Islands: ecologically unequal exchange and landesque capital

Summary, in English

Our purpose in this chapter is to give a brief perspective on islands in global historical-political ecology, focusing on ecologically unequal exchange and the formation of landesque capital. We emphasize how these processes are intertwined and recursively connected in broader contexts of uneven development. Empirical examples draw on our research into the historical-political ecology of islands and archipelagos which have since 1949 been geopolitically part of Taiwan, the Republic of China: Kinmen (Quemoy) Island in the Fukien Province of China, the Penghu Archipelago (Pescadores) in the Taiwan Strait, and Pongso no Tau (Lanyu, Orchid Island), a northern outlier of the Batanes Islands, southeast of Taiwan. The aim is not so much to draw comparisons between these cases as to draw connections, both between the processes of ecologically unequal exchange and formation of landesque capital, and between the peripheral islands and the global political economy/ecology of which they are part.

• Author: Eric Clark; Huei-Min Tsai
• Editor: Alf Hornborg; Brett Clark; Kenneth Hermele
• Department/s: Department of Human Geography
• Publishing year: 2012
• Language: English
• Pages: 52-67
• Publication/Series: Ecology and power: struggles over land and material resources in the past, present and future
• Document type: Book chapter
• Publisher: Routledge
• Topic: Human Geography
• Keywords: environmental degradation; landesque capital; islands; ecologically unequal exchange; land improvement
• Status: Published
• Project: LUCID - Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability
• Research group: LUCID - Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISBN: 9780415601467