Titre : Sfax à l'époque ottomane. Sa Topographie, Son Histoire Urbaine, Sociale et Commerciale et Ses waqfs Waqf, l'institution qui a joué un rôle primordial dans le développement urbain et l'organisation d'espace dans des villes d'époque d'Ottomane, souligne des relations entre les hommes et les femmes et l'environnement construit. Sfax est l'exemple étudié ici et le rôle de waqf dans intra et le développement urbain extramuros si les documents waqf représentent un champ bien documenté de nos jours, ce n'est pas le cas pour l'étude de la nature et de la typologie de ces documents, ni pour la terminologie et la diversité d'informations a trouvé en eux. Le doctorat se concentre sur l'impact de waqf sur le tissu urbain d'Ottoman Sfax de la fin du 16ème siècle à la colonisation française. Il étudie la vie urbaine organisée autour des endroits soutenus / Title: Sfax during the Ottoman Period. Its Topography, Its Urban, Social and Commercial History and Its WaqfsWaqf, the institution which played a primordial role in urban development and organisation of space in Ottoman-era cities, underlines relations between men and women and the built environment. Sfax is the example studied here and the role of waqf in intra and extramuros urban developmentIf the waqf documents represent a well-researched field nowadays, this is not the case for the study of the nature and typology of these documents nor for the terminology and diversity of information found within them.The PhD centers on the impact of waqf on the urban fabric of Ottoman Sfax from the end of the 16th century to the French colonisation. It studies urban life organised around places supported by waqf (mosques, zawiyas) as well as waqfs whose revenues supported society’s poor or the city infrastructure such as the maintenance of its walls.Furthermore, waqf participated in reinforcing the presence of European merchants and traders and the development of commercial life in Sfax.

In this study we examine four Swedish newspapers’ visual coverage of the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings in 2010 and 2011 – commonly known as the “Arab Spring Revolution”, the “Jasmine revolution” and in Sweden also the “Women’s revolution” – focusing on three main perspectives: news values and framing, postcolonialism, and gender. By means of a comprehensive content analysis and an in-depth semiotic analysis, the purpose of this study is to investigate how Swedish written media frames the revolution and its initiators and partakers through news photographs, headlines, lead paragraphs and photograph bylines, and to determine whether or not it reproduces earlier trends of media coverage and framing of non-Westerners and non-Western societies. The purpose of the extensive content analysis is to attain data for empirical research of the visual portrayal of the uprisings’ first twelve weeks in Sweden’s four largest newspapers Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet and Expressen. The analysis reveals that episodic framing is regularly used in all four newspapers, and that media demonizes Tunisians and Egyptians by constructing them as a brutal, uncivilized and threatening group which almost exclusively consists of men, and whose members are neither quoted nor named. It also shows that women are symbolically annihilated by media and that the very few women who do occur are gender stereotyped in accordance with established media conventions and postcolonial tradition, with the interesting exception of women being quoted to a larger extent than men. The analysis furthermore confirms the low occurrence of female journalists in Swedish foreign reporting, as well as demonstrates that the gender of the journalists does not influence what types of stories are written or how they are framed. The variable frequencies obtained from the content analysis provide indicators which are subsequently explored in the semiotic analysis of four news photographs. The qualitative study establishes that the North African uprisings are represented and framed as being conducted by a group of angry, uncontrolled and unstoppable men. In conclusion, the results of this study indicates that Sweden’s four largest newspapers use a colonial discourse which threatens to establish and reproduce the idea of Tunisians and Egyptians as the Arabic “Others”.

