Beyond Autarky: Discourses of Islandness-As-Heritage in Islands’ Energy Transitions

This article employs heritage as a lens through which to research the roles of islandness in energy transition processes. Both in cases of islanders’ initiatives toward renewable energy projects and in cases of resistance against such projects, memories and imaginaries of islandness are evoked. The heritage of islandness is constructed discursively in response to threats and opportunities represented by the energy transition. Through an analysis of narratives in academic literature, national and local media, branding campaigns, and interview transcripts from islands in the North Sea and the Mediterranean, three common themes of islandness-as-heritage emerge across geographical difference: the island as self-sufficient ground, as laboratory of innovation, and as exploited territory. These uses of heritage are contextualized with critical counter-narratives from island studies literature, showing that the insistence on legacies of autarky, innovation, and exploitation might be contrary to the long-term interests of island communities. Instead, the activation of the heritage of interconnectedness that has historically characterized islands, islanders, and islandness, would highlight the necessary interdependence between places and could lead to an energy transition more aligned with the potentials and challenges facing the different island landscapes and their communities.