https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/699 2026-09-06T21:09:34Z 2026-09-06T21:09:34Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148904 2026-09-03T08:47:49Z 2026-08-30T00:00:00Z

Title: Summer sounds at 6am Abstract: In this article I leave the headphones off during an early-morning journey through Sliema and simply listen. Birds, the sea, cars and motorbikes, construction vehicles, different languages on the bus, smartphones and the often-invisible work of bus drivers all form part of an everyday soundscape. I use these observations to reflect sociologically on the interaction between nature, society and technology—and on a deceptively simple question: who gets to decide what counts as sound, and what counts as noise?

2026-08-30T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148829 2026-09-01T08:31:28Z 2026-08-16T00:00:00Z

Title: Social disablers in public space Abstract: In this article, I look at how society itself can create barriers to participation through inaccessible pavements, transport, public spaces, poor infrastructure and everyday behaviour. I argue that social inclusion is not only about welfare policy: it is also about whether people can comfortably and safely participate in everyday life. I propose systematic, professional on-the-ground monitoring to identify the social disablers—and enablers—in our communities.

2026-08-16T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148828 2026-09-01T08:28:22Z 2026-08-23T00:00:00Z

Title: For socially sustainable maritime reforms Abstract: In this article I discuss why Europe’s maritime transition needs to be not only greener, but also socially sustainable. For Malta, decarbonisation raises important questions about our small-island realities, connectivity, workers and communities, competition from non-EU ports, and how the costs and opportunities of environmental reform are distributed. I argue that blue justice should be part of the equation: who benefits, who pays, and whose voices and experiences are taken into account?

2026-08-23T00:00:00Z Cassar, Dylan Ellul, Reuben Gravino, Daniel Micallef, Brian Xerri, Kurt https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148823 2026-09-01T08:15:55Z 2023-11-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Housing affordability in post-boom Malta : the case for the third sector Authors: Cassar, Dylan; Ellul, Reuben; Gravino, Daniel; Micallef, Brian; Xerri, Kurt Abstract: As Malta’s house prices increased at rates faster than the historical average, the market solution to homeownership started falling increasingly short. Some prospective homeowners were priced out of the market, others were pushed into expensive rental housing, and others yet incurred housing costs that left them with inadequate income to meet expenditure on other essential needs. In fact, in 2022, more than 13,000 households had housing costs exceeding 30% of their disposable income – double what it was just four years earlier. And while the country averages around 3,000 first-time buyers per annum, house prices are so high that affordability may have come at the cost of lower quality. These housing affordability issues are partly the result of various policies adopted by successive government administrations that led to a shift away from the state to the private market as the main provider of housing; with the state retaining the role of supporting those residualised by the market. Within this system, faster than average growth in house prices has given rise to a group of low- and middle-income individuals whose housing needs are neither catered for by the private market nor by the state. At the European level, where the situation is no different from that of Malta, the debate is whether the state should simply accommodate the poor and the socially excluded (as it currently does), or to broaden its responsibility in ensuring adequate housing for all those for whom the market fails to deliver. This occasional paper contributes to this debate by identifying: (1) for whom housing is unaffordable; (2) how many are affected (where this is quantifiable); and (3) why a new approach to housing in Malta, which works through non-profit organisations, may be part of the solution to the housing affordability problem in post-boom Malta.

2023-11-01T00:00:00Z