Beyond isolated Atlantises in a infinite ocean : Replacing the climate change and migration nexus in the context of territorial networks in the South Pacific

Emilie Chevalier (1)

1 GEOLAB - Laboratoire de Géographie Physique et Environnementale

The Pacific islands are made up of twenty-two countries and territories. Approximately 10 million inhabitants live in about 300 islands (Nansen Initiative, 2013, p. 4). In the last decade, the region has emerged among the media, international institutions and civil society as one of climate change’s icons and hotspots. The United Nations Environment Program declared in 2005 that the inhabitants of Lataw (Tegua island, Torres archipelago, northern Vanuatu) were the ‘World’s first climate change refugees’ when the village was moved inland. In this context, the prevailing iconography and vocabulary associated with the climate change and migration nexus (CCMN) regarding the South Pacific seems to be dominated by the figure of the small island in a geographical sense and of the small island developing state in a political sense. This single-unit based imagery seems to tie islanders with the notions of isolation and powerlessness in a continued process of othering. Carol Farbotko pointed out that such representations could be viewed as “the legacy of the island laboratory” and “[...] enable the exercise and justification of cosmopolitan activism towards climate change that speaks in part through space” (Farbotko, 2010, p. 1). Building on Farbotko's argument on the politicization of island space, this paper will attempt to show the necessity of varying our perspectives on the nature and scale of island space to understand the dynamics and meanings of the CCMN in the Pacific. One way to do so can be to consider the CCMN as a paradigm embedded in the dynamics of territorial networks. Territorial networks can be defined as multi-scalar systems of customary informal or institutionalized interactions between places, with these systems being experienced, identified and appropriated by social groups as well as embedded in power relations. The interest of this concept is threefold. It can allow researchers to pay a greater attention to the scalar, multi-local and relational dynamics of the CCMN. Secondly, discourses on climate change and migration reveal and may influence the political and social dynamics producing the continuities and discontinuities that structure territorial networks in the South Pacific. Finally, studying the CCMN in the context of territorial networks in the South Pacific allows an analysis of hierarchies and inequalities between actors and places. First, I will focus on the need and opportunity to look at island spaces from a relational perspective through the concept of territorial networks. Then I will try to show how it can be applied to the climate change and migration nexus in the South Pacific.

Mots clés: climate migration; oceania; Pacific islands; territorial networks

Domaines: Géographie

Emilie Chevalier. Beyond isolated Atlantises in a infinite ocean : Replacing the climate change and migration nexus in the context of territorial networks in the South Pacific. Artec-Paper, 2014, Denaturalizing Climate Change: Migration, Mobilities and Space, 200, pp.66-76. ⟨halshs-01220879⟩