Space and society : through the lens of the Qormi marketplace

Abstract

Markets have existed since the Bronze Age, when people gathered and traded, buying and selling goods and services in public spaces mainly in the city’s urban centres. This research delves into the undiscovered topic of the Maltese outdoor marketplaces, also known as il-monti. The principal research aims to investigate the influence of the open-air marketplace as a temporary physical and social space in a public setting and to understand how space and society work, through an analysis of the monti. The combination of ‘go-along’ walking interviews and PGIS mapping, allowed for quantitative and qualitative data to be gathered from the open-air marketplace of Ħal Qormi. People who chose to take part in this research were of different ages, backgrounds and cultures, their main common thread being that they were frequent visitors to the marketplace. The diverse thoughts, emotions and observations made by the participants and myself about the open-air marketplace, were recorded highlighting how they perceived public space. Key results show that every participant had a mental map of the marketplace, consisting of habits and routines marking their everyday practices. The social ties between the visitors themselves and the relationships with the hawkers of the marketplace emerged, revealing a tight-knit community with a strong sense of place. It also underlined the value of the marketplace for the visitors alongside their concerns about the decreased use in the space due to economic and social shifts in our society. The PGIS system revealed the benefits of collecting and recording the community’s opinion about the space as a useful tool when planning better policies or implementing new urban projects in the neighbourhood.