Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
contributors to economic growth? Is there an active concern with sustainability and
visions of a future that will lower fossil fuel dependency? These are some of the
questions that beckon further, island studies research.
A second set of questions is also pertinent. These questions would connect with
considerations or opportunities to shift gear from one developmental approach to
another. What does one do if a particular island territory wants to be successful on
both
these development fronts? Can one be both economically
and
ecologically
successful, and be known globally for both? How have island states such as Ireland,
Iceland and New Zealand (e.g. The Economist
2006a
) managed to avoid this
seeming contradiction by portraying themselves as 'smart' (technologically savvy),
without sacrificing their representation as places where nature is bountiful, where -
for example - whiskey can coexist with cloning research (as in Scotland), and
where quality milk chocolate can coexist with precision watches (as in Switzerland)?
Can an island be both green and clever at the same time
3
; or is this 'best of both
worlds' scenario only a myth, possible only via a deliberate foray into marketing
spin and camouflage? Could especially archipelagic island states - such as the
Bahamas, Maldives, Seychelles, Fiji, Tonga, St Vincent and the Grenadines … but
also mainland states with outlying island units - such as the USA with Hawai'i;
Greece with the Aegean Islands; Portugal with the Azores and Madeira; Malta with
Gozo; or South Korea with Jeju - zone their territory in such a way that they can
pursue differential development strategies via geographically delineated (that is,
enclaved) policies?
Economic Success
The
economic
road to success is the easier to chart, because it follows well-worn,
conventional principles and definitions. Standardized economic statistics rank
countries according to gross national/domestic product or purchasing power parity
standards. Wealth is often defined in such terms as GNI/GNP/GDP per capita, with
purchasing power parity. Smaller, often island, territories do exceptionally well on
these counts. In their analytic critiques, Armstrong et al. (
1998
: 644), Easterly and
Kraay (
2000
: 2015), and Armstrong and Read (
2002
) agree that smaller (and mainly
island) jurisdictions actually perform economically
better
than larger (mainly
continental) states. Comparative research has shown that, on average, non-sovereign
island territories tend to be richer per capita than sovereign ones (Poirine
1998
;
Bertram
2004
). The citizens of French Polynesia, Aruba, Bermuda and Iceland
have been counted amongst the world's top ten richest people, in terms of these
conventional standards (The Economist
2003
). Armstrong and Read (
1998
: 13) have
also argued that many of the smaller states - most of which are island or archipelagic
territories - have managed to compensate effectively for their smaller size by a high
3
The tension between “the modernizers and the traditionalists” is also explored by Grydehøj
(
2008
) in the case of Shetland.
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