Maltese academic, activist and former politician Michael Briguglio has announced his appointment as an Associate Editor of the prestigious International Social Science Journal, which was originally founded by UNESCO in 1949 and is today a leading peer-reviewed academic journal published by global publishers Wiley.

Dr Briguglio, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology within the University of Malta’s Faculty of Arts, has published various scholarly books and articles, and his main research interests are environmental sociology, political sociology, and social movements.

He is also holds official roles within the Malta Sociological Association and Research Network 25 - Social Movements, within the European Sociological Association.

He took to Facebook to announce the appointment, describing it as a “proud moment”.

A former politician, Dr Briguglio was an early member of the Moviment Graffitti activist group and later sat on the Sliema Local Council for over 10 years as one of the few elected representatives of Alternattiva Demokratika, Malta's Green Party. He became Chairperson of the party and eventually led it to its best ever result in 2013. 

He subsequently joined the Nationalist Party, but has since quit politics entirely to focus on his academic work. 

The International Social Science Journal (ISSJ) says it “bridges social science communities across disciplines and continents, focusing particularly on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work that pushes the boundaries of current approaches, both applied and theoretical”.

Finding its roots in the UN culture, science and education organ shortly after World War II, the ISSJ has since grown into a forum for innovative review, reflection and discussion informed by recent and ongoing international, social science research.

It provides a home for work that has implications across the disciplines and beyond the academy.

The quarterly ISSJ’s next issue is titled Technology-enabled circular economy as a Driver for improving Sustainability Approach in Production and Consumption Patterns, and seeks to create an insightful and critical discussion about how technology-enabled circular economy contributes to the Sustainable Development Goal on responsible consumption and production.

It is inviting articles integrating a system perspective (economic, social and environmental interconnectedness) and addressing topics from the conceptualisation to execution of a circular economy with technological Innovation at micro, meso, and macro levels.