This paper was published in the very first edition of Island Studies Journal, and at the time of this posting, remains the most frequently cited paper of all those published in that journal. I spent my final academic years as a committed phenomenologist, and I still am, but don’t let this apparently unfriendly word deter you – it actually stands for a very simple idea, and you’ll find it in this paper. I looked around the infant sub-genre of nissology (‘island studies’) and deemed it to be in theoretical crisis – incoherent and daunting. I argue that island studies is best considered a special and lively sub-set of place studies – and that remains my opinion.