Small States & Territories Journal

Call for papers

Call for papers

Call for Papers: SST 8(1), May 2025

Cultural Heritage, Territory and Climate Resilience in
small island states and territories

A special section to appear in: Small States and Territories, 8(1), May 2025

Guest Editors: Stefano Moncada and Pedro Pombo

Islands and Small States Institute, University of Malta, Malta

Small island states and territories are particularly vulnerable to adverse impacts of climate change. However, insular and small states’ cultural heritages and local knowledge systems, intimately connected with the environment, are often absent in discussions regarding climate resilience.

While climate change impacts cultural and natural landscapes, traditional heritages and vernacular knowledges may provide answers to sustainable futures through established cultural systems, especially by integrating ecological preservation with socioeconomic development. However, there seems to be scarce evidence of such interactions in the existing body of knowledge, especially in the context of small states and territories, where the literature has focused more on models and solutions at a higher scale, often distant from where communities live.  

Small States & Territories journal (SST) invites contributions for a special section on Cultural heritage, territory and climate resilience, exploring the links between natural and cultural landscapes, vernacular knowledges and climate resilience, with a focus on small island states and territories. This includes, but is not limited to, the following themes:

  • heritage and climate resilience
  • cultural landscapes as heritage ecologies
  • vernacular knowledge systems and environmental conservation
  • climate change impacts on cultural heritage
  • traditional cultural attachments to landscape and sustainable development
  • histories of cultural and heritage circulations
  • imaginaries of sustainable futures in small island states and territories
  • disappearing and artificial territories.

We are interested in empirical research contributions that utilize a variety of research methods (qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods). In all these contributions, authors must engage directly with the implications of small insular state (or territory) size and scale.

To be eligible for consideration, please submit an abstract of a maximum of 300 words to Guest Editors, Dr Stefano Moncada at stefano.moncada@um.edu.mt and Dr Pedro Pombo at pedro.sobral-pombo@um.edu.mt. The abstract should include the author(s) name, affiliation, the title of the proposed study, up to five keywords, and the corresponding email address. All manuscripts will be rigorously peer-reviewed.

All details regarding the SST house style can be found at: www.um/edu.mt/sst

Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: 15 March 2024
Deadline for notification of acceptance/rejection of abstract: 1 April 2024
Deadline for complete draft submission to Guest Editors: 15 July 2024
Publication (Online; Open Access): May 2025

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About the journal: Launched in 2018, Small States & Territories (SST) has its institutional home at the Islands and Small States Institute of the University of Malta. All articles published in SST are rigorously peer-reviewed. SST is committed to the principles of open access (OA) publishing, as outlined in the IFLA Statement on Open Access to Scholarly Literature and Research Documentation. SST is a Diamond Open Access journal, with no processing charges or fees.


https://www.um.edu.mt/sst/callforpapers/