needs of the community as a whole and are adequately assessed and evaluated.

Pork food culture and sustainability on islands along the Kuroshio Current: resource circulation and ecological communities in Okinawa and Jeju

“…The Second World War and the Cold War in the 20 th century as well as nationalism have impeded attempts to understand the island cultures of the Kuroshio Current. As noted earlier, however, island spaces are inter-related (Stratford et al, 2011), and it is humans who construct understandings of inter-island relationships (Lee et al, 2017). The pork food culture discussed in the present study can be understood as a product of a cultural network along the Kuroshio Current.…”

Islands of connectivity: Archipelago relationality and transport infrastructure in Venice Lagoon

“…Such new residents may not be universally welcomed by the local community, and their presence could risk diluting the distinctive island culture that depopulation put at risk in the first place (Cottrell, 2017). In contrast, Lee et al (2017), studying the small island of Lieyu in Taiwan's Kinmen Archipelago, argue that development of fixed links and infrastructure in general cannot straightforwardly be seen as destroying island ways of life, but may instead represent a means by which an island community can earn income, retain residents and forge more productive archipelagic relationships. Considering the case of the UK's Isles of Scilly, Grydehøj and Hayward (2014) hypothesise that poor intra-archipelagic and archipelago-mainland connectivity has had a preservative effect on the archipelago's smallest communities by preventing their residents from regularly travelling elsewhere for work and shopping.…”

Islands of vulnerability and resilience: Manufactured stereotypes?

“…It represents merely a small snapshot in space and time, being indicative of bounded vulnerability and resilience at the time of the calculation. Different viewpoints see the same phenomenon, the fixed link, as either vulnerability or resilience, considering again the discussion above on how the aspects of islandness of boundedness, smallness and isolation can spawn resilience while noting how fixed links can enhance islandness (Lee et al, 2017). The pervasiveness and relevance of each condition depends on perspective and context.…”