1 (Un)Making smallness: Islands, spatial ascription processes and (im)mobility

Abstract

Official categorization systems classify some states, including island-states, as small. Malta, located in the Mediterranean Sea, is one of six European microstates and the European Union’s smallest member state. Smallness, however, refers to more than fixed geographic scales. The understanding of smallness developed in this article, in contrast, moves beyond geographic features and argues instead that smallness is related to perceptions, experiences, and ascriptions. We challenge universal understandings of smallness against the backdrop of ethnographic research carried out in Malta (2013–2018) by exploring how island-related smallness is produced and used situationally in the context of (im)mobility. By focusing on narratives of smallness by various actors with whom we engaged during fieldwork, we demonstrate how smallness, islandness, and (im)mobilizing policies intersect at the EU’s external border. In addition, and in order to contribute to decolonial perspectives within Island Studies, we reflect on our role in (un)making smallness. We discuss our understandings of smallness against the backdrop of our empirical material and scholarly debates, and, in so doing, avoid the reproduction of universal understandings. In this vein, we argue for the deconstruction of simplified interpretations of smallness and claim that smallness must be viewed as a relational concept.