No description available.

No description available.

The political economic pressures of development contribute to unsustainable environmental practices in developing countries, and marginalize civil society participation. This dissertation looks at the following countries where policymakers are faced with strong incentives to foster rapid economic growth. In Jamaica, the bauxite industry demands mining rights in sensitive mountainous ecosystems. In Mexico, the tourist industry demands access to construct in vulnerable coastal environments in the southeast. In inland Mexico, unregulated agriculture threatens ecosystems in the Yucatán Peninsula. Finally, tourist and energy industries in Egypt demand access for infrastructure in sensitive ecosystems in the Red Sea region. In all of the cases, the preferences of these sectors threaten to displace local communities, while creating unsustainable pressures on the environment. At the same time, the projected revenues from these sectors justify continued environmental exploitation. In response, transnational networks of environmental advocates and epistemic communities mobilized throughout the 1990s, lobbying the Global Environment Facility for conservationist projects in each country, and then lobbying governments to effectively implement the projects. This research finds that three conditions were necessary for transnational networks to influence policies associated with project implementation. First, networks must generate an internal scientific agreement on the dimensions of the environmental problem. By doing so, they can delegitimate competing arguments, strengthening their own claims. Second, networks must build social ties with policymakers in powerful agencies. Social ties increase the likelihood that policymakers will adopt the norms of the network. Third, networks must reframe the discourse on environmental management. At present, policymakers and industry argue that environmental management should be assessed by its contribution to economic development, validating only those policies that lead to sustained revenue generation. By reframing environmental management as an issue impacting the wellbeing of domestic populations, networks can argue for the greater participation of actors marginalized by the dominance of privileged productive sectors in resource management. Moreover, by linking sustainable resource use to the interests of domestic populations, networks can generate political capital to oppose the most unsustainable environmental practices. This research thus builds on the epistemic communities approach by highlighting the importance of democracy in knowledge-building and environmental governance.

No description available.

This thesis investigates the impact of financial intermediation on economic growth in two regions: the East African Community (EAC) countries (Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda) and North African countries (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia). The study analyzes the regions employing a Granger causality test and explores if financial intermediation influences economic growth. An index that measures financial intermediation is created using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and is used to capture the effect it has on economic growth in the two regions. The data used in the study is from 1990 to 2018. The results show that there is a short-run unidirectional relationship between financial intermediation and economic growth in EAC countries while financial intermediation does not Granger cause economic growth in North African countries. The result also shows that inflation has a short-run impact on growth in the North African countries.

This project takes popular organizations in mid-twentieth century Lebanon as its focus. These socio-political groupings were organized at the grassroots, made up of young men, and included scout organizations, social justice movements, student clubs and workers' associations. Employing a cultural history approach, the dissertation examines the cultural productions of these types of groups, ranging from group anthems to uniforms, letters of the rank and file to speeches of leaders. With these primary sources, it captures the cultures that took shape around five main actors in the field of street politics: the Lebanese Communist Party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, the Kata'ib Party, the Najjadeh Party and the Progressive Socialist Party. And as these groups condoned and committed acts of sectarian violence in the 1958 War and the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990, this dissertation also investigates the distinct cultures that formed around these groups during wartime. In the end, I argue that both inside and outside of moments of conflict, popular organizations cultivate and mobilize multiple, interactive identities to make sense of their actions, sectarian or otherwise. Moreover, I find that a critical site to explore these complex processes is their routine practices grounded in duty, strength and honor. Part I of the dissertation examines identity formation within these five groups, and the physical and symbolic spaces they produced in Beirut during the 1920s-1950s. Informed by Pierre Bourdieu's theories on social life, this historical background shows how organizational attempts to project uniqueness, win over recruits, and make partisan, often sectarian, claims over the whole Lebanese nation created boundaries between these groups. Also, the lives of individuals within these groups, regardless of the group's distinct vision for Lebanon, were colored by cultures of discipline and defense, working to normalize practices linked to violence. In Part II the dissertation takes up the two historical events of social mobilization and conflict in which these groups participated: the 1958 War (where the Kata'ib, once a nationalist scout group, serves as the focus for the investment in sectarianism) and the Two-Year War of 1975-1976 (where the Lebanese National Movement - specifically the Lebanese Communist Party, once a workers' association, and the Progressive Socialist Party, once a social justice movement - serve as the focus for the investment in anti-sectarian frames). First, through investigating the changing positions of these popular organizations throughout these two wars, the dissertation argues that these groups are active agents in producing sectarian violence, adding nuance to past characterizations of conflict in Lebanon. Second, by capturing the quite seamless shift towards practices of violence, it finds that the quotidian and routine also lay at the center of violence. Finally, by analyzing the textual and visual productions of these groups leading up to and during war, the dissertation finds that multiple and interacting identities, such as national, populist (i.e., fulfilling the needs of people and winning their support in a particular locality) and sect are mobilized to perform violence. Accordingly, sectarian violence, as it emerged in the mid-twentieth century, is sectarian because these groups defined it in sectarian (and antisectarian) terms, not because the violence was rooted in immutable sectarian differences. Collectively, “Winning Lebanon: Popular Organizations, Street Politics and the Emergence of Sectarian Violence in the Mid-Twentieth Century” seeks to bring the local level and the cultural into the study of conflict, and add nuance to the understanding of sectarianism and sectarian violence in Lebanon and the broader Middle East.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Paris III, 1978. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 1048-1129).

