Meta nirrifletti dwar il-qtugħ ta' dawl, sptar li ma jistax ilaħħaq, bajjiet bid-drenaġġ, bankini perikolużi, ekonomija tac-cheap labour impurtat, eċċ , ma nistax ma naħsibx f'dik ir-riċerka kollha li ssir minn akkademiċi u studenti u li tibqa fuq l-ixkaffa. X'ħela ta' riżorsi!
Qed naraw kif id-dipendenza ekonomika fuq it-tkabbir tal-popolazzjoni qed ikollha impatti varji, bħall-infrastruttura li ma tiflaħx għall-pressjoni; prezzijiet tal-propjeta' impossibli; xogħol prekarju..... Biex tkompli tgħaxxaqha il-pajjiż m'għandux politika olistika u komprensiva dwar l-assessjar ta' l-impatti.
Paradoss politiku: Filwaqt li rappreżentanti ta' partit huma accountable għall-membri tagħhom, dawk indipendenti huma accountable għalihom infushom. Jiġifieri dawk ta' l-ewwel jaf għandhom iktar checks and balances, jaf jgħaddu minn iktar deliberazzjoni, u jaf ikunu iktar demokratiċi.
Regional voting patterns are result of a complex interplay of history, economic conditions, social structures and cultural identities. Daniel Attard interviews sociologists Godfrey Baldacchino and Michael Briguglio in this Times of Malta article.
Link:
https://timesofmalta.com/article/why-malta-south-red-north-blue.1094081
Il-PL ġab 52% tal-voti, Il-PN 45%, u oħrajn kważi 4%. Il-PL naqqas 15,700 vot, u l-PN żdied b'11,000 mill-aħħar elezzjonijiet tal-Kunsilli fl-2019. Prosit, grazzi, awguri, u rispett lill 11-il kunsillier (minn 471, u b'madwar 9,000 vot minn xi 257,000 vot) li ġew eletti f'isem ADPD jew indipendenti. Hawn min għal skopijiet politiċi (jew wishful thinking) qed jipprova jagħti l-impressjoni li dan huwa xi grupp magħqud jew li saħansitra l-ewwel darba li ġew eletti kunsilliera ta' dan it-tip. Dan hu l-istess tip ta' żball analitiku bħal meta wieħed jassumi li dawk kollha li ma vvutawx huma xi grupp omoġenju, forza ġdida eċċ. Filwaqt li m'għandix dubju li kunsilliera mill-ADPD jew indipendenti jistgħu jagħtu (u uħud, diġà taw) kontribut kbir lill-lokalità rispettiva tagħhom u anke jikkonsolidaw il-pożizzjoni tagħhom, din hija ball game differenti għall-aħħar minn dik f'elezzjoni ġenerali, fejn l-għażla ewlenija hi jekk il-votant iridx lill-PL jew PN fil-gvern.
In the European Parliamentary Election, Arnold Cassola once again took the independent route, after leaving Alternattiva Demokratika some years ago. He had a very good campaign, but was not elected. As my colleague Andrew Azzopardi stated on Campus 103.7 earlier today, Arnold's share of votes was much less than the comprehensive votes obtained by PL and PN respectively.
During the campaign, Arnold stated that if he was elected, he would have joined the European Greens - the same European Greens whose pro-choice abortion stance is a major priority, though he cites this policy as the reason why he left AD.
Today, Arnold was quoted by the press about the need of a 'centre-green-left' grouping. Such a party already exists (ADPD), and it has a democratic decision making process through its members. Not to mention that talk of a broader green-left formation has been making the rounds since the 1990s but never really succeeded for various reasons.
Arnold had it easier this time around also because practically all the independent media gave him lots of favourable coverage. If his centre-green-left party is formed, I wish it luck, particularly in deciding who will lead it and in having an agreed stance on various issues.
In the meantime, I reiterate that the only alternative government to Labour is the Nationalist Party (and vice-versa) - and it is the people who have been consistently showing this through their free vote in the past decades.
