The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of principals toward educating handicapped students in the regular schools of Kuwait. The sample for this survey was composed of regular school principals in the State of Kuwait for the 1986-1987 school year. Of the 400 Principals, 229 principals were randomly selected. A 79.5% response was received. The survey instrument consisted of 40 statements to measure attitudes of individuals regarding acceptance of special education programs in regular school. A Likert-type scale was used to rate the perceived influence of each statement. Frequency, mean, standard deviation, t-test, analysis of variance, and chi-square were used to answer the study questions. The findings of the study indicated that 100 of the 182 principals identified positive attitudes toward serving handicapped students in the regular schools, there were no significant differences between male and female principals, but there were significant differences among principals at the three levels (elementary, intermediate, and secondary). / Ed. D.

The First Gulf War that took place in Kuwait in 1991 resulted in one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of mankind. Extreme pollution affected the soil, waters, and the air in Kuwait. In this research I try to look into how the Kuwaiti government reacted to those disasters policy wise since the end of the war. To assess the reaction of the Kuwaiti government I applied the concept of sustainable governance for its comprehensive nature that captures the complexity of environmental problems. The concept of sustainable governance has four objectives: Social objectives that aim at investing in human capitol and social capitol, Economic objectives that aim at forming economic policies in an environmentally friendly way, Environmental objectives that aim at implementing policies to protect the environment, and institutional objectives that aim at ensuring equality in government institutions. After surveying policies from the past 20 years, I conclude that the number of policies that were adopted by the Kuwaiti government to serve the 4 objectives of sustainable governance is small in size and substance. The Kuwaiti government failed to establish a policy regime to put Kuwait on a sustainable trajectory. / Graduation date: 2012

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Failure of high profile companies such as Enron, World.com had initiated a call for an investigation to analyse the reason for such radical consequence to prevent further similar financial crises. One of the common factors identified by the researchers is the poor disclosure, transparency and Corporate Governance (CG) mechanisms. Similar to the UK, the compliance towards CG codes are voluntary for the majority of the countries around the globe including Kuwait. CG codes aimed to improve the governance of a company including transparency. Thus, voluntary disclosure had been examined by numerous academics to emphasise the importance of accountability, transparency that in turn increase the confidence of investors and creditors in the financial markets of emerging economies. This thesis is based on Kuwait, as it is a resource rich country and attracts foreign investments. The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) issued instructions for CG mechanism especially to the financial sector in 2004. From the research in hand, there was no longitudinal study in Kuwait concerning the impact of GC mechanism to voluntary disclosure. The sample in this thesis consists of 155 Kuwaiti listed companies from 2007 to 2010, 620 firm-year observations. A self-constructed index was developed to evaluate the level of voluntary disclosure and how it developed over time. Both univariate analysis and multivariate analysis were used. Most of the thesis results were consistent with previous studies; there was a gradual increase in the level of voluntary disclosure and its categories over the observed period. All CG mechanisms findings revealed significant associations with voluntary disclosure, except board size and role duality, have a negative significant association. Ownership structure indicates insignificant association with voluntary disclosure. Firm characteristics have a significant positive association with voluntary disclosure, except profitability, has a significant negative association, while gearing is found an insignificant association. Furthermore, the level of voluntary disclosure in the financial sector is higher than the non-financial sector. The contributions to knowledge in this thesis are; 1) It is the first empirical longitudinal study in Kuwait concerning voluntary disclosure, and its relationship with GC mechanism, ownership structure and firm characteristics, as far as the researcher is aware. 2) It provided evidence of the importance of CG to enhancing the level of voluntary disclosure in Kuwait business environment, especially that the level of voluntary disclosure in the financial sector is higher than the non-financial sector. 3) Employed many quantitative methods, such as OSL regression, Normal score, GLS regression, Tobit regression and Quantile regression (divided into 25%, 50% and 75%). 4) A self-constructed index, which was developed in this thesis, could be suitable for other Arab Gulf countries that are similar in the business environment and experiencing the same economic changes. 5) Provides evidence of the possibility of employing the disclosure theories derived from developed countries in emerging countries. 6) It is possible to generalise the results of the disclosure index to other companies not investigated in this thesis. Moreover, this thesis implies that the legislative and regulatory authorities, in particular, the capital markets authority Kuwaiti, need to increase efforts to enhance the role of corporate governance practices in Kuwaiti listed companies.

Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey / This paper seeks to address the inclusion of Kuwaiti women as political actors. Kuwait held elections on May 16, 2009, and Moussoma al-Mubarak, Rola Dashti, Aseel al-Awadhi, and Salwa al-Jassar became the first women elected to the National Assembly. This victory occurred on the fourth anniversary of female enfranchisement in Kuwait. In an attempt to account for variations among the number of women in parliament in Kuwait by drawing on research from the field of descriptive representation, I found that the year of female suffrage, the religion of Islam, Kuwait’s cultural implications of gender-equality, the peculiarities of Kuwait’s electoral system, and timing and framing to be particularly important in the case of Kuwait. A consideration of substantive representation is also relevant to Kuwait, as early signs of involvement of the women members of Parliament indicate that women’s interests are on the political agenda in Kuwait. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: International Studies Honors Program. / Discipline: Political Science.

