Mediterranean Islands as Sites of Peripheral Reasoning

This chapter argues for seeing the lived political reality and importance of peripheries via the lens of “interfacing.” Looking at the interfaces between actors on the ground and in the recent histories of Cyprus and Sicily, it provides a bottom-up approach to looking at peripheries as an analytical category. Contributing to peripheral reasoning, the chapter shows how the often unexpected dynamics of state, empire, and organizations operating on the ground of island life embroil islands in systems of power beyond their residents’ immediate grasp. It also, however, argues that this local dynamism confirms that these actors are active participants in said systems and in constant interfacial interaction with one another and across scales of power.