Within a single year -- 146 BCE -- Roman generals had entered the cities of Carthage and Corinth and forever changed the course of Mediterranean history. Although involved in separate conflicts with Rome, these cities and their tragedies became uniquely linked, not only to each other, but also to a perceived trajectory of Rome as an imperial power. Subsequent generations have looked to 146 BCE as an important turning point, and in doing so have attached value-laden interpretations to it as a gauge on Roman imperialism. This dissertation looks at 146 BCE from a different angle, seeking to understand its significance in terms of its contemporary international context, asking how it first became viewed as a turning point. The analysis utilizes international relations theory of normative systems, focusing on collective perceptions and evolving political conceptions within an interstate cultural environment. Exploring contemporary texts and archaeological clues, it sees the second-century BCE as a period in which the Mediterranean was becoming increasingly globalized, drawn together by universalizing ideals. A framework of "Hellenistic" markers communicated networks of legitimacy, Rome being both participant and game-changer. At the same time, the international community was rife with disjunctions, which contributed to a disintegration of relations in North Africa, followed by re-eruptions of nationalistic fervor on the Greek mainland. When coupled with wider perceptions, that the oikoumene was becoming progressively interconnected and was moving toward a new juncture in world-history, the stage was set. The legal punishments to be inflicted by the Roman victor were to be viewed on a whole new plane, as reflections of a groundbreaking world-order. Romans were aware of these implications, made evident in the decisions of Scipio at Carthage, followed by Mummius at Corinth. In a rare and stunning move, both cities were decommissioned as political entities, and their tragedies linked to contemporary visions of cyclical world-history: Carthage burned in reiteration of Troy, and Corinth stripped of cultural Greek heritage. Polybius, uniquely positioned as a commentator on these outcomes, not only captured their ideological ripple effects, but also assured their direction over future generations, as a moment to color Rome as world hegemon. This dissertation looks at 146 BCE from a different angle, seeking to understand its significance in terms of its contemporary international context, asking how it first became viewed as a turning point. The analysis utilizes international relations theory of normative systems, focusing on collective perceptions and evolving political conceptions within an interstate cultural environment. Exploring contemporary texts and archaeological clues, it sees the second-century BCE as a period in which the Mediterranean was becoming increasingly globalized, drawn together by universalizing ideals. A framework of “Hellenistic” markers communicated networks of legitimacy, Rome being both participant and game-changer. At the same time, the international community was rife with disjunctions, which contributed to a disintegration of relations in North Africa, followed by re-eruptions of nationalistic fervor on the Greek mainland. When coupled with wider perceptions, that the oikoumene was becoming progressively interconnected and was moving toward a new juncture in world-history, the stage was set. The legal punishments to be inflicted by the Roman victor were to be viewed on a whole new plane, as reflections of a groundbreaking world-order. Romans were aware of these implications, made evident in the decisions of Scipio at Carthage, followed by Mummius at Corinth. In a rare and stunning move, both cities were decommissioned as political entities, and their tragedies linked to contemporary visions of cyclical world-history: Carthage burned in reiteration of Troy, and Corinth stripped of cultural Greek heritage. Polybius, uniquely positioned as a commentator on these outcomes, not only captured their ideological ripple effects, but also assured their direction over future generations, as a moment to color Rome as world hegemon. / text

Does banning opposition candidates from ballots increase the risk that they will turn to bullets instead? Globally, since the end of the Cold War, blatant election rigging tactics (such as ballot box stuffing) are being replaced by 'strategic rigging': subtler procedural manipulations aimed at winning while maintaining the guise of legitimacy in the eyes of international observers. In particular, incumbents (in regimes stuck between democracy and authoritarianism) are turning to 'electoral exclusion', neutralizing key rivals by illegitimately banning certain candidates, in turn reducing the need for cruder forms of election day rigging. I used mixed methods - combining insights from an original global dataset with extensive elite interviews conducted in five countries (Madagascar, Thailand, Tunisia, Zambia, and Côte d'Ivoire) - to establish that electoral exclusion is an attractive short-term election strategy for vulnerable incumbents that produces a much higher chance of victory but comes with high costs in the longer-term. Global probit modeling (using electoral exclusion as an independent variable and coups d'état and civil wars as separate dependent variables) suggests that, since the end of the Cold War, excluding opposition candidates from the ballot roughly doubles the risk of a coup d'état or quadruples the risk of civil war onset. In spite of these risks, incumbents fall into this 'exclusion trap' because of the shortened time horizon that frequently accompanies competitive multi-party elections. Vulnerable incumbents worry more about the short-term risk of losing an election than the long-term but ultimately unknown risk that political violence will ensue after the election. Finally, the inverse corollary of these findings is that inclusion of opposition candidates during multi-party elections can be a stabilizing factor. Though it may seem counterintuitive, fragile 'counterfeit democracies' - and so-called 'transitional' regimes - may be able to stave off existential threats to regime survival by extending an olive branch to their fiercest opponents. These findings combine to form the overarching argument of this dissertation: when opposition candidates are excluded from the ballot, they become more likely to turn to bullets by launching coups d'état and civil wars.

