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

Book Review: Turkish Politics and ‘the People’ – Mass Mobilisation and Populism, written by Spyros A. Sofos

The latest edition of academic journal Protest includes the following book review which I have written.

Briguglio, M. (2024). Turkish Politics and ‘the People’ – Mass Mobilisation and Populism, written by Spyros A. Sofos. Protest, 4(1), 103-106. https://doi.org/10.1163/2667372X-bja10055

Link:

https://brill.com/view/journals/prot/4/1/article-p103_008.xml

UM OAR: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/120225

New Publication: The Daphne Protests at the end of 2019. A Chronology - Michael Briguglio

My latest peer-reviewed article, 'The Daphne Protests at the end of 2019 - A Chronology' has just been published in the Social Conflict Yearbook 2019, by the Observatory of Social Conflict, University of Barcelona.

The article (in English) may be accessed and downloaded from this link:

Las protestas por el asesinato de Daphne Caruana. Una cronología | Briguglio | Anuario del Conflicto Social (ub.edu)

Abstract: This article deals with the escalation of protests in Malta concerning the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia at the end of 2019. The well attended protests continued the trend of civil society activism since the murder of the journalist in 2017. They were characterised by the creation of a broad coalition of social movement organisations, and the eventual resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. 

Keywords: Malta, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Civil Society, Joseph Muscat, Social Movements, Protest

Reference: Briguglio, Michael (2020): The Daphne Protests at the end of 2019 - A Chronology. In: Social Conflict Year Book. Observatory of Social Conflict: Barcelona DOI: 10.1344/ACS2020.10.11

My full list of academic publications can be accessed here:

Michael Briguglio's Blog: My sociological publications (mikes-beat.blogspot.com)

Checking Malta’s Powerful Prime Minster through Constitutional Reforms - Michael Briguglio

My article 'Checking Malta’s Powerful Prime Minster through Constitutional Reforms'.  has been published in ConstitutionNet. 

You can read the article here. 

This is a follow up of my previous article on the matter published in 2017.  

ConstitutionNet is project created to support legislators, constitutional lawyers and other constitutional practitioners in finding useful and relevant information, sharing knowledge and building a community of best practice. ConstitutionNet is an International IDEA (an IGO headquartered in Sweden) project developed and maintained with generous support from the Government of Norway.
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization that supports sustainable democracy worldwide. Its mission is to support sustainable democratic change by providing comparative knowledge, and assisting in democratic reform, and influencing policies and politics.

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

Panama Papers & Malta: In the European Atlas of Democratic Deficit

My article 'Panama Papers and Malta' has been published in the European Atlas of Democratic Deficit. The article discusses the implications of this issue on the 2017 general election and was written before the brutal murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The Atlas may be downloaded from this link:  

https://www.liberalforum.eu/publications/european-atlas-of-democratic-deficit/

Reference: Briguglio, Michael (2017): Panama Papers and Malta. In M. Hodun (Ed.): European Atlas of Democratic Deficit. (Poland: European Liberal Forum), pp.64-67.

Reforming Malta’s constitution to enhance the independence of ‘fourth’ branch institutions - Michael Briguglio

My article 'Reforming Malta’s constitution to enhance the independence of ‘fourth’ branch institutions'  has been published in ConstitutionNet.  

ConstitutionNet is project created to support legislators, constitutional lawyers and other constitutional practitioners in finding useful and relevant information, sharing knowledge and building a community of best practice. ConstitutionNet is an International IDEA (an IGO headquartered in Sweden) project developed and maintained with generous support from the Government of Norway.

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization that supports sustainable democracy worldwide. Its mission is to support sustainable democratic change by providing comparative knowledge, and assisting in democratic reform, and influencing policies and politics.

You can read the article here.

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

Paper by Briguglio and Pace on PL in "The Palgrave Handbook of Social Democracy in the European Union"‏

Michael Briguglio’s and Roderick Pace's paper on Labour Party features in the “The Palgrave Handbook of Social Democracy in the European Union”.

“The Palgrave Handbook of Social Democracy”, edited by Edited by Jean-Michel de Waele, Fabien Escalona and Mathieu Vieira, includes a chapter on Malta co-authored by Roderick Pace (Director, Institute of European Studies) and Michael Briguglio (Department of Sociology) from the University of Malta.

More information on the book may be found at


http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=649658