Conservative and liberal family social movements in Malta: what motivates their activists?

Tonna, Jonathan. (2019). Conservative and liberal family social movements in Malta : what motivates their activists? (Bachelor’s dissertation, Sociology, University of Malta)

The main ambition of this dissertation by Jonathan Tonna was to help uncover what motivated activists to join local family social movements in Malta. This research was carried out by means of face-to-face interviews with 9 different local activists and using an interpretive approach. The recruitment of key respondents for this study was based on Volunteer and Snowball sampling.

Indeed, the study is based on 3 main research questions, characterising the main themes emerging from the research; 1) What motivates activists to join and keep active in a family social movement in Malta? 2) Do their social experiences and networks motivate their decision? and; 3) How do Liberal and Conservative local family activists differ from each other?

As a result of the responses, the leading conclusion which emerged from this research is that amongst other motivations; their social experiences, social inequality, religiosity, embeddedness and entrustment were crucial motivators for them to join and keep active in local family social movements. Moreover, this research highlights some essential differences between Liberal and Conservative activists with regards to their vigour and motivation to become activists. Additionally, the research also underlines some commonalities between the respective two, such as being motivated through their social networks and their social experiences.

Asked whether he would like to add anything, Tonna told us 

"I would definitely mention the author’s wish to delve more into the financial aspect of social movements, especially with regards to their connection and links with mega corporations and other big sponsorships. This sheds light on many questions regarding motivation which stems from monetary incentives and hence why movements are perhaps formed in the first place. Much also is left to discover regarding online activism and recruitment in Malta with relation to family social movements." 

Online link to paper:  https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/49505