Viewed from the mainland the history of the archipelago appears as a long list of non-invited but irresistible disembarkations. Viewed from on an island the archipelago has had a rich and unique history of sustainable use of scarce resources.

The main theme of this book is the exploration of the meanings of near islands, of the archipelago. General and particular features of 1246 islands of the Croatian archipelago are starting points of stories about particular islands, subarchipelagos and urban archipelagos. The chapters question and analyse the archipelago identity from different perspectives. It is approached as a group of islands, a simple sum perhaps, but as the analysis goes on particular features of subarchipelagos, urban subarchipelagos, mainland dependent islands, outlying islands and island emigrant communities that are trying to restore and conserve their island somewhere in the new homeland are revealed. This in turn makes the identity of the archipelago complex and multidimensional.

Nenad Starc is a researcher, consultant and a professor in the fields of regional policy and planning at the Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia. He specializes in island development, spatial planning and local development programming.