Assessing the use and influence of sustainability indicators at the European periphery

Abstract

tMalta is a member of the European Union (EU), but faces constraints unique to its status both as a smallisland nation and its geographical location on the periphery of the EU. Several initiatives to developsuites of sustainability indicators (SIs) have been attempted in the Maltese Islands over the past twodecades but there has been little corresponding follow-up to examine the extent to which such SIs areused by practitioners and influence policy. This paper presents an assessment of the use and influence ofSIs in Malta by drawing upon the results of two quite different means of enquiry: (i) a more traditionalapproach in the social sciences using semi-structured and one-to-one interviews conducted with keystakeholders involved with SIs in Malta, and (ii) an innovative participatory approach, called Triple Task(TT) implemented within a workshop context, where stakeholders were placed in teams and asked toexplore the use of SIs. Based upon the results obtained with these two methods of enquiry the paperprovides insights into the problems of adoption of SIs in Malta and makes the case that rather thanbeing seen as mutually exclusive, a combination of the two approaches provides a powerful means oftriangulation to what is a complex set of issues.