ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter articulates the potential of heritage to shape just and sustainable relationships between humans and landscapes by identifying patterns of commonalities and differences across the four island stories told. It highlights the shared geographical and historical trajectories of the Mediterranean and North Sea islands, as well as the cultural, political, and financial differences between Northern and Southern Europe that have shaped contemporary governance. The chapter examines how energy transitions interact with local imaginaries of autonomy, institutional frameworks, and community responses, and how these processes are mediated through heritage. Across these contexts, heritage is an active political force, employed by different actors to justify, contest, or reconfigure governance structures, sustainability strategies, and land use. The chapter looks at various expressions of landscape agency and discusses the relevance of local knowledge for sustainability. Finally, it considers how these geographically situated processes might converge into trans-local forms of action, fostering solidarity and the creation of assemblies across geographical difference. It argues that heritage can serve as an emancipatory force, providing alternatives to dominant models of growth and fostering interconnected futures towards a place-based, archipelagic sustainability.
