Sasha Davis - Islands and Oceans: Reimagining Sovereignty and Social Change

GEOGRAPHIES OF JUSTICE AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

SERIES EDITORS

Mathew Coleman, Ohio State University Sapana Doshi,
University of Arizona

FOUNDING EDITOR

Nik Heynen, University of Georgia

ADVISORY BOARD

Deborah Cowen, University of Toronto
Zeynep Gambetti, Boazii University
Geoff Mann, Simon Fraser University
James McCarthy, Clark University
Beverley Mullings, Queens University
Harvey Neo, National University of Singapore
Geraldine Pratt, University of British Columbia
Ananya Roy, University of California, Los Angeles
Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, CUNY Graduate Center
Jamie Winders, Syracuse University
Melissa W. Wright, Pennsylvania State University
Brenda S. A. Yeoh, National University of Singapore

REIMAGINING SOVEREIGNTY AND SOCIAL CHANGE

SASHA DAVIS

2020 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
All rights reserved

Set in 10.25/13.5 Minion 3 by Kaelin Chappell Broaddus

Most University of Georgia Press titles are available from popular e-book vendors.

Printed digitally

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data in process

ISBN: 9780820357331 (hardcover: alk. paper)
ISBN: 9780820357355 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN: 9780820357348 (ebook)

This book was made possible through the kindness, hard work, and generosity of many people. I first want to thank those who gave me their time during my stays on Jeju, Okinawa, Yap, Hawaii, Oahu, Guhan, Vieques, Saipan, Tinian, Majuro, Ebeye, Kili, Luzon, Honshu, and Koror. I talk a lot about assemblages in this book, and this book itself definitely is one. It has been created through a combination of ideas, emotions, tactics, ethics, insights, and stories shared through countless interactions with people generous enough to give me their time. Not only must I thank my (anonymous) interviewees, but I am thankful for all the conversations, formal and informal, that have shaped the perspective I put forward in this book. In particular, I want to thank Jessica Hayes-Conroy, Allison Hayes-Conroy, Francis Hezel, Kyle Kajihiro, Robert Rabin, Hideki Yoshikawa, Shinako Oyakawa, Daniel Broudy, Koari Sunagawa, Weston Watts, Masaki Tomochi, Koohan Paik, Yukari Akamine, Yoko Fujita, Sung-Hee Choi, Emily Wang, Sunwoo Kim, Lina Koleilat, Vid Raatior, Jennifer Everett, Mark Hartman, Lorraine Dowler, Tiara Naputi, Sylvia Frain, and Michael Bevacqua.

I also want to thank everyone at the University of Georgia Press. I especially want to thank Mick Gunsinde-Duffy, Jon Davies, Beth Snead, and Sapana Doshi for giving me another chance to publish in this exciting book series dedicated to fundamental social change. I also want to thank the anonymous reviewers and Mat Coleman for their valuable comments on earlier versions of the book. Their critiques were incredibly helpful and enabled me to develop my argument in ways I never could have without their insights. I am also thankful for Kerrie Mayness and Thomas Roches excellent comments throughout the copyediting and production process.

I also want to thank my colleagues and administrators at Keene State College and at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Not only did I receive financial help from both institutions for the travel associated with the research for this book, they also gave me encouragement and support while I worked on this project. I am also incredibly thankful for the grants I received from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation and the Human Geography Institute, which also helped me conduct this research.

Lastly, I want to thank my family for supporting me throughout the writing of this book. My mother, Susan Justice, passed away as I began this research project, but I am indebted to her for always reminding me of the power of the persistent ocean to wear down any obstacle. I also want to thank my dad, Frank Davis, and my stepmother, Alicia Davis, for their support over the years. I also want to thank my sister, Mya Dee. I never gave her enough credit for all the help, protection, and love she has given me. As the younger sibling, I had the benefit of being able to grow up somewhat oblivious to many of the things going on in our crazy childhood because she was there for me. I am sure that without her I would be in a much worse place. Thank you! I also want to acknowledge my kidsHuxley Davis, Luca Davis, Mariposa Davis, and Sabine Maloneywhom I have missed terribly while I travel and hide myself away while writing. The person deserving the most thanks for this book, however, is my partner, Hillary Washburn. For every hour I have put into research and writing for this book, she has put in just as much effort or more holding our family together. I cannot thank her enough for her love, support, hard work, and patience through this long project.

Some of the material in this book was adapted from the previous publications listed below. The writing has been updated, revised, and reshaped, and I appreciate the work of the reviewers and editors that helped develop some of the ideas in this book that were in these earlier publications. This book is derived in part from the article Sharing the Struggle: Constructing Transnational Solidarity in Global Social Movements published in Space and Polity (2017) 21 (2): 158-72 (copyright Taylor & Francis; available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13562576.2017.1324255). This book is also derived in part from the article Apparatuses of Occupation: Translocal Social Movements, States and the Archipelagic Spatialities of Power published in the Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (2017) 42 (1): 110-22 (available online at https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/tran.12152).

In the first summer of Donald Trumps presidency, two major news stories simultaneously saturated media reports in the United States. One of these was the rally of white supremacist groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, that caused the death of one counterprotester and two police officers. During the rally, right-wing participants called for a strengthening of U.S. sovereignty while criticizing globalists and chanting infamous Nazi slogans such as blood and soil! that claim a link between racial purity and the control of territory.