In this context, the PN can opt for a reasonable and moderate voice which speaks up not only for those who already have considerable media coverage, but also for the silent, invisible and often forgotten majorities who speak through their vote.
Incidentally, in 2017 I had publicly appealed to AD - then led by Cassola - to join the PN / Forza Nazzjonali coalition, but he disagreed.
Briguglio, Michael (2024). Twenty years of Malta’s EU membership : the impact on Maltese environmental NGOs. 20 Years of EU Membership Paper Series, 3-16.
In this study, I analyse the impact of EU accession on Maltese Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (ENGOs), twenty years after Malta, the smallest EU-member state, joined the Union in 2004. In the run-up to EU accession, the environment was often seen as an area which would benefit from Malta’s EU membership, especially since Malta had a lack of environmental legislation and enforcement. Not surprisingly, Environmental NGOs (ENGOs) supported Malta’s EU accession. ENGOs are major protagonists in environmental politics in Malta. Their activism covers different areas, though some issues - most notably land development, and hunting of birds - are more visible and contentious in the public sphere. Environmental protest is also one of the most common types of protest in Malta.
In this paper, I investigate the impacts of Malta’s European Union (EU) accession on Environmental NGOs (ENGOs) through a sociological perspective, following two decades of Malta’s accession. For this purpose, the activism of ENGOs in relation to Malta’s EU accession was analysed, through political process theory and a social constructionist approach which engaged with the interpretations of the same ENGOs on the issue under analysis. For this purpose, primary data was collected through elite interviews with representatives from Malta’s major ENGOs. The main research question of this study is “how do ENGOs interpret the impacts of the EU, 20 years after Malta’s accession?”
The study is a follow-up of a similar study I had published following ten years of Malta’s EU membership. . It forms part of the '20 Years of EU membership' paper series published by the Institute for European Studies, University of Malta.
Link: https://www.um.edu.mt/media/um/docs/events/20yearseumembers/MichaelBriguglio.pdf
The latest edition of academic journal Protest includes the following book review which I have written.
Briguglio, M. (2024). Turkish Politics and ‘the People’ – Mass Mobilisation and Populism, written by Spyros A. Sofos. Protest, 4(1), 103-106. https://doi.org/10.1163/2667372X-bja10055
Link:
https://brill.com/view/journals/prot/4/1/article-p103_008.xml
UM OAR: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/120225
A few days ago, the first RethinkBlue international conference was organized by EU COST Action CA22122 - Rethinking the Blue Economy: Socio-Ecological Impacts and Opportunities, with the support of COST - European Cooperation in Science and Technology, the University of Zadar, and the Croatian Science Foundation.
During the conference, scholars and other experts discussed and presented research on issues related to social, environmental and economic aspects of the Blue Economy. This included maritime occupations; food security; sustainable blue consumption; port cities; coastal communities; fisheries governance; marine tourism; emergent activities; climate change; and natural hazards. The book of abstracts of the conference can be obtained from
https://conference.unizd.hr/
The RethinkBlue conference was opened by the Chairperson of RethinkBlue, Dr Dražen Cepić and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Zadar Prof Zvjezdan Penezić.
Malta was represented by Management Committee members Prof Michael Briguglio and Matthew Laspina. Prof Briguglio and Prof Godfrey Baldacchino also presented respective research during the conference.
During its Annual General Meeting held last Friday, the Malta Sociological Association (MSA) elected its committee for this year:
Chairperson: Bridget Borg
Vice-Chairperson: Mariella Debono
Secretary: Maria C. Borg
Treasurer: Julian Micallef
Public Relations Officer: Prof Michael Briguglio
International Officer: Ljiljana Cumura
Training Officer: Brian Chircop
Outreach Officer: Dr Dylan Cassar
Committee Member: Dr Valerie Visanich
Committee Member: Alan Fiott
The MSA is a non-profit making organisation. It is a non-commercial entity, which aims to develop and promote sociological knowledge. The Association promotes sociological research and contributes toward facilitating the cooperation of people working within the sociological field. It also aims at understanding and analysing social problems for the improvement of the quality of life.
