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Researching resilience in islands

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Venue: Online

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Small islands face a range of climate change risks, including land loss, and increasing extreme weather. Academic and policy discourse frequently reference 'resilience' as part of the solution. Yet, definitions of ‘resilience’ vary across disciplines and depend on your cultural lens. Furthermore, climatic trends and events are just one of a set of interlinked drivers that shape not just islands' vulnerabilities but also, visions of the future.

This event will bring together researchers with an interest in island studies, to reflect on resilience in an island context, or with an 'islandness' lens. We will explore the economic, social, political and geographical dynamics that drive climate change impacts, non-climate stressors, adaptation and resilience in island contexts, and how these are being captured in current research approaches.

It is being organised as part of the NERC-funded SUNRISE project (Situated UNderstanding of Resilience in Island Societies and Environments).

We will be hosting a series of virtual sessions, each 90-120 minutes, across two days. See programme below. Please join us for as many sessions as you like. Links will be circulated prior to the event, and talks will be recorded for those who cannot join live.

 

Monday November 16th         

Session 1: Envisioning and enacting island futures

09:00-09:10 

Welcome and introduction

09:10-09:30 

Natalie Cooke, Cook Islands Ministry of Finance and Economic Management

'Envisioning a stronger future in a micro-state: examples from the Cook Islands'

09:30-09:50    

Jack Corbett, Politics and International Relations, University of Southampton

'Democratic politics, small island states and climate change: a review and an agenda'

09:50-10:10    

Graham Neville, NatureScot, Scottish Natural Heritage | Buidheann Nàdair na h-Alba

'Converging crises: working together to address climate issues and the green recovery in the Orkney Islands, Scotland'

10:10-10:40    

Discussion       

 

Session 2: Theorising ‘islandness’ and ‘resilience’                                     

15:00-15:20    

Stacy-ann Robinson, Colby College

'Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards resilience in the Caribbean'

15:20-15:40    

Jon Pugh, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University and David Chandler, University of Westminster

'Anthropocene Islands: a critical agenda for resilience research'

15:40-16:00    

Godfrey Baldacchino, Department of Sociology, University of Malta

'The challenges of studying resilience: a (small) island perspective'

16:00-16:20    

Laurie Brinklow, Institute of Island Studies, University of Prince Edward Island

'From cultural cringe to cultural confidence: the role of islandness in creating resilience'

16:20-17:00    

Discussion

                                              

Tuesday November 17th                     

Session 3: Island data-scapes and reflections on ‘doing’ island research

09:00-09:20    

Ilan Kelman, Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction and Institute for Global Health, University College London, and University of Adger

'Researching island resilience for health and climate change without travel to Sitka, Alaska and Toco, Trinidad'

09:20-09:40    

Rory Walshe, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

'Connecting island datascapes: a case study from the archives, communities and institutions of Mauritius'

09:40-10:00    

Lino Briguglio, Islands and Small States Institute, University of Malta

'Two approaches in explaining economic resilience in small island states'

10:00-10:30   

Discussion   

    

Session 4: Coping capacity and adaptation across islands        

14:00-14:20    

Adelle Thomas, Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Research Centre, University of the Bahamas and Climate Analytics

'Adaptation constraints and limits in SIDS'

14:20-14:40    

Carola Klöck, Centre for International Studies, Sciences Po

'Coastal mal-adaptation? The case of seawalls in the Comoros'

14:40-15:10    

Discussion and close

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