Performing Jurisdictional Politics in the Bailiwick of Guernsey: A Study of Anthems and Stamps

Abstract

The Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British jurisdiction in the Channel Islands comprising several islands and forming a binary with the neighbouring Bailiwick of Jersey. The Bailiwick is an archipelago of administrative similitude and island-based jurisdictional difference. It is a dependency of the British Crown with a sense of independence and with identity and jurisdiction constructed within, between and across several island spheres. This is a setting of anomalous/autonomous territories, with the Bailiwick having a distinct geography of overlapping political jurisdictions that exhibit an administrative dialectics of place with islandness and archipelago-ness at the core of identity making. This article asks: How do the islands within the Bailiwick of Guernsey perform jurisdictional politics as territorial units? As well as discussing the islands’ top-down administrative structures, distinct emblems of politicised island identity in the form of anthems and postage stamps are considered regarding the ways they contribute to island performativity and identity construction within their territorial setting.