Did You Say Island? by Judith W. PRIAM (November 2016)
We formulated in 2004 a conceptualization for Caribbean islands under “simple insularity” and “double insularity” (PRIAM J., 2004, pp.129-131), presented during the CIEMADES Conference in Puerto-Rico in 2006, under the title “Caribbean Islands : a sustainable development facing political criticity” (<http://ciemades.org/pdfs/CIEMADeS-2...> )
This book offers a revisited and deeper work proposing an operational conceptualization that applies to islands worldwide, leaning heavily on the Caribbean region.
We argue that the definition for island must encompass a wider view. We demonstrate that it corresponds to a juridical and political definition in its origins.
The majority of islands are “ghost” or “forgotten islands” (PRIAM J., 2004, p. 60) and we call for recognition of those geographical entities on worldwide, regional and local maps. Given the emerging considerations regarding sea-level rise it is urgent to adopt an operational conceptualization to better evaluate many aspects related to their place in the world puzzle : status, geopolitics, migrations, anthropology, economy, tourism, biodiversity, biogeography, and so on.
The 2013 Kiribati government decision to buy higher land for the eventual relocation of its population, brings forth new issues to be given attention. We argue that it is important to make visible individual islands, usually phagocytized under a group or under a continental State. They are part of the puzzle (PRIAM J., 2004, p. 60) and contribute to the whole and so much more than the sum of the parts : they contribute to emergent properties of systems.
Key words : islands worldwide, Caribbean islands, “simple insularity”, “double insularity”, “ghost islands”, insular issues, emergent properties of systems.
Island Marina, Puerto Rico.
For more details, see <https://sites.google.com/site/didyo...>