From tourist paradises to immigrant detention camps, from offshore finance centres to strategic military bases, islands offer distinct identities and spaces in an increasingly homogenous and placeless world. The study of islands is important, for its own sake and on its own terms. But so is the notion that the island is a laboratory, a place for developing and testing ideas, and from which lessons can be learned and applied elsewhere. The Routledge International Handbook of Island Studies is a global, research-based and pluri-disciplinary overview of the study of islands. Its chapters deal with the contribution of islands to literature, social science and natural science, as well as other applied areas of inquiry. The collated expertise of interdisciplinary and international scholars offers unique insights: individual chapters dwell on geomorphology, zoology and evolutionary biology; the history, sociology, economics and politics of island communities; tourism, wellbeing and migration; as well as island branding, resilience and ‘commoning’. The text also offers pioneering forays into the study of islands that are cities, along rivers or artificial constructions. This insightful Handbook will appeal to geographers, environmentalists, sociologists, political scientists and, one hopes, some of the 600 million or so people who live on islands or are interested in the rich dynamics of islands and island life.

Island Studies can be deceptively challenging and rewarding for an undergraduate student. Islands can be many things: nations, tourist destinations, quarantine stations, billionaire baubles, metaphors. The study of islands offers a way to take this 'bewildering variety' and to use it as a lens and a tool to better understand our own world of islands. An Introduction to Island Studies is an approachable look at this interdisciplinary field - from the islands as biodiversity hotspots, their settlement, human migration and occupation through to the place of islands in the popular imagination. Featuring geopolitical, social and economic frameworks, James Randall gives a bottom-up guide to this most modern area of study. From the geological analysis of island formation to the metaphorical use of islands in culture and literature, the growing field of island studies is truly interdisciplinary. This new introduction gives readers from many disciplines the local, global, and regional perspectives that unlock the promise of island studies as a way to see the world. From the struggles and concerns of the Anthropocene—climate change, vulnerability and resilience, sustainable development, through to policy making and local environments—island studies has the potential to change the debate.

This volume problematizes the intentions of early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) from two new perspectives – the context of small island states and the bi-directional, intergenerational learning about the environment and sustainability that takes place in a variety of contexts, including the family home and school. It questions how belonging to a small island and the children’s home influence learning in the early years of life. In doing so, this book offers new insights and new theoretical perspectives into intergenerational environmental learning in the school, family and beyond. Informed by consideration of the most recent literature in early childhood education and sustainability, this volume also looks at how these informal learning spaces provide young children with the opportunities to enhance further learning in the field, thus portraying the fluidity of intergenerational learning from different theoretical standpoints. It provides a deep insight into ECEfS and intergenerational learning about the environment and environmental issues in early childhood education from a perspective of a small island state by adopting a children’s rights perspective. It additionally explores the relationship between early childhood theories, children’s rights and postcolonial theory.

Routledge Handbook of the Tourist Experience offers a comprehensive synthesis of contemporary research on the tourist experience. It draws together multidisciplinary perspectives from leading tourism scholars to explore emergent tourist behaviours and motivations. This handbook provides up-to-date, critical discussions of established and emergent themes and issues related to the tourist experience from a primarily socio-cultural perspective. It opens with a detailed introduction which lays down the framework used to examine the dynamic parameters of the tourist experience. Organised into five thematic sections, chapters seek to build and enhance knowledge and understanding of the significance and meaning of diverse elements of the tourist experience. Section 1 conceptualises and understands the tourist experience through an exploration of conventional themes such as tourism as authentic and spiritual experience, as well as emerging themes such as tourism as an embodied experience. Section 2 investigates the new, developing tourist demands and motivations, and a growing interest in the travel career. Section 3 considers the significance, motives, practices and experiences of different types of tourists and their roles such as the tourist as photographer. Section 4 discusses the relevance of ‘place’ to the tourist experience by exploring the relationship between tourism and place. The last section, Section 5, scrutinises the role of the tourist in creating their experiences through themes such as ‘transformations in the tourist role’ from passive receiver of experiences to co-creator of experiences, and ‘external mediators in creating tourist experiences'. This handbook is the first to fill a notable gap in the tourism literature and collate within a single volume critical insights into the diverse elements of the tourist experience today. It will be of key interest to academics and students across the fields of tourism, hospitality management, geography, marketing and consumer behaviour.

This book takes an explicitly feminist approach to studying gender and social inequalities in island settings while deliberating on ‘islandness’ as part of the intersectional analysis. Though there is a wealth of recent literature on islands and island studies, most of this literature focuses on islands as objects of study rather than as contexts for exploring gender relations and local gendered developments. Taking Karides’ ‘Island feminism’ as a starting point and drawing from the wider literature on island studies as well as gender and place, this book bridges this gap by exploring gender, gender relations, affect and politics in various island settings spanning a great variety of global locations, from the Faroe Islands and Greenland in the north to Tasmania in south. Insights on recent developments and gendered contestations in these locations provide rich food for thought on the intricate links between gender and place in a local/global world. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of gender and feminist studies, cultural studies, Island studies, anthropology, and more broadly to sociology, geography, diversity and social justice studies, global democracy, and international relations.

The ‘outdoors’ is a physical and ideological space in which people engage with their environment, but it is also an important vehicle for learning and for leisure. The Routledge Handbook of Outdoor Studies is the first book to attempt to define and survey the multi-disciplinary set of approaches that constitute the broad field of outdoor studies, including outdoor recreation, outdoor education, adventure education, environmental studies, physical culture studies and leisure studies. It reflects upon the often haphazard development of outdoor studies as a discipline, critically assesses current knowledge in outdoor studies, and identifies further opportunities for future research in this area. With a broader sweep than any other book yet published on the topic, this handbook traces the philosophical and conceptual contours of the discipline, as well as exploring key contemporary topics and debates, and identifying important issues in education and professional practice. It examines the cultural, social and political contexts in which people experience the outdoors, including perspectives on outdoor studies from a wide range of countries, providing the perfect foundation for any student, researcher, educator or outdoors practitioner looking to deepen their professional knowledge of the outdoors and our engagement with the world around us.

Comprehensive and timely, this Handbook identifies the key characteristics, challenges and opportunities involved in the politics of small states across the globe today. Acknowledging the historical legacies behind these states, the chapters unpack the costs and benefits of different political models for small states.