The Perspective of Cultural Heritage/Cultural Landscape in Critical Island Studies

Abstract

It has been critically discussed by many researchers to date that the characteristics attributed to island space such as “remoteness” and “isolation” have been defined and physically shaped by colonial discourses. To overcome such definition based on modern territorial concepts, island space needs to be viewed as “an emergent product of relations” (Massey 2005: 68) arising from diverse encounters (which may be consonant or dissonant). On the other hand, actions associated with the designation of cultural properties, which specify the cultural and historical values of the island landscape or items located in the area, lead to identification of the ideal state of the island through normative science. While such actions play a certain role in visualizing the value of the island, they also carry the risk of abandoning the multiplicity and plurality of value as well as oversimplifying the “relations”. Is it impossible for normatization and multiplicity/plurality of value to coexist within the same island space? This paper discusses the possibility and the ideal form of such coexistence from the perspective of cultural landscape, focusing on a case study of the experiences associated with cultural landscapes in the former Jinguashi Mines in Taiwan, the author’s research field.