Island community: identity formulation via acceptance through the environment in Saaremaa, Estonia

Abstract

This paper examines normative concepts of community identity expressed by inhabitants of Saaremaa Island, Estonia, via 20 interviews of permanent residents. Community identity is discursively constructed via interpretative repertoire to examine storylines used for constructing the sense of being part of an island community. Community identity relates to infrastructural aspects (roads, bridges); islandness being a key physical, philosophical and psychological component of the island’s infrastructure, followed by more specific spatial units such as parish, village, neighbourhood and home. Each infrastructural unit involves a social network and physical environment related to a continuum of normative structure. Effects of a proposed bridge to the mainland influence respondent repertoire on changes of island community identity. Acceptance was the more dominant aspect of islander identity; acceptance by/of the environment determines who-is-who on the island. Normative components of acceptance included ‘bodily experience’ of individuals, ‘community control’ and ‘community sign-systems.’ Constructions of ‘we’ as islanders distinct from the non-islanders provide a complex view of community identity.

Keywords

• acceptance
• community
• islandness
• norms
• place identity
• Saaremaa
• sense of place