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This paper examines how Estonian and foreign tourists to Saaremaa Island perceive their future experiences in light of a bridge built from mainland Estonia to the island. A logistic regression resulted in six predictors (two demographic and four sense of place scales) of perceived future effects of a proposed bridge on future experience, accounting for 18% of the variance. The six predictors of perceived effects of a potential bridge to the mainland on future holiday experience to Saaremaa Island were nationality, education, socio-cultural context, memory, aesthetics, and wellbeing sense of place scales. Estonians were more positive about the bridge, which supports previous discussions of the essence of home and wellbeing. Wellbeing was the strongest and only positive predictor followed by educational level, memory, socio-cultural context, aesthetics, and nationality, which were all negative. Highlights allude to the predictive power of sense of place on perceived environmental change of development (bridge to island) to future experience among tourists.

This paper examines normative concepts of community identity expressed by inhabitants of Saaremaa Island, Estonia, via 20 interviews of permanent residents. Community identity is discursively constructed via interpretative repertoire to examine storylines used for constructing the sense of being part of an island community. Community identity relates to infrastructural aspects (roads, bridges); islandness being a key physical, philosophical and psychological component of the island’s infrastructure, followed by more specific spatial units such as parish, village, neighbourhood and home. Each infrastructural unit involves a social network and physical environment related to a continuum of normative structure. Effects of a proposed bridge to the mainland influence respondent repertoire on changes of island community identity. Acceptance was the more dominant aspect of islander identity; acceptance by/of the environment determines who-is-who on the island. Normative components of acceptance included ‘bodily experience’ of individuals, ‘community control’ and ‘community sign-systems.’ Constructions of ‘we’ as islanders distinct from the non-islanders provide a complex view of community identity.

This paper examines how Estonian and foreign tourists to Saaremaa Island perceive their future experiences in light of a bridge built from mainland Estonia to the island. A logistic regression resulted in six predictors (two demographic and four sense of place scales) of perceived future effects of a proposed bridge on future experience, accounting for 18% of the variance. The six predictors of perceived effects of a potential bridge to the mainland on future holiday experience to Saaremaa Island were nationality, education, socio-cultural context, memory, aesthetics, and wellbeing sense of place scales. Estonians were more positive about the bridge, which supports previous discussions of the essence of home and wellbeing. Wellbeing was the strongest and only positive predictor followed by educational level, memory, socio-cultural context, aesthetics, and nationality, which were all negative. Highlights allude to the predictive power of sense of place on perceived environmental change of development (bridge to island) to future experience among tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gotland, Åland, Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Bornholm are five islands in the Baltic Sea which constitute, or have until recently constituted, provinces or counties. Combining perspectives from the fields of island studies and history, this article investigates how regional history writing has contributed to the formation of regional identity on each island since the year 1800. The special geographic situation of the islands – somewhat secluded from the mainland but also connected to important waterways – has provided their inhabitants with shared historical experiences. Due to varying geographic and historical circumstances, the relationship between regional and national identity is however different on each island. While regional history writing has often aimed at integrating the island into the nation state, it has on Åland in the 20th century been used to portray its inhabitants as a separate nation.

This paper examines normative concepts of community identity expressed by inhabitants of Saaremaa Island, Estonia, via 20 interviews of permanent residents. Community identity is discursively constructed via interpretative repertoire to examine storylines used for constructing the sense of being part of an island community. Community identity relates to infrastructural aspects (roads, bridges); islandness being a key physical, philosophical and psychological component of the island's infrastructure, followed by more specific spatial units such as parish, village, neighbourhood and home. Each infrastructural unit involves a social network and physical environment related to a continuum of normative structure. Effects of a proposed bridge to the mainland influence respondent repertoire on changes of island community identity. Acceptance was the more dominant aspect of islander identity; acceptance by/of the environment determines who-is-who on the island. Normative components of acceptance included 'bodily experience' of individuals, 'community control' and 'community sign-systems.' Constructions of 'we' as islanders distinct from the non-islanders provide a complex view of community identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gotland, Åland, Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Bornholm are five islands in the Baltic Sea which constitute, or have until recently constituted, provinces or counties. Combining perspectives from the fields of island studies and history, this article investigates how regional history writing has contributed to the formation of regional identity on each island since the year 1800. The special geographic situation of the islands - somewhat secluded from the mainland but also connected to important waterways - has provided their inhabitants with shared historical experiences. Due to varying geographic and historical circumstances, the relationship between regional and national identity is however different on each island. While regional history writing has often aimed at integrating the island into the nation state, it has on Åland in the 20th century been used to portray its inhabitants as a separate nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]