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Rethinking Tasmania’s regionality from an Antarctic perspective: flipping the map
Citation
Nielsen, H and Lucas, C and Leane, E, Rethinking Tasmania's regionality from an Antarctic perspective: flipping the map, M/C Journal, 22, (3) Article 1528. ISSN 1441-2616 (2019) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2019 Hanna E.F. Nielsen. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Official URL: http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjo...
Abstract
Tasmania hangs from the map of Australia like a drop in freefall from the substance of the mainland. Often the whole state is mislaid from Australian maps and logos (Reddit). Tasmania has, at least since federation, been considered peripheral—a region seen as isolated, a ‘problem’ economically, politically, and culturally. However, Tasmania not only cleaves to the ‘north island’ of Australia but is also subject to the gravitational pull of an even greater land mass—Antarctica. In this article, we upturn the political conventions of map-making that place both Antarctica and Tasmania in obscure positions at the base of the globe. We show how a changing global climate re-frames Antarctica and the Southern Ocean as key drivers of worldwide environmental shifts. The liquid and solid water between Tasmania and Antarctica is revealed not as a homogenous barrier, but as a dynamic and relational medium linking the Tasmanian archipelago with Antarctica. When Antarctica becomes the focus, the script is flipped: Tasmania is no longer on the edge, but core to a network of gateways into the southern land. The state’s capital of Hobart can from this perspective be understood as an "Antarctic city", central to the geopolitics, economy, and culture of the frozen continent (Salazar et al.). Viewed from the south, we argue, Tasmania is not a problem, but an opportunity for a form of ecological, cultural, economic, and political sustainability that opens up the southern continent to science, discovery, and imagination.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | regionality, Antarctica, gateway cities, polar gateways, Tasmania |
| Research Division: | Studies in Human Society |
| Research Group: | Human Geography |
| Research Field: | Urban and Regional Studies (excl. Planning) |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society |
| UTAS Author: | Nielsen, H (Dr Hanne Nielsen) |
| UTAS Author: | Lucas, C (Dr Chloe Lucas) |
| UTAS Author: | Leane, E (Professor Elizabeth Leane) |
| ID Code: | 133276 |
| Year Published: | 2019 |
| Funding Support: | Australian Research Council (LP160100210) |
| Deposited By: | Office of the School of Humanities |
| Deposited On: | 2019-06-20 |
| Last Modified: | 2019-07-22 |
| Downloads: | 6 View Download Statistics |
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