Depuis le début des révoltes arabes de 2011, on assiste, au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique du Nord à l’émergence politique de communautés jusqu’alors marginalisées, à la périphérie du pouvoir. La monarchie pétrolière du Koweït ne fait pas exception; c’est ainsi que les Bédouins, naturalisés depuis le début des années soixante et intégrés tardivement à la communauté des citoyens ont à leur tour émis leurs doléances auprès du pouvoir des Sabah. C’est ce phénomène que cette thèse analyse, le replaçant dans son contexte historique et politique. Elle explique les implications politiques du changement social parmi les Bédouins - à savoir l’émergence d’une nouvelle génération particulièrement virulente depuis le début des années 2000 - et démontre comment ce phénomène ne saurait se comprendre sans une lecture plus large du système d’autorité sur lequel s’est construite la monarchie des Al-Sabah depuis le 18e siècle lorsqu’elle s’est constituée en dynastie tribale. La contribution originale de cette thèse réside dans son approche méthodologique d’histoire sociologique comparative qui permet de déchiffrer la nature de l’ordre et de l’autorité politiques au Koweït. L’étude montre que les aspects fondamentaux de la structure d’autorité contemporaine de la dynastie des Al-Sabah trouvent leurs origines dans les logiques dynastiques des tribus arabes classiques telles qu’elles ont été analysées par l’auteur médiéval, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), dans son œuvre Al-Muqaddimah. / Since the unfolding of the Arab revolts in 2011, we have witnessed the rise and revolts of marginalized communities at the periphery of power everywhere in the MENA region. Kuwait too has witnessed since the start of the millennium the rise of its periphery, its naturalized tribesmen, latecomers to the nation’s fabric. In this study, I analyzed this phenomenon and placed it in its deeper historical and political context. I explained that the implications of socio-political change happening within Kuwait’s badu population can only be understood if the nature of the authority structure of the Al-Sabah’s monarchy is properly comprehended. The novelty of the thesis lies in its historical sociological approach to decipher the nature of political order and authority in Kuwait. It argued that the core aspects of the contemporary authority structure of the Al-Sabah’s monarchy can be traced back to the original tribal dynasty functioning according to the logics of political power of Arabian dynasties as analyzed by the early Muslim scholar, Ibn Khaldun in his Al-Muqaddimah.

This research is concerned with the drivers to utilize Renewable Energy in Gulf Cooperation Council countries with a focus on Kuwait. Such countries show high rates of electricity subsidies with high rate of emissions. At present, there is a continuous need to build new power stations to increase the electrical capacities, in order to cover the high peak loads that occurs in summers to avoid blackouts. The aim of this research is to create a combination of approaches to assess the adoption (economic and environmental) of Photovoltaic for electricity generation in Kuwait, which can be used to assist policy makers to compare various energy mixes and hence determine whether their current and future strategies are appropriate. Kuwait is in this research representative of an exemplar of oil-based economy in Gulf Cooperation Council region since they share similar energy policies and geographic location. The research provides an insight into the adoption of renewables in the region and the impact that particular energy mixes may have. Nine future potential scenarios are created showing different levels of PV deployment within Kuwait. The combination of approaches in this research estimates the economic and environmental impacts using Levelized Cost of Electricity and Life Cycle Assessment respectively of differing RE mixes. The findings show that energy storage increases the cost of electricity and the emissions from the photovoltaic sector. However, for the energy mix (PV and conventional), assuming oil price greater than 10.1$/Bbl. (when no storage required) and 15.2$/Bbl. (when using storage), PV generally lowers the cost of electricity, CO2 and SO2 emissions. Whilst, human toxicity is increased when storage is used. Taking all these factors into account, PV deployment is generally beneficial. However, if different combinations of impacts are considered, environmental and economic impacts may take different patterns. This led to a multi-objective problem to be solved. Using Pareto Front analysis, scenarios without storage requirement (i.e. 13% or less of photovoltaic) are preferable if only cost and human toxicity are considered. The contribution to knowledge from this research is that the deployment of large scale PV technology is beneficial in Kuwait economically and environmentally at least until 30% of the maximum peak load of electricity. The results have implications for other GCC countries with similar geographical, political and energy drivers; the methodology used in this research would be appropriate for these contexts.

