Economic reform when institutional quality is weak: The case of the Maghreb

Institutional improvement can be a very slow and uncertain process when institutional quality is weak. In the meantime, countries have launched far-reaching economic reforms whose success is predicated on a large investment response. However, the uncertainties attending institutional reform can raise perceptions of risk, thereby muting investment responses. Using new values of institutional quality for three Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), which we derive from fuzzy-set based transformations on freedom indices, we show that moving from low institutional quality to a stage of ‘partial improvement’ may reduce income per capita, with financial and trade reforms having unintended negative effects.     

Navigating Israeli citizenship: how do Arab-Palestinian teachers civicize their pupils?

This study examines citizenship education in Israel from the point of view of Arab teachers, as they rework and negotiate the content and boundaries of their Israeli citizenship. Specifically, the paper studies how teachers of citizenship education in Arab high schools in Israel perceive their sociopolitical reality, how they respond to it in their classrooms, and how they conceptualize Israeli citizenship for their pupils. In doing so, the paper ponders the pedagogical strategies and emphases of these teachers, as they mediate the citizenship education curriculum, with its heavy emphasis on the ethno-national character of Israel, to their Arab pupils.     

Gateway cities for transnational higher education? Doha,Dubai and Ras al-Khaimah as regional amplifiers in networks of the ‘global knowledge-based economy’

This paper investigates how the developmental ambitions of governments to attract university offshore campuses to Doha, Dubai and Ras al-Khaimah and these universities’ internationalization strategies affect the three cities’ positionalities. It links interdisciplinary literature on globally uneven geographies of higher education to geographical debates on the intermediating role of cities in regional and global economies. The paper conceptualizes the three cities as a triadic ensemble of gateways for transnational higher education (TNE), thereby contributing to further theorization of gateway cities. The paper shows that the three cities fulfil two crucial gateway functions. First, they connect internationalizing universities with particular student segments from their regional hinterlands seeking access to TNE. Second, they thereby amplify and disperse hegemonic regimes of the globalising knowledge-based economy in their regional hinterlands. While all three cities share similar functions and rationales, they also have distinct positionalities rooted in different strategies of the respective governments.     

Knowledge and Correlates of Osteoporosis: A Comparison of Israeli-Jewish and Israeli-Arab Women

ABSTRACT

The present study examined levels and correlates of knowledge about osteoporosis among 176 Israeli-Jewish (mean age = 55) and 80 Israeli-Arab (mean age = 51) women. Levels of knowledge about the disease were low among all women, especially regarding some of the risk factors. Knowledge and awareness about the disease were especially deficient among Arab women. Younger age and lower education were the main vulnerability factors among Jewish women, and lower desire to seek information from the medical establishment, higher religiosity, and the lack of extended medical insurance among Arab women. Educational programs, geared to the needs and capabilities of the different ethnic populations, should be encouraged.     

The First Ladies and the Arab Spring: A textual analysis of the media coverage of the female counterparts of authoritarian oppression in the Middle East

In textually analyzing the media coverage of the First Ladies of the Arab Spring, this paper argues that the media's approach to understanding the role of women in the structures of political power in the Middle East is often either too simplistic or too driven by a desire to exoticize the East, making it even harder to visualize and imagine the face of real female political empowerment in the region. While demonizing and condemning the greed of Leila Ben-Ali and Suzanne Mubarak in the immediate aftermath of the protests, prior to the Arab Spring, the Western media also glorified the presidential wives and royalty, such as Asma Al-Assad and Queen Rania, as symbolizing reform and openness to change, and in doing so, revealed an Oriental gaze that dichotomizes the gendered nature of politics and effectively denies the possibility of examining the complexities of women's political engagement in the Middle East.     

Practicing Clinical Psychology in the Egyptian Cultural Context: Some Personal Experiences

This article delineates the historical background specifying the academic conditions within which my clinical experience evolved. Three main themes guided this development: (a) creating the academic context deemed necessary for acknowledging and supporting clinical psychology as a discipline in Egypt, (b) shaping with care the ensuing relationship with psychiatrists, (c) carefully figuring out an adequate orientation to guide decisions concerning the administration of available techniques of assessment and treatment to Egyptian clients. Such an orientation had to be based on an insightful balance and compromise between considerations of proper methodology and pressures of practicality. Some provisional solutions are discussed.     

Youth mobilisations and political generations: young activists in political change movements during and since the twentieth century

This paper uses political generations theory to examine the main youth mobilisations during and since the twentieth century: pre-1939 fascist and communist movements; the student movements of the 1960s and 70s; movements that challenged colonial and neo-colonial rulers in less developed countries and young people's involvement in the revolutions that saw the end of communism in East-Central and South-East Europe in 1989. Conclusions from this review of the past are used in considering the likely significance of subsequent outbursts of political activism among young people: the ‘colour revolutions’ and other instances of youth mobilisation in former Soviet republics and other ex-communist countries; the Arab Spring and the series of movements that have challenged neo-liberalism – Anti-Globalisation, the Indignados and the Occupy movements. The paper notes that youth mobilisations that have led to the formation of new political generations that have changed their countries' politics then transformed the countries have typically extended over several decades, that initially youthful leaders have sometimes been middle-aged or older before achieving political power and that many of their actions on achieving power have been at variance with their youthful ideals. In conclusion, it is argued that it is still too early to tell whether any of the recent youth mobilisations signal the formation of new political generations.     

中阿合作论坛与国际、地区变革

本文从中阿合作论坛第一个十年的目标与成就、国际形势变化中的中阿合作论坛、中阿合作论坛与中东剧变等角度展开论述,并基于此论述得出以下重要结论：即中阿间历史悠久的文明、文化交流是双方友好交往史的起点;中阿间官民并举、积极合作具有必要性与迫切性;“论坛”的建立是全球化挑战下中阿关系发展的战略性步伐。过去十年间,中阿关系稳步发展,“论坛”为将彼此关系提升到战略合作层面发挥了重要的基础作用。今天,为古代中阿丝绸之路注入新的活力已成为新的命题,这需要双方全面、长久的战略合作,需要兼顾中阿关系的发展,适应国际形势的变幻。“论坛”在重构丝绸之路,建立经济繁荣、文化互动的中阿战略关系方面,有着义不容辞的责任与义务。     

阿拉伯视野中的中国形象评估

在古代阿拉伯人的心目中,遥远的中国地大物博,国泰民安,是令人向往的礼仪之邦。十六至十九世纪,阿拉伯世界沦为奥斯曼帝国的一部分,再加之中国明王朝的海禁政策和清王朝的闭关锁国政策,中阿双方的交流基本中断。新中国建立后,经六十余年的接触与交往,阿拉伯民众对中国的了解越来越深刻,在现代阿拉伯人的视野中,中国是一个讲信用的政治大国、负责任的军事大国、富有魅力的文化大国和迅速崛起的经济大国。     

Economic liberalization in Egypt: A way to reduce the shadow economy?

This study examines the relationship between economic liberalization and the size of the shadow economy in Egypt. We use annual data from 1976 to 2013 and show that economic liberalization policies in Egypt have a statistically significant decreasing effect on the size of the shadow economy as a percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This effect is confirmed for both short- and long-term oriented economic liberalization policies. Based on our results, policies which promote trade and economic liberalization can reduce the extension of the shadow economy in Egypt. Therefore, we suggest conditioning international development assistance to Egypt on demonstrable policy actions with respect to economic liberalization.