More information about the Malta Sociological Association, including membership options, social media links, upcoming events, seminars and activities, may be obtained from www.maltasociologicalassociation.com
We are pleased to announce that the Master of Arts in Social Impact Assessment will be starting for the first time ever next week. This course is being offered by the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Malta.
Call for papers for the first 1st RethinkBlue Conference, organised by COST Action CA22122 – Rethinking the Blue Economy: Socio-Ecological Impacts and Opportunities (RethinkBlue).
All details can also be found in the conference website. Click here
Permezz ta' staqarrija ftit tal-ġranet ilu, il-Forum Marittima Maltija (MMF) appellat lill-Gvern u l-Oppożizzjoni biex jaħdmu flimkien għal strateġija li tindirizza l-effetti negattivi tar-regolamenti ġodda dwar il-merkanzija minn fuq il-bastimenti. Dawn l-effetti jistgħu ikollhom impatt kbir fuq servizzi offruti minn Malta u fuq il-prezzijiet.
Wieħed jista' jaqra l-istqarrija tal-MMF minn din il-holqa: https://mmf.org.mt/the-european-emission-trading-system-and-the-implications-for-malta/
Jidher li dan huwa każ fejn il-Gvern u l-Oppożiżżjoni iktar qed jaħlu ħin jikkritikaw lil xulxin milli jaħdhmu flimkien għall-interess nazzjonali ta' Malta - gżira żgħira li hi dipendenti ħafna fuq l-ekonomija marittima. Forsi jkun aħjar jekk jiddjalogaw u jikkonsultaw sew ma' esperti u operaturi f'dan il-qasam milli joqogħdu jdoqqu t-trombi.
Permezz tar-reshuffle, il-Gvern reġa' tilef l-Opportunita' li jkollu Ministru għall-Affarijiet Marittimi. Dan it-tip ta' Ministeru jeżisti f'pajjiżi oħra, u ma nistax nifhem kif il-politiċi, sena wara l-oħra, jibqgħu jagħtu importanza minuri lil dan is-settur daqshekk importanti għal pajjina. Kif inhuma l-affarijiet, il-kwistjonijiet marittimi huma taħt il-kompetenza ta' Ministeri differenti, inkluż dak tat-Trasport, li għadu kemm ġie karatterriżżat minn bidla fil-Ministru....
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| Stampa: The Malta Independent |
Qrajna ħafna interpretazzjonijiet dwar ir-reshuffle, uħud aktar informati u struiti minn oħrajn. Forsi laqtu il-likk, forsi le. Saħansitra forsi jkun hemm stejjer li jingħataw lill-midja minn xi protagonisti infushom. Ikun hemm interpretazzjonijiet oħra li aktar jikxfu x-xewqat u l-opinjonijiet ta' min ħareġ bihom, milli x'ġara fil-verita'.
Aktar nemmen li jkun hemm diversi raġunijiet u pressjonijiet waqt proċess ta' reshuffle.
Li hu żgur hu li l-ebda politiku m'għandu ċens perpetwu. Il-kewkba feġġejja tal- llum taf tkun l-aħbarijiet tal-bieraħ għada.
Mhux ser nirrefereri għall-ebda każ partikolari.
Meta jkun hemm xi kontroversja l-Qorti li tixxandar fuq il-media, kemm il-darba nħoss li uħud minna nagħmlu u nxandru konklużjonijiet għaġġelin, li forsi jaqblu mal-opinjonijiet li diġà kellna, jew ma rappurtaġġ, inkluż dak sensazzjonalista. Taf int, forsi nirbħu xi like jew xi share. Anke jekk għad-detriment ta' ħaddieħor.
Ikun iktar prudenti jekk wieħed iħalli l-proċess legali (bid-difetti kollha tiegħu) jaħdem. Dan jinkludi il-ġbir u l-analiżi ta' evidenza, inkluż dik li ma ddoqx għal widnejna.