Economic, environmental, and social components form the structure of sustainable development and characterize the positive or negative trends in sustainability, which are a unique sustainable index. The Kuwait water system is considered a case study in this research to develop a methodology for identifying sustainable water systems, especially in terms of the high water demand per capita and high supply of desalinated water. This research provides certain answers to the following issues: 1) the sustainable water system path for Kuwait is unknown; 2) the low price of water for consumers is a reason for the wastefulness in water consumption in Kuwait; 3) there is no sustainable model for the water infrastructure in Kuwait to control and maintain its system; and 4) building a new desalination plant will put pressure on reducing the oil products' revenues that are export to global market. Sustainable water supply systems must be designed and operated so as to accomplish the following: minimize energy use, maximize efficient use of water as a resource, and limit (or even decrease) the associated environmental impacts of water usage. Increasing the production of water and the associated infrastructure are not necessarily sustainable solutions to the challenges of population growth. Consequently, this research provides the following solutions to work together in parallel: 1) Model Urban City (MUC); 2) Sustainable Water System and Infrastructure of Kuwait (SWSIK); 3) Sustainable Kuwait Index (SKI); and 4) reform the current water price policy in Kuwait. This research is dependent on three foundation--MUC, SWSIK, and SKI--to characterize sustainability in Kuwait and to analyze the environmental and economic impacts under three different water price scenarios during the period of 2013-2017. Numerical modeling, Infowater application, is used to connect the data with Arc GIS software to monitor the progress toward sustainability for 78 areas in the country. The Sustainable Water System and Infrastructure of Kuwait (SWSIK) tool is developed in this study and provides a comprehensive tool that analyzes water consumption due to water price policies to determine the energy needed from fossil fuels, the energy costs, and the environmental impacts. The Sustainable Kuwait Index (SKI) is a unique numeric value of 16 indicators. The sustainability indicators for the Kuwait water system are classified into two main categories: environmental and socio-economic, in which the resources, infrastructure, and capacity are components in the environmental category. SKI is determined for urban areas in Kuwait between 2008 and 2012, characterizing the state of sustainability. Population growth and new urban development push decision makers to find alternative solutions--such as reforming water price policies--to reduce wasteful water consumption in both normal and critical times. Two water price policy scenarios were proposed to be implemented, instead of the current water price policy (0.624 per m³). The first scenario involves a constant price charged for water consumption at $1 per m³. The second scenario involves a different structure to schedule water price: free allowance (150 L/C/day) followed by a constant price charged for water consumption over 150 L at $1.6 per m³. The time frame to test both proposal scenarios is between 2013 and 2017. In order to get water for free, the second proposal scenario encourages consumers to consume water wisely. This proposal scenario is acceptable for both consumers and policymakers, and it provides economic and environment benefits for both sides. The second scenario will postpone the need for new desalination plants until 2023. SKI scores are determined for the three water price scenarios during the proposal time (2013-2017) for 78 urban areas in Kuwait. By applying the first scenario ($1.0 per m³), the Kuwait government will save almost 5 million barrels per year from oil products (crude oil, gas oil, and HFO) and reduce natural gas usage by 31% per year. On the other hand, the second scenario can reduce the usage of oil products and natural gas in desalination plants by 26% per year. CO2, SO2, and NO2 emissions under the first and second scenarios were reduced in the range between 26% and 33% per year. Overall, a shortage will occur in 2014 if the Kuwait government does not change the water price structure. The current water price ($0.624 per m³) gives zero economic value to consumers. As a consequence, water bills were not collected effectively due to the low cost. The first scenario, which charges $1 per m³, might be unacceptable for consumers due to the stigma associated with increasing prices. The second scenario, however, satisfies the sustainability conditions, which are: 1) to save the environment; 2) to reduce costs; 3) to be acceptable to society; and 4) to achieve policymakers' goals. The results obtained in this research are intended to promote water system management and provide sustainable indicators to evaluate the development of a sustainable of water infrastructure in Kuwait. / text

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The widespread use of Corporate Philanthropy (CP) in the US and the UK has resulted in a significant body of literature on the phenomena and its use. However, the literature generated around CP is criticised for being of an economic nature and for being biased toward the context of developed Western countries. This thesis suggests that the context of developing countries is important in relation to the non-economic nature of CP, due to the existence of intense religious beliefs and values. However, there has been little attempt to explicitly examine how the institutional pressures within this context shape the CP of a non-economic and more precisely of an altruistic nature, and how firms act in response to these influences. This thesis leverages institutional theory by proposing that stakeholders – including communities, competitors, NGOs and politicians – may impose coercive and mimetic pressures encouraging isomorphic field-level CP of a non-economic nature in a context of intense Islamic beliefs, values and norms. However, the way in which firms perceive and act upon these pressures may differ depending on specific factors related to the firm itself, including the identity of the firm, the competitive position of the firm, and shareholder pressures. These differences between firms result in the adoption of different CP strategies as decided by each firm, expressing its appropriate responses to field pressures. This study uses a qualitative methodology using data collected from 27 of the key personnel responsible for CP decisions (shareholders and managers) in the Kuwaiti banking sector. Questions were developed to assess the relationships between institutional pressures at the field and organisational levels of analysis. Data was collected through multiple sources such as in-depth interviews, documentation, and archival records. The contributions of the thesis are in relation to: a) the institutional theory; b) gaining more understanding of CP in developing countries; C) offering a robust understanding of altruistic CP influenced by an Islamic context; and d) practical implementations of CP in Islamic banks.