Learning Circularity By Networking Cultural Islands

SIDS and LIDS: Sociological Islands

The common element of the governance systems of small and large island developing states (SIDS and LIDS) operate within collections of similar sized communities that are arrangements of social goods and living beings at specific places. Thus, space and place are associated in governance. Spacing is an act of synthesis described as the positioning of human beings, social goods, and cultural signs for the purpose of forming spatial sociological arrangements. Space is therefore a set of sociological islands, with or without being bounded by water.

Sociological Islands are an outcome of the interplay of human action at a community level, where the relatively small size of the grassroots component can benefit from local actions. These initiatives are directly connected to the local environmental issues and the people living in need. These grassroots groups are the first responders of SIDS and LIDS to an environmental crisis and critical witnesses to which solutions are a better fit to the local context.

This act of community synthesis describes the ability of people to perceive, imagine, and remember the spatial placing of human beings and social goods around them as being coherent and reliable. The reproduction of sociological islands occurs through repetition in everyday routine and they are held together by cultural notions of class and gender. People no longer experience space as being all enveloping, but rather they are socialized in space islands that can be linked to multi level top down governance in various ways.

According to the perceived criteria of good leadership, a multi-level leadership system, strongly recognising and empowering grassroots leaders, was developed within the Vanuatu-Networked Governance System. This example of multi-level leadership is mainly enabled by the set of networks bridging across levels. More particularly, to remain effective, grassroots leadership needs to evolve within a flexible, non-binding and informal system in order to prevent the politicisation and fear of commitment of potential grassroots leaders. The set of networks, and their role as flexible venues to link grassroots leaders with authorities, is the main asset for SIDS and LIDS to build an effective governance system. It allows the different groups of grassroots leaders across the different communities to have access to all resources and knowledge developed by international, regional, national and local stakeholders often involved in SIDS and LIDS development, without binding engagement.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305572705_Grassroots_Leadershi…

While the combined forest cover of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is insignificant in global terms, forests and trees on these islands are extremely important for the wellbeing of the inhabitants. For most of the larger islands, forests also contribute significantly to the national economy and to international trade in wood and non-wood forest products.

In addition, forest resources on several islands are of global importance in terms of their role in the conservation of biological diversity, in particular endemic species and genetic variability. As a group, SIDS are well endowed with forests but the extent of forest cover varies greatly among island states.

Despite variations in size, location, population density and climatic, geological and topographic conditions, these states share many characteristics which impose particular constraints, but also some which offer unique opportunities, for the sustainable management of their forests and trees.

Indigenous peoples

Many SIDS and other small islands within larger states are populated by indigenous peoples who have been traditional stewards of their biological and cultural diversity, and the various ecosystems found in their lands and waters. When these lands and resources disappear; or are gravely altered due to these disasters and climate change crisis, the local populations suffer the first and the worst impacts; and their survival is at stake.

While the combined forest cover of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is insignificant in global terms, forests and trees on these slands are extremely important for the wellbeing of the inhabitants. For most of the larger islands, forests also contribute significantlyto the national economy and to international trade in wood and non-wood forest products. In addition, forest resources on several islands are of global importance in terms of their role in the conservation of biological diversity, in particular endemic species angenetic variability. As a group, SIDS are well endowed with forests but the extent of forest cover varies greatly among island states.

Despite variations in size, location, population density and climatic, geological and topographic conditions, these states share many characteristics which impose particular constraints, but also some which offer unique opportunities, for the sustainable management of their forests and trees.

International Community Understandings (ICU)
https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/fp/fp_sepoct02_ank01.html

“We are supported by the collective will of the world,” declared U.S.President George W. Bush as he launched the war against Afghanistan’s Taliban regime in October 2001. For many people, that collective will has a name: the “international community.” This feel-good phrase evokes a benevolent, omniscient entity that makes decisions and takes action for the benefit of all countries and peoples. But invoking the international community is a lot easier than defining it.

“When governments, urged by civil society, work together to realize the long-held dream of an International Criminal Court for the prosecution of genocide and the most heinous crimes against humanity, that is the international community at work for the rule of law.

When an outpouring of international aid flows to victims of earthquakes and other disasters, that is the international community following its humanitarian impulse.

When rich countries pledge to open more of their markets to poor-country goods and decide to reverse the decade-long decline in official development assistance, that is the international community throwing its weight behind the cause of development.

When countries contribute troops to police cease-fire lines or to provide security in states that have collapsed or succumbed to civil war, that is the international community at work for collective security” Kofi A. Annan

The collective will of the world is already part of many lines of work within UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, that impact on SIDS, such as activities to tackle fossil fuel and fisheries subsidies. Although tourism dominates their economies, SIDS are part of a world where most trade happens in parts and components moving within highly globalized value chains. Then the international community looks at per-capita income, and says, ‘These guys are rich, and they live in paradise. Why should we give development assistance to them?

