https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58741 2026-07-13T08:20:44Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58884 Title: ‘In-nar trid tirrispettah u ma tiħux kunfidenza miegħu’ : the need for succession planning within pyrotechnic voluntary organisations Authors: Scicluna, Alan Abstract: While the fireworks sector has been largely researched from an anthropological perspective, no research has yet looked at the management and legal issues related to the passing on of leadership roles to future generations within the field, also known as succession planning. This study aims to address this gap by focusing on the management and legal issues related to succession planning in fireworks factories within the Maltese context. Traditionally, the fireworks voluntary sector was, and is still, highly active in Malta (Bossevain, 1974; Farrugia, 2012). Indeed, the structure, composition and culture of voluntary organisations are significant (Anderson & Kotler, 2008) because they cherish strong social kinships based on intergenerational loyalty (Blouet, 1989). However, lack of succession planning within pyrotechnic societies has proved to be problematic due to psychological and managerial constraints. 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58882 Title: Interest groups and wicked problems : the case of water policy Authors: Vella, Cleavon Abstract: This study investigates the influence that interest groups have on government, taking the wicked problem of water policy as a context, as it offers a unique platform to explore interest group influence. The notion concerning wicked problem has been pioneered by urban planners Rittel and Webber (1973: 160)1 who elucidated that ‘the kinds of problems that planners deal with – societal problems – are inherently different from the problems that scientists deal with, describing them as ‘inherently wicked’, including ‘nearly all public policy issues’. 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58881 Title: Influences of late modernity on youth career development : a pilot study Authors: Barbara-Cardona, Josette Abstract: The contemporary youth generation is an age band which is striving in a late modern society. Late modernity, as a concept, is characterised by the ‘reconfiguration of modernity’s institutions and its social, cultural and political forms through processes associated with globalization, detraditionalization and individualisation’ (Heaphy, 2007: 69). Historically, the term Modernity has evolved due to social changes happening in Europe from the seventeenth century onwards (Giddens, 1990). Ultimately, such social changes were rippled across the world; establishing new socio-cultural and economic shifts (Hall, Held and McLennan, 1992). 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58880 Title: Educating public officers for sustainability : bridging the knowledge-to-action gap Authors: Cassar, Clinton Abstract: Sustainable development is one of the most contested terms in recent years that has been clichéd and over-used in a plethora of spheres, many times to curry favour with various stakeholders. Despite all this, relieving the plight of many issues inflicting the world such as climate change, economic instability, poverty and migration requires a vision that envisages equity not only for the current generation but also for future ones. This mantra is embodied in the philosophy of sustainable development, which gained impetus since the formulation of the Brundtland Report in 1987. Subsequently, it established itself in many international and local fora, as an answer to the relentless environmental problems that the world has been facing. 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z