https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/2538 2026-10-28T04:24:48Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150226 Title: A sociological study on the meaning of loss : emotionality and the self Abstract: Despite its inevitable occurrence attending as common ground amongst humans, loss remains a taboo within discourse analysis. This study moreover explored and analysed the experiences of individuals post- loss with the aim of gaining insightful data about the loss experience. Albeit the literature review indicates a plethora of research towards loss from a sociological lens, there is minimal data available locally, and therefore this thesis aims at contributing to address this gap, representing loss within the local frame. Furthermore, the focus of this study is to question beyond the norm of what loss can mean to people, broaden the subject, and test if there are alternatives to its meaning. In doing so, gain a profound body of knowledge on this very human experience. The interpretation of the loss experience and its further exploration within meaning attribution is shown by the findings of this study to be both deeply subjective to the bereaved lived experience and also, shaped by the individual’s surrounding interpersonal connections, beliefs, and circumstances especially, those of juridical stance. In addition, this study shows that loss lingers an effect on the individual’s sense of self and emotional state whilst highlighting both short- and long-term secondary loss, a finding which surfaced to be unprecedented, as such, the loss- experience manifests to be as much a socially constructed phenomenon as it is an emotional or existential one. Stating this, it would be interesting to have this study repeated in around five to ten years’ time and in the case that such a scenario is probable, it would be most effective if it was to be repeated with the same participants. Nevertheless, a comparative analysis regarding the meaning of loss pertaining to changes in perceptions along the years, if any, would be most intriguing to follow upon. This will serve to expand the notion of loss whilst providing a periodical revision on the state of loss related challenges encountered by the bereaved at the set time. Description: M.A.(Melit.) 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150224 Title: Transformations of work and family life : the lived experiences of mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic Abstract: This dissertation explores the transformations of work and family life during the COVID-19 pandemic, by means of a study which focuses on how the pandemic affected different aspects of the lives of working mothers with young children. Through semi-structured interviews with 22 mothers who had at least one child under the age of 11, the research explores the challenges these women faced, including multiple roles, domestic responsibilities, gender disparity, temporality, spatiality, technology, support systems, and wellbeing. Thematic analysis of the data collected, highlights the challenges these women faced, both at work and at home. The findings suggest that although, husbands, or partners provided more support with regards to domestic responsibilities, most of these responsibilities still fell upon women, even though they worked full-time, just like their husband or partner. The mothers who were affected the most by the pandemic were those working from home with limited space at home, especially if the space was shared with their husband or children. Furthermore, the pandemic forced families to change the space around them to adapt to the new situation. Routines changed for most mothers as they had to perform multiple roles simultaneously, with many reporting feeling stressed or anxious, not least since their support systems, especially childcare, were very limited due to COVID-19 restrictions. Additionally, mothers reported that work from home, along with other flexible work arrangements, have become more acceptable since the pandemic. This study contributes to sociology by exploring gender disparity in contemporary society, residential spaces, flexible work arrangements, information communication technology, and the challenges of motherhood. Description: M.A.(Melit.) 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/147476 Title: Embodied civic intimacy : small states, symbolic power, and the lived experience of democracy Abstract: How is democracy embodied in everyday life, and how can lived experience enrich how we measure it? Procedural indices offer fine-grained measurement of institutional architecture but capture less of the affective, embodied, and reputational textures of civic life in small, densely networked polities. Mainstream political sociology compounds this gap by centring large Western states and reducing small-state democracies to narratives of clientelism or elite capture. This thesis develops Embodied Civic Intimacy (ECI), a mechanism most legible in small state conditions but portable to compressed publics more broadly, to explain how compliance, dissent, and belonging are negotiated where visibility and proximity are inescapable, and where democracy is constituted through bodies, silences, and rituals as much as through institutions. The analysis is organised around three strands: the infiltration of elitism, the state management of dissent, and civil society's navigation of patronage networks. The question matters increasingly as compressed visibility, long characteristic of small states, now diffuses through digital publics and surveillance capitalism. Malta and Singapore are compared through a most-similar systems design: postcolonial island states sharing density and colonial inheritance yet diverging sharply in regime trajectory. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design integrates political ethnography, forty elite interviews, discourse analysis, and longitudinal V-Dem and Freedom House data (2004–2024), with divergence between strands treated as analytical evidence rather than measurement error. Extending Bourdieu's symbolic violence and building on Machin's embodied democracy, the thesis shows that despite divergent index scores, both states display convergent civic textures in which neutrality is conspicuous, absence is legible, and silence carries political weight. ECI operates through reputational sanction rather than material inducement or legal coercion. The contribution is empirical (small-state experience), theoretical (a relational, affective lens for ECI), and methodological (enriching quantitative indices with embodied evidence). Description: Ph.D.(Melit.) 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/147100 Title: The symmetrical family : a sociological investigation amongst dual-earner families within the Maltese context Abstract: The rise in dual-earner families has perhaps been one of the most prominent contemporary changes in the domain of the sociology of the family, representing a transformation which goes beyond merely changes in the structure of the family unit, involving, amongst others, challenges to traditional gender ideologies. The trend towards adopting a dual-earner family was first analysed empirically in Malta by Saviour Rizzo (2006) in collaboration with the Centre for Labour Studies at the University of Malta. In his study, Rizzo attempted to understand the social reasons behind the prevalence of this family formation as well as other related concepts to this emerging family type, such as work-life balance. This dissertation presents a sociological study of the surge in dual-earner families whilst closely intertwining it with the sociology of gender by examining this family structure through the focus point of gender equality. Although there have been other studies which looked at this family type, rare attempts have been made to build upon Rizzo’s work and investigate the changing factors behind this family formation. This study endeavours to bridge this research gap by repeating Rizzo's focus on examining the primary factors responsible for the rise in this family configuration. Additionally, it also adopts a gendered perspective as it tries to investigate the different experiences heterosexual individuals have in this family structure, pointing to possible gender inequalities executed through the sociological concepts of the dual burden and triple shift. Aiming at generalizability of results, a quantitative methodology was adopted through the use of self-completion questionnaires. To provide the study with a defined study population, the dissertation focused upon a specific social group, namely heterosexual, dual-earner University of Malta staff (including both academic and non-academic, part-time and full-time, and staff employed both at the University and at Ġ. F. Abela Junior College). Through descriptive analysis and correlation analysis, this study resulted in four main conclusions. Firstly, that structural factors are still essentially the main contributors to the Maltese dual-earner family, though acknowledging also the influence of cultural factors. Secondly, that traditional gender roles are pretty much still in effect in dual-earner heterosexual families even in a country which promotes a society where males and females have equal social standing and value. Thirdly, though data showed that both partners in the couple endure the second shift, thorough analysis showed that females experience the greatest burden of this shift, shouldering the societal expectation that they are still the main ones responsible for housework and childcare. In terms of the triple shift, it was ascertained that females do indeed experience it. However, difficulty was found in attempting to compare it with the emotional labour men provide due to inconsistent data provided by males. Lastly, it was found that gender inequality still dominates the Maltese dual-earner family household, showing a concerning finding that males believe that it executes gender equality whilst females believe that it executes gender inequality, highlighting the different lived experiences both genders have within this family composition. Description: B.A. (Hons)(Melit.) 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z