Home away from home? : an imaginary leisure community living on the edge in St. Thomas Bay

Abstract

Clusters of boathouses, with the original main purpose for boat storage, characterise the Maltese coastline in particular areas. In time these boathouses started to be utilised as second homes during the summer, more popularly known in Maltese as ‘kmamar’ i.e. beach rooms. Since the majority of the owners of these beach rooms are not in possession of land tenure rights and building permits, these structures are deemed to be illegal. In this study I shall be focusing on one of these particular settlements which is on the periphery of a southern Maltese domestic holiday resort: namely the St. Thomas bay coastal recreation area. This serves as a recreational home for domestic tourism, the residents of which have a variety of occupational backgrounds, however, their economic and cultural capital is broadly similar: their habitus is to a remarkable degree similar as is their world view. Fieldwork was carried out detailing daily life and experience of the residents in the settlement. To understand such second home meanings required an approach that looked at how leisure, work, dwelling and identity permeated one another and how these aspects of life are constructed across space and the life course. This study will try to show how these people interweave work and leisure to create a place of attachment, identity and continuity in a community.