Introduction to coastal imaginaries: Anxiety, liminality, power and cultural construction

This special issue explores the theme of ‘coastal imaginaries’ as a lens for understanding how coastlines and waterfronts have been perceived and represented across various historical periods and cultural contexts. Drawing on multi-disciplinary research, the collection of articles moves beyond viewing coastal spaces as mere physical locations, highlighting them as dynamic arenas actively shaped by human imagination, societal anxieties, and cultural values. The notion of the coast as a messy, intermediate and liminal space is central, where boundaries between land and water, civilisation and the unknown, and different social behaviours are negotiated and contested. Recurring themes include the coast as a site for projected anxieties, a liminal space for encounters and negotiations, and an arena for contested power and social control. The collection highlights the interplay between imagined perceptions and the lived realities of coastal environments, offering insights into the cultural complexities of these regions. The chronology of the articles spans from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries and explore coastal imaginaries through a variety of mediums including archival material, newspapers, and film. This is the first of two issues exploring ‘Coastal Imaginaries’, the second of which will focus on ‘haunted space, story and place’.