Sea of change

Abstract

Historical narratives about the Faroes have been shaped largely by imperial administrators, foreign guests, and visiting scientists who, while spending varying lengths of time in the archipelago, produced something akin to ‘hit-and-run’ knowledge, and then ultimately returned to their homes overseas. This pattern resulted in studies at an arm’s length in tones that were either romanticizing or patronizing, and where the Faroese were cast as an exotic Other.

In this book, we wish to challenge and ‘write back’ to these external and previously dominant narratives about the smallness and insularity of the Faroes by applying a lens of change to the archipelago. The anthology is written by Faroese researchers to whom the Faroes is not a distant foreign entity. Change in the Faroes, as an oceanic island society with no adjacent neighbour, is related to the sea, not simply in a metaphorical sense, but also in a cultural and social meaning. The ocean is isolating and protecting, but it is also a highway with people, commodities and ideas moving in and out of the islands.

The Faroes is a society in transformation and development. In this anthology we explore change in relation to tourism, national identity, infrastructure, energy, environmental sustainability, family life, gender and other themes. Are these changes connected either to a tangible historical connection to the outside world, or can they perhaps be traced back to earlier ideas in the Faroes? And finally, what role does innovation play? These questions, discussed across the chapters, place the Faroes in a sea of change.