The Real Estateisation of Marsascala?

 Tourism, Real Estate, and Urban Pressures: The case of Marsascala, Malta -  

Paper by Agius Karl, Briguglio Michael and Bermúdez Pérez Jorge Luis -  published in Open Research Europe -  an open access publishing venue for European Commission-funded researchers.

This paper examines the urban transformation of Marsascala, a coastal town in Malta, through the lens of tourism development and its social repercussions. Engaging with Young’s (1983) model of touristization and landscape change, and drawing from qualitative interviews, field observations, orthophoto analysis, and secondary data, the study traces the town’s evolution from a fishing village to a site of intensive tourism consolidation. Findings reveal how population growth—driven by tourism and foreign labour—has led to overdevelopment, infrastructural strain, and a declining quality of life. Building on empirical insights, the authors propose a novel seventh stage in Young’s model: real estateisation, wherein real estate speculation and short-term rentals reconfigure coastal localities beyond tourism. Marsascala thus becomes a case study in understanding the entanglements between tourism, migration, housing, and urban change. The paper contributes to debates on sustainable tourism, the Blue Economy, and the need for integrated social impact assessments in coastal governance.This paper is linked to the EU Cost Action CA221222 Rethinking the Blue Economy: Socio-Ecological Impacts and Opportunities (RethinkBlue), in relation to the themes covered by Working Group 3 - Port cities & coastal communities.

Link to paper: https://open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/4-183/v2

Map prepared for the authors by Andrea Pace

New Publication: Rethinking the Blue Economy: Integrating social science for sustainability and justice

The following open access article has just been published in Nature journal NPJ Ocean Sustainability:

Penca, J., Ertör, I., Ballesteros, M., Briguglio, M., Kowalewski, M., Pauksztat, B.,Cepić, D., Piñeiro-Corbeira, C., Vaidianu, N.,  Villasante,S. & Pascual-Fernández, JJ. (2025) Rethinking the Blue Economy: Integrating social science for sustainability and justice. npj Ocean Sustain 4, 40. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-025-00138-1

The article argues that to fulfill the Blue Economy’s promise of sustainable and just ocean use, its scientific foundation must more fully integrate the social sciences. Drawing on insights from real-world scientific networking initiatives, we identify three key contributions of the social sciences and propose a strategy to redefine the Blue Economy. This strategy anchors knowledge in societal challenges and emphasizes co-creation, the science-policy interface, knowledge integration, and the values of accountability and care.

This article is based upon work from COST Action CA22122 “Rethinking the Blue Economy: Socio-Ecological Impacts and Opportunities” (RethinkBlue), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).