From North Africa to Latin America and back: comparative findings and theoretical reflections

Taking the different case studies of the book together, one general observation stands out: Key agents of socioeconomic contention, including movements by organized labor and the unemployed that were important in the run-up to the uprisings and that saw their political opportunities open up in the immediate aftermath of the revolutions, have since been effectively marginalized as political actors. The concluding chapter reflects on the causes of this weakness of socioeconomic contention by identifying comparative insights that emerge from the contributions to this volume and by situating them in the context of broader comparative and theoretical debates on the relationship between social movements and political change. More specifically, the chapter first discusses Egypt’s and Tunisia’s post-revolutionary trajectories from a comparative perspective. Second, it discusses these comparative findings in the light of experiences in Latin America. Third, drawing again on comparative scholarship on Latin America, the chapter offers a theoretical interpretation of some of the main dynamics observed in Egypt and Tunisia based on the notion of a popular-sector incorporation crisis. Fourth and finally, the chapter concludes with general implications and an outlook

Youth as Actors of Change? The Cases of Morocco and Tunisia

In the last decades, ‘youth’ has increasingly become a fashionable category in academic and development literature and a key development (or security) priority. However, beyond its biological attributes, youth is a socially constructed category and also one that tends to be featured in times of drastic social change. As the history of the category shows in both Morocco and Tunisia, youth can represent the wished-for model of future citizenry and a symbol of renovation, or its ‘not-yet-adult’ status which still requires guidance and protection can be used as a justification for increased social control and repression of broader social mobilisation. Furthermore, when used as a homogeneous and undifferentiated category, the reference to youth can divert attention away from other social divides such as class in highly unequal societies

Parity reversion persistence in real exchange rates: middle income country case

This article investigates purchasing power parity (PPP) in the specific context of middle income countries. To circumvent the low power of traditional stationarity tests (Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Phillips-Perron tests), it performs variance ratio and fractional integration tests in addition to Perron's test that accounts for potential structural changes in real exchange rate processes. Beyond estimating half-life shocks to PPP, this article attempts to explain these estimates using a set of country specific variables as suggested by economic theory. The evidence suggests that reversion to parity tends to be faster in high inflation countries and that productivity improvement leads to a higher level of persistence. Openness to trade tends to reduce the extent of deviations from parity but this result does not appear to be statistically robust. Evidence shows also that deviations are less persistent under a fixed exchange rate regime and under unrestricted capital mobility.

Attitudes des prescripteurs de scanner en matiere de radioprotection des patients a Lome

Objectif: Evaluer les attitudes des prescripteurs de scanner en matière de radioprotection des patients à Lomé au Togo.Méthodologie: Etude transversale descriptive réalisée du 1er Avril au 30 Juin 2015 dans les centres hospitaliers universitaires, le centre hospitalier régional, les cabinets médicaux et les cliniques privées de la ville de Lomé.Résultats: Cent vingt-six questionnaires sur les 180 envoyés avaient été récupérés (taux de réponse global de 70%). Les prescripteurs étaient dominés par les médecins spécialistes et environ 2/3 des prescripteurs exerçaient dans les CHU. Leur expérience professionnelle était inférieure à 5 ans dans  54,8% des cas. Seulement 16% des praticiens avaient bénéficié d’une formation en radioprotection des patients. Ils étaient 71,4% à prescrire souvent le scanner. Plus de la moitié (59,5%) avaient une fois prescrit le scanner à une femme enceinte, 77,0% d’entre eux prenaient en compte le rapport  bénéfice/risque lors de la prescription d’un scanner et 34,5% informait les patients des risques liés auxrayons X. Un peu plus du tiers des praticiens ne prescrivaient jamais une TDM abdominopelvienne sans prescrire au préalable une échographie abdomino-pelvienne. Plus de la moitié d’entre eux ne demandaient jamais une TDM thoracique sans une radiographie thoracique. Les différences observées n’étaient pas souvent statistiquement significatives selon la qualification, le service d’appartenance, le lieu d’exercice et l’expérience professionnelle des prescripteursConclusion: L’amélioration des programmes de radioprotection dans les formations médicales de bases et l’organisation régulière des formations continues en radioprotection est vivement recommandée pour un meilleur respect des règles de radioprotection des patients lors de la prescription des scanners au Togo.Mots clés: Scanner, Radioprotection, Rayonnements ionisants, Prescripteurs, Lomé.English AbstractObjective: Estimate the attitudes of CT scan prescribers regarding radiation protection of the patients in Lome.Methods: Cross-sectional study performed from april 1st to june 30th, 2015, concerningprescribers working both in public and private health centers in Lome.Results: Hundred and twenty-six questionnaires on 180 sent had been got back (global rate of answer of 70%). The prescribers were dominated by the specialists and approximately 2/3 of the them exercised in Teaching Hospital Center (CHU). Their work experience was less than 5-year-old in 54,8% of the cases. Only 16 % of the practitioners had benefited a training on radiation protection of patients. They were 71.4% to prescribe often the CT scan. More than half (59,5%) once had prescribed CT scan to pregnant woman, 77,0% of them took into account the relationship profit / risk during the  prescription of a CT scan and 34,5 % informed the patients of the risks connected to the X-rays. A little no more than third of the practitioners never prescribed an abdominopelvic TDM without prescribing beforehand an abdomino-pelvic ultrasound. More than half of them never asked for a thoracic TDM without a thoracic radiography. The observed differences were not often statistically significant according to the qualification, the department, the place of exercise and the work experience of the prescribers.Conclusion: The improvement of radiation protection programms in the medical basic trainings and  the regular organization of the in-service training in radiation protection is deeply recommended for a better respect for the patient’s radiation protection rules during the prescription of CT scan in Togo.Keywords: Computed Tomography, Radiation protection, Ionizing radiation, Prescribers, Lomé

Training, new equipment and job creation: A firm-level analysis using moroccan data

Using a sample of 664 large, medium-and small-sized firms covering seven industries in Morocco, this article investigates whether the difference in their attitudes toward investment in human and physical capital explains their difference in terms of job creation. The lessons drawn from this investigation are expected to be useful for other least developed countries. The results support that such investment allows firms to create jobs, and this is robust to the inclusion of various additional explanatory variables, firm size and the industry coverage of the sample. © 2011 European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Industrial dynamics and productivity in Morocco: A quantitative assessment

Since the early 1980s, the Moroccan authorities have decided to switch from a model of a relatively closed import substitution economy with a large public sector to free trade and a market oriented economy. Price liberalization policy has been one of the main components of the Structural Adjustment program (SAP). Most prices of goods and services were freed in order to promote competition and allow market mechanisms to have a greater role in allocating and pricing factors, goods and services. The country speeded up the process of economic reforms during the 1990s. The new strategy is thought to set the economy on a path of higher efficiency as a result of the intense competition, and thus foster growth and development. © 2010 Springer-Verlag New York.SCOPUS: ch.binfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe