Journal article
Repositioning the (Is)land: Climate Change Adaptation and the Atoll Assemblage
S Jarillo, J Barnett
Antipode | WILEY | Published : 2022
DOI: 10.1111/anti.12814
Abstract
Sinking atolls are an enduring symbol of the power of climate change to destroy inhabited places. Climate impact science and the media share a panoptic gaze on atoll islands seeing them as being small, inert and passive in the face of rising seas. The focus in these accounts is on the power of water as the agent of destruction, while the agency of the assemblage of human and non-human actors that is the (is)land itself is ignored. Thus, atolls are said to be vulnerable, and the prevailing ideas of adaptation are either international relocation to avoid the sea or seawalls to contain it. Based on qualitative field research in Pacific atolls, this paper examines the connections between island ..
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Awarded by American Museum of Natural History
Funding Acknowledgements
Kari katuwai MinBuzibuz and kommol tata to the people of Budibudi and Namdrik atolls, and in particular to Manu and Iwa in PNG and to the late Mattlan Zackhras in the RMI, as well as to Wisely Zackhras, Clarence Luther and Alden Luther. Kari to Harris Bagita for so many insightful comments and for helping with research in Budibudi. Thank you to Jenny Newell, Principal Investigator for the Niarchos project in the RMI, and to the other members of the research team Tina Stege and Mark Stege. Thanks also to Elissa Waters for your support and to Celia McMichael for giving comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Research leading to this paper was funded by the Australian Research Council project FL180100040, the Constantine Niarchos Foundation ("Analysing the dynamics shaping community responses to climate change in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, 2016") and the Kalbfleisch Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History.