In case you haven’t heard… the Island Studies Press publication, “Pulling Strings” has officially been launched. The event took place at Province House March 20th. Edited by - Godfrey Baldacchino and Kathleen Stuart.
Contributors include:
John Eldon Green - Forward
Godfrey Baldacchino - Prince Edward Island as a Sub-National Island Jurisdiction
Kathleen Stuart - Transportation and Access for Sub-National Island Jurisdictions, A Global Listing of Sub-National Island Jurisdictions
Hans Connor - The Capacity for Sub-National Island Jurisdictions to Increase Autonomy: The Example of Prince Edward Island
Crystal Fall - Immigration, Repatriation and Retention: Population Strategies on Prince Edward Island and Comparable Jurisdictions
Barbara Groome Wynne - Social Capital and the Social Economy in a Sub-National Island Jurisdiction
Lawrence M. Liao - The Environment as a Resource: Lessons for Prince Edward Island for othe Sub-National Island Jurisdictions
Jean Mitchell - Epilogue: Reconfiguring Islands
Baldacchino identifies five policy spheres where small SNIJs ‘feel an especially strong obligation to involve themselves, and where they avidly seek results that can translate into ‘win-win’ social development and economic porsperity’.
“… the core of this book is a collation of the policy papers dealing with the policy issues that emerge as particularly salient in the development strategies of most sub-national jurisdictions today: political capacity; access and transportation; migration and human resourcing; environmental stewardship; and social capital and the social economy.”
Realizing the comparisons with other SNIJs, such as Tasmania, opens up possibilities for PEI. What works in other jurisdictions and what does not, how are we different and how are we the same… are some of the queries in the comparative toolbox that strive to confront and address some of the commonalities between SNIJs all over the world.
Hans Connor’s chapter reminds us of PEI’s strengths across the spectrum of formal and informal power(s), stating that “in order to improve its self-sufficiency, it must more fully access the other under-utilized informal capabilities to, at least, increase its proficiency in accessing its full range of resources whether political, fiscal or constitutional.”
I can’t help but wonder if we have been asking the same questions for the past 40 or so years. Hans recognizes PEI’s seemingly equal negotiating power(s) with Ottawa and I would agree that we have mastered ‘the ask’. How many ways can we dress it up? Back in the 60’s it was about plumbing, electricity, schools and other modernity’s. Could we not say the same about today? Island-wide high speed Internet, public transit, niche markets, eco-tourism… modernizations of the 21st century.
So instead of focusing on our overt dependency why not focus on how we may become more independent. Where do we want to go? Do Islanders have a futuristic vision and if so, what is it and how do we get there. As I write this, Hans Connor is responding to a letter to the editor (in The Guardian) asking the same questions.
Other important elements are part of the solution, or at least part of the discussion. Next chapter: Social Capital and the Social Economy in a Sub-National Island Jurisdiction, by Barb Groome Wynne….
