THE ARAB SPRING : POPULAR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS OR WESTERN HEGEMONIC RECONSTRUCTION?

Analyses dealing with recent crises in North Africa, the Near and Mideast put forward endegenous factors without hilighting relevent issues. Those conflicts, said to be the expression of poupular aspirations and thirst for democracy and freedom, are more the outcomes a construstruction by the Center confronted with internal contradictions that they try to export in order to adapt the worldwide societal dynamism. Indeed, the advent of new actors, Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa, ( BRICS), exert a strong pressure on economically advanced countries. This dynamism limits, if not, causes to crumble the hegemony of the Center in southern states. This articles attempts to uncover the real grounds of those social movements in the Arab world by using a different approach of the issue

The Mathematics behind Illusion

Historically, research on optical, or visual illusions has belonged mainly to the field of psychology. However, in the 1980s, Professor Kokichi Sugihara, Meiji University, Japan, introduced a mathematical approach to design and classify 3-dimensional optical illusions. This presentation provides a sample of the mathematics behind some types of visual illusions.https://idun.augsburg.edu/zyzzogeton/1023/thumbnail.jp

THE ARAB SPRING : POPULAR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS OR WESTERN HEGEMONIC RECONSTRUCTION?

Analyses dealing with recent crises in North Africa, the Near and Mideast put forward endegenous factors without hilighting relevent issues. Those conflicts, said to be the expression of poupular aspirations and thirst for democracy and freedom, are more the outcomes a construstruction by the Center confronted with internal contradictions that they try to export in order to adapt the worldwide societal dynamism. Indeed, the advent of new actors, Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa, ( BRICS), exert a strong pressure on economically advanced countries. This dynamism limits, if not, causes to crumble the hegemony of the Center in southern states. This articles attempts to uncover the real grounds of those social movements in the Arab world by using a different approach of the issue

Ancien Régime: Legacies of Previous Authoritarian Regimes and the Struggle for Democratization in the Arab World

Arab Spring, or the series of uprisings that swept the Middle East and North Africa in early 2011, has raised hopes that the region is finally catching up with democracy. The fall of four long-established authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, respectively, shook the foundations of the ‘Arab exceptionalism’ thesis which dominated much of the literature on the region. Four years after the Arab Spring, however, the prospects of democratization in the region appear to be dim; out of the four regime changes in Libya, Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia, only the latter seems to be leading a relatively successful democratic transition. This paper attempts to address the variations witnessed in the four cases’ post-Arab Spring experiences. Analyzing the four countries against the backdrop of their institutional contexts, I argue that institutional legacies of previous regime type could account for the success of democracy in Tunisia and its failure in the rest of the cases. This paper also controls for socioeconomic conditions and the role of leadership in each country

Genre, Violence et Harcèlement dans le Monde du Travail en Côte d’Ivoire

Les Violences Basées sur le Genre (VBG) constituent une préoccupation majeure pour divers organismes en Côte d’ivoire. Elles ont essentiellement été abordées dans un but opérationnel en vue d’obtenir des changements rapides dans la société ivoirienne en ce qui concerne la condition féminine. Au niveau académique et particulièrement dans le monde du travail cependant, ces violences ont cependant reçu très peu d’attention. L’article tente, à partir d’une revue de littérature et d’une enquête de terrain réalisée à Abidjan et à Bouaké, de mettre au jour l’existence de Violences Basées sur le Genre dans le monde du travail. Les données nécessaires à l’analyse ont été collectées en auprès de 14 personnes, dont des responsables de Services Gouvernementaux, d’Organisation Non Gouvernemental, de syndicats, des travailleurs du secteur formel et informel. L’article arrive à la conclusion que les Violences Basées sur le Genre existent dans le monde du travail en Côte d’Ivoire et qu’elles constituent une reproduction des inégalités de genre dans le monde du travail.   Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is a major concern for various organizations in Côte d'Ivoire. This topic is mainly mentioned for an operational purpose to obtain rapid changes in Ivorian society regarding the condition of women. At the academic level and particularly in the world of work, however, such violence has received very little attention. The article attempts, from a literature review and a field survey carried out in Abidjan and Bouaké, to bring to light the existence of Gender-Based Violence in the world of work. The data necessary for the analysis were quoted from 14 people, including officials of Government Services, Non-Governmental Organizations, trade unions, workers in the formal and informal sector. The article concludes that the Gender-Based Violence existing in the world of work in Côte d'Ivoire and that it constitutes a reproduction of gender inequalities in the world of work

