Michael Briguglio contributes to research on port cities

Valletta among six port cities analysed by COST researchers, including Michael Briguglio

A team of international academics from the EU-funded COST Action CA22122 – RethinkBlue has carried out a study visit at the Department of Marine Sciences, University of the Aegean (Lesbos, Greece) to advance research on six European port cities: Porto, Cork, Venice, Valletta, Santorini, and Dubrovnik.

Led by Working Group 3 “Port Cities and Coastal Communities”, the researchers — Alexandra Ćulibrk, Rania Tzoraki, Zacharoula Kyriazi, Senija Causevic, Tatiana Ruchinskaya, Polina Tourlioti, and Michael Briguglio — are examining the adaptive capacity of coastal areas for a sustainable Blue Economy.

The study highlights how resilience in port cities is not only technical or ecological, but also social and political, shaped by governance systems, institutional capacity, power dynamics, and competing visions of sustainability.

The broader aim of RethinkBlue is to critically assess the opportunities and impacts of the Blue Economy paradigm, generating new insights to strengthen its economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

Prof. Michael Briguglio is a member of the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Malta.