The changing urban fabric of Siġġiewi

Abstract

The social and spatial organization of cities shapes the lives of the majority of the world's inhabitants. Urban scholars are concerned a great deal about the socio-spatial processes that create and organize cities and the ways in which these processes shape the lives of human beings and the environment around us. There are many valid, unexplored topics in line with the general exploration of the subject. The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between a number of processes shaping cities, including the changing urban morphology, spatial configuration, community formation, economic restructuring, segregation, social exclusion, the commercial colonization of public space, and the experiences of people living in those cities. The case study of Siġġiewi, a small village in Malta, tries to demonstrate specific relationships between form and society, either today or historically. Often these relationships are clearer under conditions of dramatic change. The twentieth century has brought significant changes in the urban morphology of the majority of the typical Maltese villages and consequently the analysis focuses on this era in the quest of shedding light on this relationship.