Jon P. Mitchell

The nostalgic construction of community: Memory and social identity in Urban Malta

This paper examines local peoples memories of a Maltese urban community that was demolished in the 1970s. The memories create an idealised, nostalgic picture of community harmony and solidarity prior to the demolition, but also apportion blame for its subsequent destruction. The paper argues that in such situations of physical displacement and/or social dislocation, this nostalgic process serves as a strategic resource that not only produces order and identity, but also creates legitimate moral claims against the state. The paper thereby contributes to ongoing debates about the relationship between local identity and wider political and economic processes.

Looking Forward to the Past: National Identity and History in Malta

Critiques of the essentialising tendencies of nationalist discourse are well established in the social sciences—particularly in anthropology. This article builds on the calls for a more processual approach to national identity. It focuses not only on the problematic essentialism of discourses of national identity, but also on their inherent teleology. Social scientists have shared with nationalists a view of national identity as a problem that needs to be solved, and in doing so have adopted a teleological view that assumes that at some point in the future resolution is both possible and desirable. Picking up on recent theorisations of identity, the article argues that identity is inherently irresolvable, and for this reason we are better off investigating not the content of particular national identities, but the processes through which identities are debated—or indeed identity itself as a category is debated. The article concerns national identity in Malta, particularly the role of historians in articulating the identity debates. It links controversies within the historical community to the distinctive polarities of Maltese party politics, which developed in colonial Malta and continue into the post-colonial era. Although initially concerned with defining the content of national identity, political and historical debate shifted in the late twentieth century to focus on how it should be defined—and indeed whether identity was a useful category for describing Malta and its people. The article argues that this shift from content to process should be acknowledged by analysts of national identity, who should revise their analyses accordingly.

Defence and attack: empire, nation and resistance in inter-war football in Malta

A nations politics and socio-cultural identity can sometimes be best considered through the lens of Association Football (soccer). Examining football in the Mediterranean island of Malta in the inter-war years of 1920–1940 this paper focuses its analysis on the phenomenon that is the game of football and the epi-phenomena it provokes and sustains. In the tiny archipelago that constitutes the Maltese islands, the game as it was played and administered in this era had implications for the British colonialists, the refugees that fled Central Europe for Maltese shores and the indigenous Maltese peoples. In these years the game was played out amidst, variously, the islands unique party politics, intra-district rivalries, and historical considerations of reputation and social class. It was also to become integral to the contestations around anti-colonial sentiment and the debates over national identity. The game in Malta was thus a facilitator of both local and global processes and played an understated role in the pursuit of independence. This examination of the specific Maltese context may well shed light upon broader processes within the international game which lies at the intersection of the global and the local.

Making the Maltese Cross: Football on a Small Island

Even in a winner-loser culture that is football, it is in the interests of the good of the game that frequent losers sometimes win. At the level of world competition small nations know their chances of victory against larger ones are negligible, but their fans will expect the occasional drawn game and certainly a victory over countries of similar standing. When such logic does not realise itself, problems set in; the spectators become disconsolate. As we write in 1998, the followers of the Maltese national side are some of the most disconsolate fans in the world. A World Cup qualifying campaign was concluded in September 1997 with Malta having lost all 12 games, conceded 37 goals and scored only two. Consecutive 6–0 defeats at the hands of Yugoslavia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic might have been expected, but losing home and away to the Faroe Islands (population 43,000) was not.

Church and State in Malta

On 1st May 2004, Malta joined the European Union (EU) as one of ten ‘enlargement’ countries. Expanding eastwards and southwards, the EU embraced Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta. Malta is unique among the states of the newly-expanded EU in having a Constitution that formally protects and favours a particular Church — the Roman Catholic: “Chapter 1 (Article 2): (1) The religion of Malta is the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion. (2) The authorities of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church have the duty and the right to teach which principles are right and which are wrong. (3) Religious teaching of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Faith shall be provided in all State schools as part of compulsory education “ (Constitution of Malta, 1964; substituted by: LVIII. 1974.4).

Sensational Religion: Sensory Cultures in Material Practice

This is a big book, by any measure. With over 700 pages and 37 chapters, it covers an awful lot of ground. It is intellectually weighty, demonstrating the depth of analysis necessary to understand ...