https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/76450 Thu, 09 Apr 2026 06:31:12 GMT 2026-04-09T06:31:12Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/78704 Title: Societas.Expert : issue 1 Abstract: The faculty for social wellbeing research magazine for academics, students, alumni, stakeholders and the general public in collaboration with corporate dispatch.; 1/ Editorial - Andrew Azzopardi & Jesmond Saliba -- 2/ Profile of the Faculty -- 3/ Community people in general are social 'animals' so they tend to congregate in groups, communities - JosAnn Cutajar -- 4/ Dialogue & conflict - Gordon Sammut -- 5/ Service delivery - Patricia Bonello -- 6/ Researching loneliness: the relevance of mixed-methods approaches - Jame Bonnici -- 7/ Loneliness - a modern epidemic - Natalie Kenely -- 8/ Housing in Malta: the cultural goals vs. institutionalised means conundrum - Maria Brown -- 9/ Homelessness - Ann Marie Cutajar -- 10/ On mental health and homelessness - Paulann Grech -- 11/ Raising the threshold: towards the professionalisation of residential child caregivers - Marian Muscat Azzopardi -- 12/ Staff academic profiles Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/78704 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/78703 Title: Editorial Abstract: The Faculty for Social Wellbeing has embarked on a new initiative, in collaboration with Corporate Dispatch, of publishing our first ever Faculty Research Magazine, in the Societas.Expert series. This publication is intended to provide several short research papers, this time around, focused on social welfare. Apart from that, this Research Magazine will also serve as a resource providing for information and contact details of most of our academic staff and research officers. This is another loop in our commitment towards democratising our knowledge but also reaching out to society with empirical data and reflections on some engaging areas around social wellbeing. This edition will be converging some important debates around service provision, dialogue and conflict, taking loneliness and homelessness as two major issues that require our immediate attention. Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/78703 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/78702 Title: Profile of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing Abstract: The Faculty for Social Wellbeing was established by the University of Malta Council in July 2012. The setting up of our Faculty has brought together several UM entities which address different aspects of ‘social wellbeing’. Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/78702 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/78701 Title: Community people in general are social ‘animals’ so they tend to congregatein groups, communities Abstract: A community consists of a group of individuals or families that share certain values, interests, services, institutions, and/or geographical proximity. Fellin (2001) defines ‘community’ as a functional special unit that meets people’s sustenance needs, leads them to form collective identities, and facilitates social interaction. Communities are not limited to neighbourhoods, but include professional groups, enthusiasts of a particular local, national, or global sport, diasporas, and/or online communities. Some communities are linked to a place, online ones are linked to a particular location in cyber space. Diasporas feel an emotional belonging to a geographic space which they might or might not have visited physically. Netting, Kettner, McMurtry, & Thomas (2017) maintain that one of the characteristics of a community involves geographical proximity. Geographical proximity used to be a factor but nowadays, thanks to ICT, proximity can also occur through cyberspace. In Malta we still tend to identify with certain places and the communities (religious, political, leisure) linked to certain neighbourhoods or towns. Although geographical parameters between one locality or another might be hazy in certain areas of Malta – the Qormi, Hamrun, Sta. Venera and Albert Town areas being a case in point – a good number of Maltese feel an affinity with one locality or another. The Maltese like to use symbols to differentiate between communities, especially when these are found in the same locality. In Żabbar, for example, residents who support the philharmonic club referred to as tal-Baqra use the colour blue to distinguish themselves from the community referred to as ‘ta’ San Mikiel’, which uses the colour green to demonstrate their allegiance to this band club. At the same time, they are united by their allegiance to their patron saint, il-Madonna tal-Grazzja (Our Lady of Graces) which serves as a totemic symbol, a social glue to hold the different factions within the same locality together in spite of secularization. Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/78701 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z