About

Engaging the Contemporary is a yearly conference organised and hosted by the University of Malta’s Philosophy Department. The goal of the conference is to foster international, multidisciplinary dialogue between researchers in philosophy and adjacent fields. In keeping with these stated aims, for this tenth edition of our conference, we seek to explore the commons as a theoretical framework that reimagines the themes of community, relationality, and the political. The notion of “the commons” has captured the imagination of many as a space of both resistance and possibility in the face of contemporary social, political, and environmental crises. It invites us to reconsider themes such as collective ownership, governance, and shared resources, and questions the dominant logic of privatisation, exploitation, and liberal individualism. In a world marked by escalating inequalities, conflicts, ecological degradation, and excessive commodification of both natural and informational resources, the reclamation of the commons emerges as an urgent, timely, and vital task.