New Publication: Twenty years of Malta’s EU membership : the impact on Maltese environmental NGOs

 Briguglio, Michael (2024). Twenty years of Malta’s EU membership : the impact on Maltese environmental NGOs. 20 Years of EU Membership Paper Series, 3-16. 

In this study, I analyse the impact of EU accession on Maltese Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (ENGOs), twenty years after Malta, the smallest EU-member state, joined the Union in 2004. In the run-up to EU accession, the environment was often seen as an area which would benefit from Malta’s EU membership, especially since Malta had a lack of environmental legislation and enforcement. Not surprisingly, Environmental NGOs (ENGOs) supported Malta’s EU accession. ENGOs are major protagonists in environmental politics in Malta. Their activism covers different areas, though some issues - most notably land development, and hunting of birds - are more visible and contentious in the public sphere. Environmental protest is also one of the most common types of protest in Malta.

I investigate the impacts of Malta’s European Union (EU) accession on Environmental NGOs (ENGOs) through a sociological perspective, following two decades of Malta’s accession. For this purpose, the activism of ENGOs in relation to Malta’s EU accession was analysed, through political process theory and a social constructionist approach which engaged with the interpretations of the same ENGOs on the issue under analysis. For this purpose, primary data was collected through elite interviews with representatives from Malta’s major ENGOs. The main research question of this study is “how do ENGOs interpret the impacts of the EU, 20 years after Malta’s accession?” 

The study is a follow-up of a similar study I had published following ten years of Malta’s EU membership. It forms part of the '20 Years of EU membership' paper series published by the Institute for European Studies, University of Malta. 

Download: https://www.um.edu.mt/media/um/docs/events/20yearseumembers/MichaelBriguglio.pdf

Publication of paper on Digital Activism, Physical Activism and Malta's Front Harsien ODZ

My research article 'Digital Activism, Physical Activism - Malta's Front Harsien ODZ' has been published in peer-reviewed journal Contention - The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest. 

This article analyzes the interaction between the digital (online) and physical (offline) activism of Front Harsien ODZ, a Maltese environmental movement organization. It looks into how Front activists perceive these forms of activism and verifies how important each form is to the organization. Consequently, the research presented herein is operationalized through interviews with Front activists and through participant observation from an insider’s point of view. This article concludes that activists within Front Harsien ODZ feel that they are part of a social network. The organization’s recruitment, mobilization and activism techniques are at once digital and physical. Most Front activists were already part of preexisting social networks before joining the Front, and the new Front network made good use of Malta’s political opportunity structures, including the Zonqor controversy; Malta’s small size; and the country’s vibrant media landscape.

Link: https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/contention/6/1/cont060104.xml

Publication of paper on Environmental NGO impacts on Climate Change Policy

My latest paper, ENGO Impacts on Climate Change Policy in European Malta, has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Sociology and Anthropology. 

This article analyzes the impacts of ENGOs with respect to Maltese climate change policy in an EU context. In particular, focus is made on the politics of climate change in Malta and the EU in the first five years following the country’s EU accession, which led to the setting of energy emissions targets by 2020. The main conclusion of this article is that ENGOs formed part of an EU-wide hegemonic formation on climate change, wherein a common position with binding emissions targets was reached. The common position was signified around the discourse of ecological modernization. EU multi-level governance provided an opportunity for ENGOs to put forward discourses for climate-change adaptation.

The paper may be downloaded  here. It is also available at Research Gate, Academia and the Open Access Repository, University of Malta. 

Dialogues of Sustainable Urbanisation: Social Science Research and Transitions to Urban Contexts

Dr Michael Briguglio and Dr Marie Briguglio, both from the University of Malta, feature in the ‘Dialogues of Sustainable Urbanisation’, which features 70 researchers from around the world in an online 7-month project known as ‘blog of blogs’ organised by the International Social Science Council (ISSC).

Michael Briguglio writes about ‘Malta's EU accession, environmental sustainability and ENGO activism’.
Marie Briguglio writes about ‘A finger on the pulse of happiness in an urbanised island context’

eBook version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3kFPPXBCcvjMkU5SWRzbXlKOUU/view
PDF version: http://researchdirect.uws.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:30908

More information:
Press Release: http://www.worldsocialscience.org/2015/08/70-researchers-7-months-1-book-dialogues-sustainable-urbanisation/

The book will be available in print version (at a cost) as soon as possible.

Reference: Condie, J., & Cooper, A. M. (2015). Dialogues of Sustainable Urbanisation: Social Science Research and Transitions to Urban Contexts. Penrith, N.S.W.: University of Western Sydney.

Twitter: #ISSCBookofBlogs

New Publication: Ten Years of Malta’s EU Membership – The Impact on Maltese Environmental NGOs

Michael Briguglio’s paper ‘‘Ten Years of Malta’s EU Membership - The Impact on Maltese Environmental NGOs’ has just been published online. It forms part of the 'Reflections on a Decade of EU Membership’ series as Occasional Paper 7/2015.

