https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/12100 2026-04-23T03:24:40Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/111222 Title: Outsourcing, industrial organisation, and interfirm practices : sociological case studies from the Maltese experience 1970-2016 Abstract: This study focuses on the organisation of foreign direct investment in Malta with special attention to their transactional relations with Maltese-owned suppliers and subcontractors. The sociological diachronic case studies present a set of evolving scenarios involving two important exporters and nine small local enterprises. These scenarios enfold against the background of Malta’s economic development between 1970 and 2016. The studies are informed and in turn inform a number of theoretical issues in economic sociology, political economy, and the sociology of development. It opens the way for more extensive research of the overcoming of a classical dual economy with, on the one hand, traditional locally-owned firms producing or servicing the local market and on the other hand, modern and modernising foreign-owned companies driven by exports. Thus, this research contributes to the Industrial Organization of firms, to the Economic Sociology of the relationship between large firms and their supporting SMEs, and to the Economic Sociology of Development, by shedding light on the growth of linkages between FDI firms and indigenous enterprises in host countries. Description: M.A.(Melit.) 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/101538 Title: Lo screening del migrate : la rappresentazione dell'alterità nel cinema italiano contemporaneo Abstract: The present work arises from the consideration that, in recent Italian filmography, the figure of the foreign migrant who comes from the world's South is often represented through a series of cliche connoted by paternalistic or othering tones, that often confine his/her expressive potential in rigid and schematic portraits. Although most of the film directors are inspired by the honest intention to re-evaluate the figure of the immigrant, which is so often neglected or altered by the media, their portrayal does not really provide an in-depth analysis of the so-called Otherness. Furthermore, I have observed that migrants, being subaltern subjects, often have a very marginal role in the film or, using a Spivakian expression, they "cannot speak", simply because they are not allowed to make their voices heard. On the basis of such reflections, I thought it could be of particular interest to carry out an analysis aiming at discovering the origins of the stereotyped representation of the Other as well as of the conscious or unconscious discriminating attitude towards migrants, common to a considerable part of Italian society. The analysis has allowed me to trace such origins back to the repressed memory of the Italian colonial past, in which the need to assert the identity of the Italian people and of a powerful and prestigious "Motherland" (and to justify her colonial enterprises), was best expressed by Fascism and by the fascist propaganda, that became the most powerful instrument of discrimination between the Italian colonizer and the colonized subjects. The racism and prejudices towards contemporary migrants, often discriminated on the basis of their supposed diversity antithetic to the dominant culture, appear paradoxical, because they overlook the fact that Italy too has been a country of emigrants, who had to face the pain of being uprooted as well as the difficulties of integration in the guest country, where they became the object of stereotypes and prejudices. Such an apparent forgetfulness contributes, even in cinema, to a short-sighted, partial and essentialist vision of the immigrant. These representative shortcomings are not found, on the other hand, in the (few) films screening the Italian emigrant who, in the previous century, migrated abroad or from the South to the North of Italy, with the exception of the comedy, which is intrinsically based on stereotypes. Therefore, I have tried to highlight the unpreparedness of Italian cinema in the new confrontation with Otherness, which reflects the unpreparedness of Italian society itself, in spite of some effective and significant exceptions hinting at a partial but substantial progress in the cinematographic path of approaching the Other through a multiethnic perspective. [...] Description: PH.D.ITALIAN 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/101276 Title: Hospitaller Malta's communication system with the Mediterranean world in the early seventeenth century Abstract: Italics were used for words not in English. Square brackets were adopted when the spelling of original manuscript terminology was not clear, or to write letters omitted in abbreviated original text. When citing magistral correspondence, the surnames of the sender and the addressee were given throughout, except in the tables for reasons of space, while the designation (receiver, procurator) of the various Hospitaller correspondents was omitted due to the huge inconsistencies in the original documentation. The only exception was done in the case of Hospitaller ambassadors. The spelling of proper names in original texts was retained when possible, although the Italian version was generally preferred to the Latin one. In case of inconsistencies, one form was chosen and used throughout the dissertation. The term 'Regno' (an abbreviation for 'Regno delle Due Sicilie') was used to indicate Southern Italy and Sicily under Spanish Habsburg rule. Tables 1 to 4B list a selection of Hospitaller representatives and correspondents stationed outside Malta from 1601 up to 1621, Alof de Wignacourt' s last full year as grand master of the Order. Due to obvious constrictions created by the lack of space, separate tables - covering the years 1601-1611 and 1612-1621 - had to be created in order to fit in all the agents and correspondents throughout the entire period in question. In these four tables, multiple entries under one heading usually indicate a handover of the post within the same year in question, or a temporary deputy. Alternatively, they could indicate a division of tasks, especially in case of sizeable territories, as for Germany. Empty slots in these tables indicate years for which relevant data from the sources consulted is not available. In the vertical columns indicating the location in which these correspondents were posted, 'Priory of Lombardy' was preferred to 'Lombardy' since in Hospitaller jurisdiction the priory in question included also lands in present-day Piedmont. At times, throughout the dissertation, the terms 'Hospital' and 'Religion' were used for the Order of St John of Jerusalem, as is normal in Hospitaller terminology. Description: PH.D.HISTORY 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/101123 Title: Invisible voice in transition : bargaining with binary Abstract: Research shows that transsexual individuals undergoing medical transition, in particular Sex Confirmation Surgery and hormone therapy, endure an intricate, overwhelming and alienating experience filled with intense conflicting feelings. Qualitative analysis was deemed most appropriate in order to fully comprehend the subjects' experiences and by using both purposeful and snowball sampling, four professionals who are in direct contact with trans individuals were interviewed. The findings look at how these key informants experience, interpret and perceive their clients' journeys as they go against the expectations of a binary gender system. This study found that isolation, lack of support from loved ones and difficulty in keeping gainful employment are amongst the main socioeconomic and psychological challenges faced by this minority cohort in their quest to align their internal gender identity with their outer body. Lev's (2004) stages of transgender emergence were used as a framework for the analytical and exposition process. Thematic data analysis of the interview transcripts was carried out; from which one overarching theme emerged, being: Gender as a Social Construct. The respondents' statements describe their clients' journey. The researcher makes use of nautical metaphors to illustrate the different challenges encountered from the moment of realisation (embarkation) to the moment they arrive to the Promised Land. Yet, while for them the journey can be seen as an evolutionary metamorphosis, trans individuals struggle in their quest to (re)create a congruency between inner self and outer body. Sadly, arriving at destination, they may find that this dualistic world built around stereotypical expectations is not as accepting as they hoped it would be. A number of recommendations for further research are put forward. Description: DIP.SOC.STUD. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z