Du soulèvement survenu en Birmanie en 2007 aux révoltes qui ont traversé les pays de la Méditerranée en 2011, les usages de la vidéo partagée sur internet n’ont cessé de se développer au cœur des manifestations et des émeutes. À partir d’observations menées sur internet et d’une enquête de terrain en Tunisie, la thèse s’attache à décrire l’évolution des usages de l’image animée sur le temps long du processus révolutionnaire tunisien entre 2008 et 2014, et à questionner la place et le rôle de ces pratiques dans un monde social en ébullition. L’analyse des contenus mais aussi des tensions socio-politiques qui ont présidé et succédé au moment insurrectionnel, suggère que la prise d’images n’est pas seulement une pratique utilitaire et stratégique destinée à sensibiliser ou à produire une information alternative, mais qu’elle sert des objectifs complexes traversés par les enjeux de lutte qui ont animé les différentes périodes. Des premiers usages en période autoritaire aux productions en plan-séquence dans le temps de l’urgence insurrectionnelle, des montages et mises en scènes accompagnant les mobilisations pour la reconnaissance des acteurs de la révolte à ceux réaffirmant les revendications des populations marginalisées, la vidéo partagée s’est affirmée comme le langage vernaculaire de la contestation. / From the Burma uprising in 2007 to the revolutions of the Arab world in 2011, the uses of digital video have continued to grow, from the heart of demonstrations and riots to the internet. Based on observations conducted on the internet and on a field survey in Tunisia, the thesis describe the evolution of moving image uses in the Tunisian revolutionary process between 2008 and 2014, and interrogates the place and role of these practices in a social world in turmoil. Content analysis combined with analysis of the socio-political tensions that led and succeeded the uprising, suggests that taking pictures is not only a strategic utility practice to raise awareness or to produce alternative information, but that it serves complex objectives marked by the struggle issues of the different periods. From the first uses in authoritarian period to the uses during riots weeks, from edited clips for recognition of revolutionary actors to productions for the recognition of marginalized populations, shared videos revealed as the vernacular language of protest.

This dissertation assesses the role of social media and its effects on the Arab Spring. The research will be guided by two questions: Could the use of American Dot.com social networking websites (e.g. Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube) by Tunisians and Egyptians during the Arab Spring, to overthrow their governments, be characterized as a violation of Tunisia’s and Egypt’s sovereignty (cyber-sovereignty)? Secondly, what was the significance of the abovementioned social networking websites during the Arab Spring? The first question will be examined by using Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Theory; the problem, policy, and political streams have to converge simultaneously in order to create a window of opportunity to enact change. For this to occur, it is the responsibility of the policy entrepreneur to combine the three streams. The policy entrepreneur is an individual(s) who are tasked with the responsibility of integrating the three streams. During the Arab Spring, social media served as a mechanism for citizens to bypass government censorship to chronicle and narrate events as they occurred. As a result, I assert that it was the use of social media in this manner by the policy entrepreneurs that violated the sovereignty of both Tunisia and Egypt. The second question will be analyzed by administering questionnaires and reviewing tertiary sources to assess the significance of the abovementioned social networking websites during the Arab Spring. By examining the two research questions together, the conclusion of this analysis will potentially provide the basis for political cooperation towards an international cyber-sovereignty doctrine. The Arab Spring was far greater than Tunisia and Egypt. However, I felt it was of the utmost importance to focus on the origin of the Arab Spring, as well as the significance in which the role of social media became instrumental. Analyzing the role of social media, the transformation of power, and cyber-sovereignty in both countries through four (individual, state, organizational, and international) layers of analysis will help to assess the role of social media during the Arab Spring and to generate layers of protection to mitigate its influence.