The paper that investigates the impact of Malta's European Union (EU) accession on Environmental NGOs (ENGOs). For this purpose, environmental politics in relation to Malta's EU accession are analysed.

To read the occasional paper click here: http://www.um.edu.mt/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/254713/Michael_Briguglio_Final.pdf

Citation: Michael Briguglio (2015). ‘Ten Years of Malta’s EU Membership - The Impact on Maltese Environmental NGOs.’ Reflections of a Decade of EU Membership: Expectations, Achievements, Disappointments and the Future Occasional Papers, No. 7, Institute for European Studies (Malta).

Publication of paper on Bird Hunting Referendum in Malta

My paper "The Bird Hunting Referendum in Malta" has been published in the international peer-reviewed academic journal 'Environmental Politics' (Routledge)

The paper can be accessed at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/nZHSMwpFy3a7cKtwAJWB/full


Reference: Briguglio, Michael (2015). The Bird Hunting Referendum in Malta. Environmental Politics, Vol. 24(5), pp.835-839
DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2015.1055880
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09644016.2015.1055880?ai=3cy1&ui=sgmf&af=T

My academic publications list can be checked out here:
http://malta.academia.edu/MichaelBriguglio

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Briguglio

New Publication: Bird Hunting in European Malta: A Case of ENGO Empowerment?

Dr Michael Briguglio’s paper entitled ‘ Bird Hunting in European Malta: A Case of ENGO Empowerment?’ has been published in the international academic publication: Liam Leonard, Sya Buryn Kedzior (ed.) Occupy the Earth: Global Environmental Movements (Emerald Group Publishing)

Abstract

This chapter analyses the politics of bird hunting in relation to the empowerment of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) in the European Union (EU), with specific reference to Malta’s first years of EU accession.

In particular, the analysis focuses on the activism of Maltese and International ENGOs – with special focus on Birdlife Malta and Birdlife International – on this issue, which is characterized by extensive EU legislation and by constant lobbying.

This chapter argues that ENGOs, both Maltese and European, were influential on State power in Malta, especially by resorting to the EU, and also being given prominence by the media. Yet the hunting lobby was influential too, and its influence on Malta’s main political parties is an overdetermining factor, which remained in place even after EU accession.

This chapter concludes that despite Malta’s EU accession, national political factors remain highly influential in the Maltese hunting issue, and that one can expect more antagonism in the years to come.

Reference: Michael Briguglio (2014), Bird Hunting in European Malta: A Case of ENGO Empowerment?, in Liam Leonard , Sya Buryn Kedzior (ed.) Occupy the Earth: Global Environmental Movements (Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice, Volume 15) Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.295 - 324

Keywords: Malta, environmental NGOs, bird hunting, EU, social movements, discourse theory

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/S2051-503020140000015012
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/book/10.1108/S2051-5030201415


Full list of Michael Briguglio's academic publications:
http://malta.academia.edu/MichaelBriguglio
www.michaelbriguglio.com

Publication of Paper: The Politics of Bluefin Tuna in Malta

My paper "The Politics of Bluefin Tuna in Malta" has been published in the international peer-reviewed academic journal 'Annuals of Marine Sociology'.

The paper can be read at:
http://rsm.czasopisma.pan.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=948:no-xxii-2013&catid=61:wydania&Itemid=183

Reference:
Briguglio, Michael (2013): The Politics of Bluefin Tuna in Malta. Roczniki Socjologii Morskiej. Annuals of Marine Sociology (2013), VOL. XXII. p51-61.

Abstract:
This paper analyzes the politics of bluefin tuna in Malta within the first years of EU accession (2004-9). The paper concludes that despite making certain impacts, ENGOs (environmental non-governmental organizations) were unsuccessful in creating a hegemonic formation to stop the fishing of bluefin tuna until stocks recover.

My academic publications list can be checked out here:
http://malta.academia.edu/MichaelBriguglio

Julian Manduca - A Maltese hero for our times

In a feature by Jurgen Balzan, Malta Today newspaper asked me to write something in dedication of a Maltese personality who I consider to be a hero. This is what I wrote.

Julian Manduca (1958-2005)

Julian was one of the persons who I looked up to in my youth, back in the 1990s when I co-founded Moviment Graffitti with others including James Debono. I actually got to know him some years before, during a party at my parents' place, which usually were attented by bohemian intellectuals and artists. Before Julian joined Malta Today to become one of the prominent critical journalists in Malta, I remember him as a charismatic left-wing environmentalist, a liberal on civil rights, and a committed activist who formed part of the alternative cultural scene. Julian spoke on many issues, especially environmental ones, ahead of his time, and we worked together in campaigns such as the Front Kontra l-Hilton and the victorious Front Kontra l-Golf Kors. It is no understatement to consider Julian as a main influence on the 1980s and 1990s young generation in left-wing and environmental groups, beyond partisan dogma and careerism, and strongly believing that another world is possible