Fleeing to World’s End today (Floreana, Galápagos): Microislandness in a global changing world

Abstract

Floreana, the smallest and least inhabited island in the Galapagos, is considered both a “hell” and a “paradise”; a remote and isolated place and, at the same time, a context that today has more comforts and privileges than the Mainland. Extensive ethnography developed over a decade, which analyses the practices, discourses and tactics of the islanders and other social actors, shows how Floreana residents live with high levels of transformation, resemanticise, and creatively blend elements of continuity and innovation. The historical and anthropological analysis of anthropisation on this island reveals a process characterised by dynamism, paradox, and ambivalence, resulting in unique tactics of empowerment by a heterogeneous population that has, nonetheless, generated a strong local identity. The study describes a complex microislandness, in which isolation and hyper-connectivity are compatible, and where State wages, environmental protectionism, tourism, the Internet, and other global features do not impede but rather favour the concept of fleeing to and living ‘at World’s End’ in an experience that resituates the local within the global.