Deborah Paci: Between the Seas. Island Identities in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2023, ISBN 9781838606190, 256 pp.
In Between the Seas, Deborah Paci takes a comparative view of islandness in island identities through case studies of islands in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas. These case studies primarily include, in the Baltic case, the Åland Islands, Gotland, Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Ruhnu; and in the Mediterranean case, Sicily, Malta, Sardinia and Corsica. Examining multiple sites of these islands' identities such as history, environmental concerns and governance systems, this book provides a historical perspective into the relations between islands and the larger geopolitical regions around them, as well as historicizing 'insularist' rhetoric deployed by pro-independence groups within them. Paci examines the changing role and increasing political importance of islands in the European Union against the history of island insularity and offers a significant contribution to the wider field of island studies.
Research conducted in the framework of the project Spaces of Expectation by Södertörn University Stockholm and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, financed by Östersjöstiftelsen in 2014–2018.
Research conducted in the framework of the project Spaces of Expectation by Södertörn University Stockholm and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, financed by Östersjöstiftelsen in 2014–2018.