Suite aux changements climatiques, de nouveaux paysages reflétant les interactions entre les processus naturels et les activités humaines inappropriées sont apparus en Tunisie Méridionale. L’érosion éolienne en est l’une des manifestations les plus remarquables. Au cours de cette thèse, une méthodologie opérationnelle et validée (méthode du transect permanent) a été mise au point pour la caractérisation des états de surfaces éolisés et la quantification du bilan sédimentaire d’un transect d’environ 500m de longueur sur une période de deux ans. A l’échelle spatiale, la cartographie des Unités Eoliennes : zones de départ, transit et dépôt de sable a été élaborée. Un essai de caractérisation radiométrique des zones de dépôt ensablées a été ensuite tenté pour l’analyse diachronique des changements survenus durant plus de 35 ans. A l’échelle stationnelle, la méthode du transect permanent permet le calcul diachronique des bilans sédimentaires et la comparaison simultanée des changements des Complexes d’Etat de Surface. La seule observation des états de surface éolisés est insuffisante pour déterminer le fonctionnement éolien précis d’une région, elle induit à des erreurs d’interprétation sur les processus sédimentaires en cours.A l’échelle spatiale, les cartes des Unités Eoliennes permettent de déterminer la vulnérabilité du milieu face aux processus de déflation, transport et dépôt. De plus, la caractérisation des zones ensablées par des indices radiométriques n’est pas évidente avec des images de 30 m de résolution. Les analyses statistiques effectuées ont montré que l’indice de couleur est le plus indiqué pour ce genre d’étude. Le calcul des taux de changement entre deux images de dates successives permet d’estimer l’évolution temporelle des espaces ensablés et la distribution spatiale des zones nouvellement ensablées sur plus de 35 ans. / Under the effect of climate change, new landscapes reflecting the interactions between natural processes and human inappropriate activities appeared in Southern Tunisia. Wind erosion is one of the most important events. In this thesis, operational and validated methodology (the permanent transect method) has been developed for the characterization of Surfaces States and quantification of the sediment balance of a 500 m length transect over a period of two years. On spatial scale, mapping of the Aeolian units of deflation, transit and sand deposit was developed. Radiometric characterization of sand accumulations was then tried for the detection of changes that occurred within more than 35 years.At the site level, the permanent transect method enabeled the diachronic sedimentary balance calculation and the comparison of the Surface states changes. The single observation of these areas is insufficient to determine the real eolian process of a region ; moreover it induces to errors of interpretation on the sedimentary process.At the spatial scale, maps of the Aeolian units enabeled to determine the vulnerability of the environment to the process of deflation, transport and deposition. In addition, the characterization of sand accumulations by radiometric indices is not obvious within 30 m resolution images. The statistical analyses have shown that Color Index is the most indicated for this type of study. The calculation of the rates of change between two successive dates images allows to estimate the sandy spaces evolution and their spatial distribution for more than 35 years.

L'aquaculture et la pêche impactent l'environnement, les ressources et le fonctionnement des écosystèmes. L’un des enjeux en écologie est de placer ces activités anthropiques dans un cadre de développement durable. Afin de quantifier et de limiter ces impacts, différentes méthodes d’évaluation environnementale ont vu le jour. L’Analyse de Cycle de Vie (ACV) est une méthode pertinente pour évaluer le bilan environnemental d'un produit en prenant en compte l’ensemble de ses étapes de vie, "du berceau à la tombe", depuis l’extraction des matières premières et leurs transformations pour l'élaboration du produit, jusqu’à la fin de vie. Cette thèse porte sur l’adaptation de l’ACV au domaine de l'aquaculture et de la pêche en Tunisie. Son objectif est d'explorer les perspectives offertes par cette méthodologie afin de mieux caractériser le fonctionnement des systèmes de production de poissons et leur lien avec l’environnement. Cette étude a montré que les pratiques aquacoles et la production d'aliment de poisson sont les contributeurs majeurs aux impacts environnementaux, ceci est expliqué par l'utilisation de farine et d'huile de poisson dans la fabrication de l'aliment. Les résultats ont également montré que les impacts du chalutage de fond sont proportionnels à la quantité de carburant nécessaire pour la production. Ce travail a permis d'étudier et comparer les impacts environnementaux de l'activité aquacole et de la pêche au chalutage de fond en Tunisie. Les résultats de cette thèse