SOCIO-ANTHROPOLOGIE DES PRATIQUES FONCIÈRES DES KYAMAN D’ABIDJAN (CÔTE D’IVOIRE)

The construction of Abidjan as economic capital of Ivory Coast to engender a transformation of the land practices of the autochthons (Kyaman). The urbanization has severely disrupted the customary space of the Kyaman so that the commodification prevailed over the conservatism in the management of the local lands. The socio-anthropological analysis of the land practices Kyaman emphasizes the social orders and their transformation the justification of the link between the urbanization and the corruption of the community land system

The political economy of corruption in Africa: urbanization, trust, and motivations

The modernization paradigm has shaped development policies in African countries for decades since the 1960s. In this tradition, urbanization is presented by conventional wisdom as a strong correlate of development with mostly positive effects. However, this claim has been only tested in a restricted setting, primarily developed nations. Moreover, few studies have theoretically and empirically considered the drawbacks of urbanization on development outcomes, even when growing evidence suggest that African countries have urbanized at rapid rates in recent decades but achieved little to no economic development. This dissertation departs from conventional wisdom by arguing that urbanization--the most prominent sign of modernization--lowers the costs and raises the benefits of corruption in Africa such that it is a contributing factor to corruption. Unlike in most developed countries, the transition from the community-based life in the village to an individualistic lifestyle in the city decreases the costs and increases the benefits of being corrupt. Using a broad range of methodologies, including time-series cross-sectional data analysis, survey experiments, and interviews, the findings here show that contrary to conventional narratives, urbanization may pose a threat to development by encouraging corruption. This dissertation thus suggests that policymakers should be more cautious in approaching urbanization in development planning. Further, it brings empirical evidence that reveals that anti-corruption campaigns appealing to traditional African values such as collectivism and altruism may be a promising route.Includes bibliographical references

Faraday instability on a sphere: numerical simulation

We consider a spherical variant of the Faraday problem, in which a spherical drop is subjected to a time-periodic body force, as well as surface tension. We use a full three-dimensional parallel front-tracking code to calculate the interface motion of the parametrically forced oscillating viscous drop, as well as the velocity field inside and outside the drop. Forcing frequencies are chosen so as to excite spherical harmonic wavenumbers ranging from 1 to 6. We excite gravity waves for wavenumbers 1 and 2 and observe translational and oblate-prolate oscillation, respectively. For wavenumbers 3 to 6, we excite capillary waves and observe patterns analogous to the Platonic solids. For low viscosity, both subharmonic and harmonic responses are accessible. The patterns arising in each case are interpreted in the context of the theory of pattern formation with spherical symmetry

Transport Routier Et Pollution De L’air : Etude De La Conscience Environnementale Des Automobilistes Dans La Commune De Cocody (Abidjan)

Like other sub-Saharan African cities, Abidjan undergoes environmental and health impacts of air pollution, mainly due to the dynamism observed in recent years in the field of transport. Cocody commune of Abidjan, is a field of study relevant to the extent that the source of pollution from traffic is predominant. Both qualitative and quantitative methodology was developed to highlight significant differences between vehicle pollution and the environmental awareness of stakeholders relations. Practices of motorists do not take into account environmental concerns; they perceive the risks of automobile pollution as a necessary evil. All these elements here that reflect environmental awareness, urban air pollution explain the outcome of the traffic in Cocody