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Paris III, 1978. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 1048-1129).

Comment l’immigré maghrébin se perçoit-il à l'âge de la retraite, comment est-ce qu'il qualifie et explique sa qualité de vie et quelle fonction la structure culturelle joue-t-elle dans la définition de son vieillissement ? Voilà les quelques interrogations qui ont guidé notre travail, dont l'objectif était d'étudier le concept de soi et la qualité de vie auprès d’une population d’immigrés maghrébins à l’épreuve du vieillissement. A notre connaissance et après l’interrogation de la base de données Sudoc (http://www.sudoc.abes.fr) et du fichier national des thèses (www.theses.fr/), il s’agit d’une des rares études en psychologie traitant de cette problématique. Notre thèse se compose de deux parties : une partie théorique et une partie empirique. Dans la première nous avons présenté divers théories et repères conceptuels relatifs à l’immigration, l’altérité, la personnalité et le vieillissement. Nous avons ensuite abordé le concept de soi à travers sa dimension consciente (introspective) et auto-descriptive qui permet de mesurer les aspects subjectifs et expérientiels du sujet (L'Ecuyer, 1994). Un autre aspect majeur abordé était celui des agencements théoriques concernant les indicateurs et les propriétés de la qualité de vie externe et interne. La seconde partie présente deux études comparatives. La première portait sur l’exploitation de la méthode GPS (Genèse des perceptions de soi ; L’Ecuyer, 1994) comme modèle de description de soi, dans laquelle nous avons tenté d’introduire la dimension culturelle. Cette étude visait trois groupes de participants (Français, Immigrés Maghrébins et Maghrébins résidants dans le pays d’origine). La seconde étude concernait la mesure de la qualité de vie en lien avec le concept de soi, à travers un questionnaire, auprès d’une population d’immigrés Maghrébins et une autre d’origine française. Cette étude comparative nous a permis d'évaluer la manière dont ces personnes âgées s’adaptent à leurs conditions de vie. Elle a permis de comparer les deux groupes sous l’angle de la satisfaction de vie, du lieu de contrôle, de la solitude sociale et émotionnelle, de la satisfaction conjugale et du soutien social perçu. Nos résultats ont permis ainsi de mettre en exergue les différences et les similitudes entre les participants quant au concept de soi et la qualité de vie. Enfin nous avons tenté dans notre discussion d'explorer le rôle de l’empreinte du système culturel sur le fonctionnement inter, intra et trans-subjectif. / How does the North African immigrant perceive his retirement; how does he describe and explain his quality of life; and what function does the cultural structure play in the self-perceptions of aging? These are some questions that have guided our work, whose aimed to study the self-concept and the quality of life of North African immigrants to the test of ageing. As far as we know, and after consulting the database Sudoc (http://www.sudoc.abes.fr) and the National Index of Theses (www.theses.fr/), it is about one of the fewest studies in psychology dealing with this issue.Our thesis consists of two parts: a theoretical part and an empirical part. In the first one we presented various theories and conceptual references related to immigration, otherness, personality and ageing. Then we discussed the self-concept through its conscious (introspective) and self-reported dimension, which evaluates the subjective and experiential aspects of the self-perceptions (L'Ecuyer, 1994). Another major aspect discussed was the theoretical arrangements on indicators and the properties of the internal and external quality of life. The second part, presents two comparative studies. The first focused on the exploration of the GSP method (Genesis self-perceptions; L'Ecuyer, 1994) as a model of self-description, in which we tried to introduce the cultural dimension. This study targeted three groups of participants (North Africans immigrants, French, and North Africans residents of the home country). The second study included measures of the quality of life in relation to self-concept via a questionnaire administrated to both North Africans immigrants and native-born French elderly. This comparative study allowed us to assess how these old people adapt to their living conditions. It was used to compare the two groups in the light of life satisfaction, locus of control, the social and emotional loneliness, marital satisfaction, and perceived social support. Our results have allowed us to distinguish the differences and the similarities between the participants’ concerning self-concept and quality of life. Finally, we tried in our discussion to explore the role of the cultural system mark on the functioning inter-, intra-and trans-subjective.

Cette étude est basée sur une comparaison thématique de deux romans des auteurs beurs, Azouz Begag et Faiza Guène. L’objectif de ce mémoire est de démontrer l’évolution entre le processus d’intégration rapporté par Begag dans les années 1980 et celui de Guène dans les années 2000. Quels messages veulent-ils faire passer aux lecteurs et dans quelle mesure les obstacles affrontés par Béni et Doria ont-ils eu une influence sur leur destin ? / This research is based on a thematic comparison of two novels by two North-African authors, Azouz Begag and Faiza Guène. The objective of this essay is to show the evolution of the integration process, recounted by Begag in the 1980s and by Guène in the 2000s. What message do they want to present to their readers and, to what extent do the obstacles that Béni and Doria encounter, have an influence on their destiny?