ont un intérêt pour les gestionnaires en proposant des voies d'amélioration et des recommandations stratégiques de gestion pour améliorer les deux secteurs afin de les placer dans un contexte de développement durable. / The main goal of ecology is to place human activities within a framework of sustainable development by enhancing their economic benefits, their social attractiveness and their environmental performances. Ecosystems that support fisheries and aquaculture are subject to several alterations of significant relevance to their functioning and to their abilities to provide goods and services. Therefore, the long-term sustainability of fishing and aquaculture is a major concern from an environmental and ecological viewpoint. Both activities carry risks of negative environmental impacts because of its close relation with the immediate environment. To better understand environmental impacts and ensure the sustainability of fishing and aquaculture, it is necessary to develop an integrative sciencebased approach to impact assessment. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has emerged as a robust method to estimate potential environmental impacts associated with a product. It allows the assessment of environmental impacts “from cradle to grave”, taking into account all stages of a product’s life. This thesis focuses on the adaptation of LCA to demersal trawling and aquaculture in Tunisia. The goal is to explore how LCA improves the environmental evaluation of seafood production systems and how it helps to better understand their links with the environment. Results revealed that rearing practices and fish feed were the greatest contributors to the impacts studied due to the production of fish meal and oil and the low efficiency of feed use. The study also showed that impact intensity of demersal trawling was proportional to the amount of fuel consumed. LCA is a valuable tool for assessing how to improve environmental sustainability of demersal trawling and aquaculture.

Cette thèse porte sur le processus de défaillance des entreprises en Tunisie. L’objectif est d’étudier le sujet d’un point de vue, à la fois, macroéconomique, microéconomique et juridique. Le travail est précédé d’une revue de la littérature axée sur les principaux intervenants dans le processus de faillite : les débiteurs, les créanciers et la législation en matière de faillite.La première partie propose une synthèse des résultats de nombreux travaux de recherche se rapportant, d’une part, aux différentes stratégies fixées par les débiteurs et les créanciers en vue de protéger leurs propres intérêts et d’autre part, à l’efficacité des procédures collectives dans la prévention des éventuelles utilisations opportunistes de la loi. Dans un second temps, la thèse traite le sujet d’un point de vue macroéconomique en cherchant à déterminer l’effet des fluctuations macroéconomiques sur le taux de défaillance en Tunisie sur la période allant de 1997 à 2010. Des variables spécifiques au cas tunisien et exprimant au mieux l’importance des secteurs de l’industrie et du tourisme dans l’économie tunisienne ont été considérées dans le modèle en plus des variables communément utilisées dans la littérature et qui ont prouvé leur rôle relativement significatif dans l’explication des taux de défaillance.La troisième partie de la thèse se concentre sur le niveau d’efficacité des procédures collectives tunisiennes dans la résolution du problème de défaut de paiement. Son efficacité est étudiée de point de vue : i) création de valeur et ce en termes de recouvrement total des créanciers à travers la maximisation de la valeur de l’entreprise défaillante, et ii) recouvrement des créanciers sécurisés. L’intérêt particulier porté sur la classe des créanciers sécurisés (notamment les banques) est justifié par l’importance du secteur bancaire dans le financement des entreprises en Tunisie et par conséquent dans le développement de l’économie tunisienne.La dernière partie de la thèse propose une analyse approfondie de la loi de faillite tunisienne dans le cadre d’une étude comparative avec 18 autres pays européens et non européens.A travers une approche « Law and Finance », dix indices juridiques ont été construits pour « mesurer » dix fonctions de Droit de faillite. Ensuite, des analyses univariée et multivariée ont été menées pour dégager les points de similarité ou de disparité entre les différentes lois de faillite. / This thesis focuses on the Tunisian bankruptcy process. The objective is to treat the subject from a macroeconomic, microeconomic and legal point of view. The work is preceded by a literature review focused on the main actors in the bankruptcy process: debtors, creditors and bankruptcy law. The first part provides a summary of many research results relating on the one hand, to the different strategies set by debtors and creditors to protect their own interests and on the other hand to the effectiveness of the