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This essay presents a reflective narrative on an innovative approach taken to create an open, "free" space in which to share ideas and discuss the theme "Spaces of Affectivity" across the disciplines of arts, humanities, and geography with a focus on the exploration and negotiation of socio-spatial cultural productions of identity. These reflections are based on the planning of two symposia held in 2014 and 2015 under the title Spaces of Affectivity at Liverpool Hope University with the remit of encouraging scholars to stand in their own space and engage with cross-disciplinary discourse. What emerged was a deepening awareness of cross-disciplinary commonalities of spatial discourse that can lead to interfaces between material experience and the human imagination. At its heart is a truly spatial matter which shows the importance of paying careful attention to the mutually influencing forces of human embodiment and the contextualizing environment of nature and cosmos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper explores the under-researched intersections between the trajectories of luxury waterfront property led development and changing contemporary tourism product supply and offer. A case study approach is used and positioned within the context of mediatised, financialised neoliberal capitalism and interpreted through the lens of critical theory. It focuses on prestige property developments in Malta and on how tourists are being given the opportunity of 'buying into' the lifestyles of the affluent elite. Qualitative bricolage methods are utilised. The study argues that the adaptive reuse of luxury property by tourists is stalling potential waterfront development decline. Through conspicuous consumption and the search for status symbolism by tourists, economic resilience is strengthened. The significance of this case study is that it introduces this particular tourism property relationship as a new area of research and opens up opportunities for further conceptualisation and theoretical contexts. Highlights • Intersections between waterfront property development and tourism product in Malta. • Use of qualitative bricolage approach. • Adaptive reuse of luxury property as mechanism for bolstering economic resilience. • Links the stalling of waterfront development decline to tourism-led repositioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper calls for scholars to consider and reflect on the potential advantages of the application of a holistic bricolage approach within a wider range of research contexts including disaster-risk reduction (DRR). We introduce holistic bricolage as a sixth dimension of bricolage and bricoleur expertise in addition to the other already established five dimensions. We propose holistic bricolage as a practical, 'full' approach applied from project creation to write up, which is capable of supporting transdisciplinary research in settings with diverse data and complex social interactions, such as those found in disaster-risk reduction research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: International images emanating from Malta’s tourism authorities are of a tourism product typified by quality accommodation, attractive aesthetics, urban environment and design, and the proximity of cultural attractions. The transformation of the resort of Bugibba to meet the demands of these markets and to maintain competitiveness presents many, diverse challenges. The prevailing atmosphere within the resort during the first decade of the 21st century is of a town that is striving to find its contemporary identity. In common with many resorts it appears a faded reflection of its 1970s heyday and is striving to revitalise its fortunes. However, Bugibba’s position as a tourist resort has been shaped by Malta’s National Tourism Plans since 1989, and it is contended here that these plans are contributing to the resort’s decline. Rethinking Bugibba’s next phases of development is bringing about change. Meeting upmarket expectations and image provides a national steer for Bugibba, and the nature of its tourism product has started to alter, albeit slowly. However, to change perceptions of it as a traditional mass-tourism resort will be harder to achieve, and may be made even more difficult during the period of transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper describes research carried out in the late 1950s and 1960s by teams from the University of Durham and the University of Malta. • The aim was to provide information to assist the process of post-independence economic development in Malta. • At the time this was one of the most generously funded and multi-faceted land-use based projects to be undertaken by a British geography department. • The paper provided a model for further studies in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions. • Applied research was conceived in terms of the provision of information upon which decisions makers could formulate policy. • The principal researchers eschewed any attempt to influence or suggest particular policy directions. In the 1950s the University of Durham was involved in a number of separate externally-funded projects that were aimed at assessing Malta's potential for development after it became independent from the United Kingdom. Following a pilot study, a group led by W.B. Fisher of the Department of Geography together with a team from the University of Malta, obtained what at the time were substantial funds from the Colonial Office's Colonial Economic Research Committee (CERC). Concurrently K.C. Dunham, Head of the Department of Geology, successfully obtained support from British Petroleum to carry out a geological survey, while a soil survey was separately commissioned. As well as marking the first of what was to become an established tradition of applied development projects in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, the Durham Geography Department also used its growing profile of external funding to stimulate an expansion of both its teaching and its research, so as to become one of the largest departments in the United Kingdom. Reflecting the zeitgeist of the time, Fisher and his colleagues viewed applied research, not only as an academic exercise but also as a route to human betterment, and perceived the researchers' task as providing information and policy options upon which decisions makers may formulate policy. They eschewed any attempt to fully consider different development strategies. However, some younger researchers in their later outputs and doctoral theses adopted a more critical approach about the options for Malta's future. The principal issue raised by Durham team was a concern that post-independence Malta was facing a Malthusian trap in which the islands would not have a sufficiently productive resource base to support its growing population. Over the past six decades the trap has been avoided because of a growing economy, but today pressures of people on resources are once more acute and a case is made for a second land-use survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]