Investigating how environmental issues are conceptualized, communicated, and understood across different contexts with a view to unveiling the dominant narratives and assumptions that shape public, political, and scientific discussions about the environment locally and beyond.

To wit, projects Ia and Ib directly address the framing of discourse by respectively analysing public online comments and political speeches to uncover dominant narratives and assumptions. Projects IIb and IIIb broaden this scope by exploring the role of language itself, whether through traditional Maltese oral culture or a critical analysis of specific terms linked to environmental discourse revealing how linguistic choices shape understanding. Along similar lines, projects IIa and IIc further this theme by examining how the topic under investigation is framed through cultural narratives in literature, film and other forms of art, including the specific context of the sea and island life that is central to Malta. Finally, project IIIa connects this framing to education, investigating how eco-linguistic competence can be developed in the classroom with a view to empowering future generations to effectively engage with and shape environmental discourse. All in all, the projects carried out within this research cluster aim at offering a comprehensive look at how we talk and think about the environment, from the vernacular to the political and educational.

Building meaningful, reciprocal relationships between researchers from distinct disciplinary backgrounds ensuring the dialogue between key civil stakeholders while placing special emphasis on participatory approaches that result in the co-creation of knowledge and proposed action.

In this respect, the structure of the proposed projects shows a deliberate effort to transcend traditional academic silos, fostering dialogue and co-creation of knowledge between a wide array of disciplines and key stakeholders. Pillar I projects, for instance, form a powerful interdisciplinary nexus by bringing together language departments with natural (Institute of Earth Systems, Institute of Sustainable Energy) and social sciences (Sociology, Geography, Economics), while also leveraging expertise in artificial intelligence to analyse public and political discourse. Similarly, Pillar II projects create a dynamic exchange between the arts and humanities (including literary studies, performing arts and digital games) and scientific disciplines such as Geosciences and Earth Systems, illustrating how cultural narratives and representations are deeply connected to environmental realities. This collaborative spirit is further extended through Project IIb’s explicit focus on fostering intergenerational dialogue within the Maltese community and Project IIc’s community outreach component targeting school students. Finally, Pillar III projects exemplify this theme by linking language and linguistics with education and engaging with a variety of perspectives (e.g. engineering, AI, environmental design) to critically analyse and develop the very language used in environmental discourse, with the explicit aim of involving community members in workshops. Alongside the links established with other official external stakeholders on the topic under investigation, this overarching collaborative framework ensures that the research is not only academically rigorous but also directly engaged with public concerns and capable of generating actionable insights.

Alongside interdisciplinarity, this theme highlights the vital involvement of the general public in the research process as a means to not only enhance relevance, legitimacy and impact but also ensure that research outcomes are socially relevant, accessible and impactful beyond academic settings.

While all our projects aim for social relevance, some are designed with explicit participatory and outreach components. Project IIb is a prime example of this theme, with its core objective being to engage the Maltese community by fostering intergenerational dialogue around traditional oral culture and climate change. The planned production of short videos within this frame demonstrates a clear commitment to making research outcomes accessible and impactful for a wider audience. Similarly, Project IIc has a direct outreach component through its “The Sea and Me” activity, which is specifically designed to engage school children in a creative process that will enhance their understanding of environmental conservation. Project IIIb also directly embodies this theme by planning workshops where community members will be invited to participate in the critical analysis of environmental terminology, ensuring that the research is not only informed by public discourse but also actively co-created with it. Finally, while Project Ia’s analysis of online reactions, and Project IIa’s focus on cultural representations of climate change may not involve direct participation, they are foundational to this theme as they are concerned with understanding and influencing public opinion and awareness, thereby ensuring that the research remains deeply relevant to the lived experiences and perceptions of the general public. Against this backdrop, as should be easy to discern from the above discussion, even our overall dissemination plan has been developed taking into account the need to make our results visible to the general public (e.g. participation in Science in the City, publicising our results in social and public media channels as well as in the university’s own media channels, etc.).

Focusing on awareness-raising activities, especially through education, as a catalyst for deep cultural shifts toward sustainability, while investigating how formal and informal learning processes contribute to changing values, behaviors, and worldviews in relation to environmental issues.

This theme is also a foundational element that ties our pillars and projects together. Clearly, Project IIIa is the most direct and explicit example of it, as its core aim is to investigate and assess the impact of formal education on learners’ ecological awareness and eco-linguistic competence, thus directly examining how learning processes contribute to changing values and worldviews. Even so, this formal approach is complemented by the focus of other projects on informal learning and cultural products. Project IIa, for example, explores how representations in literature, film and other forms of art serve as powerful tools for awareness-raising, reinforcing a critical understanding of climate change and promoting a more sustainable future. Similarly, Project IIb delves into how traditional oral culture acts as an informal knowledge system, documenting how these narratives can be used to inform contemporary environmental practices and fostering intergenerational dialogue to encourage a cultural shift. Project IIc also provides a tangible example of public outreach through its dedicated activity which is designed to change children’s values and behaviours in relation to the sea through creative, hands-on learning. Finally, Project Ia contributes a crucial diagnostic function to this theme by analysing current public mentality to determine where awareness-raising efforts are most needed, while Project IIIb’s workshops on environmental language correspondingly act as a form of informal education, designed to transform understanding by critically examining the words we use to discuss the environment. Therefore, all our projects collectively showcase a multi-faceted approach to leveraging education and awareness as a catalyst for deep cultural change.