procedures in preventing any opportunistic uses of the law. In the second part, we seek to determine the effect of macroeconomic fluctuations on the failure rate of businesses in Tunisia over the period 1997-2010. The selected variables are those that have been frequently used in the literature and that showed their significant impact onto the rate of corporate failure. Other original variables, more specific to the Tunisian case were considered to account for the importance of industry and tourism sectors in the Tunisian economy. The third part of this thesis focuses on the efficiency of bankruptcy procedures in Tunisia, a country characterized by the importance of its banking sector. We gathered original and unique information on Tunisian firms that went bankrupt between 1995-2009. We find that the Tunisian reorganization procedures are able to generate substantial recoveries, but those are mainly captured by the preferential claims (employees and public claims). This is coherent with the authorities’ willingness to improve social protection, but this raises concerns as the Tunisian firms are mainly financed by bankers. Our analysis shows that the secured creditors are poorly protected under bankruptcy: they rank almost last in the priority order of repayment, and their recovery rate is similar to one of the unsecured creditors. We also find that the rather high level of recovery rate is mainly attributable to the reorganization procedures. We finally find that the court’s choice between reorganization and liquidation is not influenced by the structure of claims. Thus, in Tunisia, the creditors are losing hand once bankruptcy is triggered.To better understand the characteristics of Tunisian bankruptcy procedures, the last part of the thesis offers a comparative study of Tunisian bankruptcy law with 18 other European and non-European countries. Ten legal indexes were constructed through "Law and Finance" approach to "measure" ten functions of bankruptcy law.Univariate and multivariate analyzes were conducted to identify the similarity or disparity points between the various bankruptcy laws.

La liberté de gestion en droit fiscal est confrontée, aussi bien à la multiplicité des choix et des stratégies offerts au contribuable, l’encourageant à chercher la voie la moins imposée, qu’à la consolidation des pouvoirs de l’administration fiscale afin de lutter contre la fraude et l’évasion fiscales. Flottant entre la protection de la liberté de gestion du contribuable et l’intensification de la lutte contre la fraude fiscale, les systèmes tunisiens et français se séparent et se recoupent sur certains points. L’approche comparative montre que dans les deux systèmes, la liberté de gestion n’est pas conçue de la même manière. En droit français, contrairement au droit tunisien, la jurisprudence a joué un rôle important dans la détermination des contours de la liberté de gestion à travers les notions d’origine prétorienne d’abus de droit et d’acte anormal de gestion. En droit tunisien, outre une législation fiscale qui affiche une certaine ambiguïté, la jurisprudence fiscale s’est montrée hésitante à tracer les contours de cette liberté. Les mécanismes de protection de cette liberté varient du droit français au droit tunisien. Toutefois, aussi bien en droit français qu’en droit tunisien, il n’existe pas un équilibre harmonieux entre la protection de la liberté de gestion du contribuable et la protection des intérêts du trésor. Le développement des moyens d’immixtion de l’administration entraine peu à peu le recul de cette liberté de gestion fiscale / Freedom of management in tax law faces both, an abundance of choices and strategies available to the taxpayer that he can initially use to seek the less taxed alternative as well as a strengthening of the tax administration’s powers geared towards reducing tax evasion and tax avoidance. Swaying between the protection of management freedom and the struggle against tax evasion, the Tunisian and French systems diverge and converge in a number of points. The aim of this research is to compare the French and Tunisian freedom of management in tax laws. The main results show that in the two systems, the freedom of management is not designed in the same way. Unlike the Tunisian law, case law has played an important role to define and outline freedom of management in the judicial concepts relating to abuse of right and abnormal act of management. In the Tunisian law, in addition to unclear tax legislation, the case law has appeared undecided to outline the freedom of management. The protective freedom of management mechanisms vary in the French law and the Tunisian law. However, in both the French law and Tunisian law, there isn’t a harmonious balance between protection of freedom of management and protection of treasury interest. The development of the interference means of the tax administration causes gradually the decline of the freedom of management