SimIceland: Towards a Spatial Microsimulation Approach for Exploring ‘Green’ Citizenship Attitudes in Island Contexts

Sissal Dahl, Loes Bouman, Benjamin David Hennig and Dimitris Ballas ()
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Sissal Dahl: Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, 9712 CP Groningen, The Netherlands
Loes Bouman: Governance and Innovation, University of Groningen, Campus Fryslân, 8911 CE Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
Benjamin David Hennig: Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland
Dimitris Ballas: Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, 9712 CP Groningen, The Netherlands

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: Islands and island communities are often perceived as homogenous in mainstream discourse. While many islands share characteristics, such as smallness or isolation, these are experienced differently across and within island contexts and intersect with spatial, socio-cultural, political, and economic landscapes. The concept of islandness is developed to both understand shared island characteristics and their differences across places, communities, and situations. This makes islandness highly relevant to discussions of green transitions as it highlights the need to examine the diverse, intersecting, and local realities that might interfere with green citizenship. However, analytical approaches to islandness are limited, with few spatial, scalable, and transferable frameworks available. This paper argues that spatial microsimulation offers a productive way to engage with islandness using the case of climate change and environmental attitudes across Iceland. We present the SimIceland model, developed within the EU-funded project PHOENIX: The Rise of Citizens’ Voices for a Greener Europe . The model is developed to better understand how Iceland’s citizens’ feel about climate change by taking socio-cultural, environmental, and different geographical administrative regions into account. Through a simple example of an analytical demonstration, we show how this model can support a deeper understanding of islandness in the specific context of climate attitudes in Iceland. Furthermore, we discuss how the model can contribute to public participation initiatives. The model and data are open access, and we conclude by inviting further developments and the use of spatial microsimulation to explore islandness, green citizenship, and participatory approaches to sustainability in island contexts.

Keywords: islandness; spatial microsimulation; green citizenship; simulation; geography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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