But it’s not all paradise in the SIDS. Economic and environmental vulnerability are universal across the board—even the richer SIDS could be wiped out by a single natural disaster. In this context, the international community puts an inordinate weight on income when it should be emphasizing environmental vulnerability as it debates whether island nations are worthy of preferential treatment.

“International community” is a dangerous reference point for the naive. Its connotation of sociability and commitment invites unwise reliance by those who must ultimately fend for themselves. Its diffusion of responsibility excuses countries that have no intention of lending a hand. The concept amounts to a moral hazard, inspiring imprudent behavior by leaders who expect that someone else will pull their fat out of the fire. Ruth Wedgwood

Designing Communities for Survival

Design thinking brings together what is desirable from a human point of view with what is technologically feasible and economically viable. It allows those who aren't trained as designers to use creative techniques, methods, and mindsets to address a vast range of SIDS challenges. These start with desirability: what makes sense to people and for people? Then there is feasibility: what is technically possible within the foreseeable future. Finally, there is viability: what is likely to become part of a sustainable community model?

Design thinking as a process begins with understanding the right questions, which is largely a matter of leadership, and taking action by embracing simple mindset shifts and tackling problems from a new direction.

Design thinking about the goals of small island developing states are to: improve human health and social development through food security and nutrition; improve water and sanitation; reduce the incidence of non-communicable disease; and promote gender equality and women's empowerment.

Partnership among SIDS, UN Agencies, development partners and others are necessary to achieve these goals.

Regarding education for design thinking, it should be aimed at managing the hundreds of environmental issues, large and small, that are impeding the development of SIDS. In this context, mind mapping is the essential pedagogical process to produce a flexible interdisciplinary, personalized knowledge framework for learning about world development. This has been the goal of educational reform in Wales for half a century. There is a link from this post to a mind map that is being created by ICOL to consolidate and continue the Welsh work. The challenge for The Green Forum is to take a lead in defining holistic models of sustainability and human well-being. The objective is to support SIDS as they combat the effects of climate change and forge new pathways between schools and the communities they serve towards sustainable and inclusive development. ICOL is creating interlocking mind maps to guide deep thinking about islands as harbingers of an international syllabus of radical hope aimed at designing islands for survival.

Leptospirosis in the Seychelles : geographic, molecular
and epidemiological investigations of a zoonotic disease
in a tropical insular environment

Artisan Circular Ecologies

Since 2009, the Ethical Fashion Initiative has provided vulnerable artisans with market access and training. It acts as a bridge, connecting marginalized artisan communities in challenging and remote locations with global lifestyle brands. Linking international brands with a network of SIDS-based artisans would give their communities access to the international marketplace. So the EFI creates an employment model for artisans and an opportunity to improve their lives. An artisan economy with meaningful work, and fair and decent working conditions, employing traditional skills, can foster the development of local design talent. In this context, SIDS offers a blank sheet to establish closed cycle manufacturing with community artisans that supports the development of export capacities in a global waste-free circular economy.

The Caribbean Community Climate Change Center (CCCCC) has long identified the greatest hazards of global climate change in the Caribbean as 1) sea-level rise, 2) hurricane events, and 3) precipitation variability (3). Human communities have experienced all of these impacts over time, necessitating a review of divergent human experiences based on the interplay between ways of life, ecological context, and environmental hazard. Archaeological and historical investigations demonstrate how human communities have lived through the impacts of climatic hazards over the past 6 ka.

SIDS in 2014

In his grand sweep of 16th century Mediterranean history, French historian Braudel (1972: 154) had claimed that “the great problem” of the islands, never or only partly solved, was how to live off their own resources: soil, orchards, flocks, fish stocks; and “if that was not possible, to look outwards’ (ibid.). In spite of the mantra of sustainable development, islands fare best economically when they lure revenue from elsewhere, and the performance of their politicians often appraised by how well they manage to secure such largesse. Those small island territories that have, for some reason, been obliged to live off their own resources would have morphed themselves as plantation (and often largely monocrop) economies, providing non-essential goods to the kitchens of the West; but without the economies of scale of larger continental competitors, this business model has been shown to fail without those protectionist policies whose heyday is a thing of the past.

If this extra-territorial turn is the key to small island survival, then sovereignty may reduce its legitimate appeal and the chances of success of its resort. This then is a strong case for non-sovereignty: a political economy that secures autonomy but maintains the vital lifelines with larger, richer economies and their labour markets. And these links are especially significant in a post 9/11 context where the option to migrate is increasingly fraught by the regulations of the receiving countries, wary of heightened security concerns, stagnant economic growth and rising xenophobia. This approach may not sound like a ‘development’ strategy; but it has been, in its own right, a sustainable one. Today, vulnerability, resilience, dogged perseverance, and clever opportunism are best played out in a scenario where decolonization does not equal disengagement.

Godfrey Baldacchino