Islander innovation: A research and action agenda on local responses to global issues

Local economies and livelihoods, cultures, and sustainability around the world are being challenged by wide ranging social and environmental changes. Despite many negative impacts, these changes also bring opportunities to initiate and implement innovations. Island communities are experiencing the forefront of much such action, particularly since they are often highly local and localised societies. Yet in many cases, global changes are being imposed without adequate support to the communities for dealing with those changes. The key question investigated by this paper is: How can local responses to global issues be improved for island communities? Examples of successes and problematic approaches, as well as those exhibiting both, are described in this paper. A research and action agenda on islander innovation is presented for researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners to highlight local responses to global issues.