The informal market of education in Egypt: Private tutoring and its implications /// Arbeitspapiere / Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien ; 88

Education is generally perceived as a public good which should be provided by the state. In Egypt, free and equal access to education has been guaranteed to all citizens since President Nasser’s socialist reforms in the 1950s. However, due to high population growth rates and a lack of financial resources, the public education system has been struggling to accommodate rapidly increasing numbers of students. While enrolment rates have risen steadily, the quality of state-provided services has deteriorated. Teachers and students have to cope with high class densities, insufficient facilities, a rigid syllabus and a centralized examination system. Today, teaching is among the lowest-paying occupations in the public sector. One strategy to cope with this situation is the widespread practice of private tutoring, which usually takes place at students’ homes or in commercial tutoring centers. Based on research carried out in Cairo in 2004/05 and 2006, I use an actor-centered approach to analyze the motivations of Egyptian teachers and students for participating in private tutoring and the impact that this practice has on the relationship between teachers and students. Students of all socio-economic backgrounds resort to tutoring in order to succeed in a highly competitive and exam-oriented education system. However, the form and quality of tutoring that can be accessed depends on the financial means of the family. For teachers, tutoring provides a good opportunity not only to supplement their income, but also, in the case of renowned “star teachers”, to improve their professional status and autonomy. On the informal “market of education” that has developed in Egypt during the last decades, the educational responsibilities of the state are increasingly being taken over by private actors, i.e. the process of teaching and learning is dissociated from the direct control of the state and from school as an institution. At the same time, education is turned into a marketable commodity. Despite the government’s efforts to provide free education to all citizens, the quality of social services that can be accessed in Egypt, thus, depends mainly on the financial means of the individual or the family.

Libertà di espressione e sorveglianza globale

La presente tesi ha come scopo quello di individuare alcune problematiche relative all’esercizio e alla limitazione del diritto alla libertà di espressione nel contesto delle attività globali di sorveglianza e controllo delle tecnologie dell’informazione e della comunicazione. Tali attività, poste in essere da parte degli Stati e da parte degli operatori privati, sono favorite dal nebuloso rapporto tra norme di fonte pubblica, privata e informatica, e sono invece osteggiate dal ricorso, collettivo e individuale, alle possibilità offerte dalle tecnologie stesse per la conduzione di attività in anonimato e segretezza. La sorveglianza globale nel contesto delle privatizzazioni si serve del codice e dell’autonomia privata, così come la resistenza digitale ricorre alle competenze informatiche e agli spazi di autonomia d’azione dell’individuo. In questo contesto, la garanzia dell’esistenza e dell’esercizio dei diritti fondamentali dell’individuo, tra tutti il diritto alla libertà di espressione e il diritto alla tutela della riservatezza, passa per l’adozione di tecniche e pratiche di autotutela attraverso l’utilizzo di sistemi di cifratura e comunicazioni anonime. L’individuo, in questo conflitto tecnico e sociale, si trova a dover difendere l’esercizio dei propri diritti e finanche l’adempimento ai propri doveri, quando attinenti a particolari figure professionali o sociali, quali avvocati, operatori di giustizia, giornalisti, o anche semplicemente genitori. In conclusione dell’elaborato si propongono alcune riflessioni sulla formazione della cittadinanza e del mondo professionale, da parte dei giuristi delle nuove tecnologie, all’uso cosciente, consapevole e responsabile delle nuove tecnologie dell’informazione, con lo stimolo ad orientare altresì le proprie attività alla tutela e alla promozione dei diritti umani fondamentali, democratici, costituzionali, civili e sociali.

Grauzonen : Funktionsweisen der Beniner Polizei und ihr Verhältnis zur Bevölkerung /// Arbeitspapiere / Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien ; 133

Gewalttätig, korrupt und faul oder eher gesetzestreu, hilfsbereit und freundlich? Diese Abhandlung befasst sich mit der Arbeitsweise der Beniner Polizei und den Bildern, die sie von sich erzeugt und den Eindrücken, die sie bei den Bürgern hinterlässt. Die Arbeit liefert Erkenntnisse über den Aufbau und die Arbeitsweise der Beniner Polizei. Sie verweist auch auf das Konkurrenzverhältnis der Polizei zu anderen Sicherheitskräften, wie etwa der Gendarmerie und sie zeigt, dass sich die Polizeirnin diversen Grauzonen – der Legalität, der Staatlichkeit und der Formalität – bewegt. Informelle Strategien, schleichende Privatisierung und Korruption sichern in einem gewissen Rahmen das Funktionieren der Institution. Diese Schwächen der Institution haben jedoch negative Auswirkungen auf das Bild der Polizei und ihr Verhältnis zu den Bürgern. Nicht das propagierte Ideal einer Polizei, sondern die realen Interaktionen mit ihr dominieren die Wahrnehmung der Bürger von der Organisation.

Review of Complete Crime and Punishment Series

Some examples of topics covered include undocumented immigrants, guns, and terrorism within Crime and Criminal Behavior, vigilantes, Miranda warnings, and zero-tolerance policing within Police and Law Enforcement; insanity laws, DNA evidence, and victims' rights within Courts, Law, and Justice; gangs and prison violence, capital punishment, and prison privatization within Corrections; and school violence, violent juvenile offenders, and age of responsibility within Juvenile Crime and Justice. Note that Sage offers numerous reference works that provide focused analysis of key topics in the field of criminal justice, such as the Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment (2002), the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime (2009), the Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention (2010), the Encyclopedia of White Collar & Corporate Crime (2004), and the Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Violence (2008), available in print or as e-books via Sage Reference online.

The co-evolution of development needs and IOR forms: development by committee in Bosnia

This work highlights opportunities and obstacles to success in four task forces typically found at different times in states of conflict, transition, and development. They include: refugee return, media issues, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and efforts to promote business development. Based on over 180 in-depth interviews and observations of dozens of meetings during five lengthy field research trips to the Bosnian region between 1999 and 2005, this manuscript analyzes how these four task forces differed in terms of context, strategy, organization, and management in an attempt to understand the co-evolution of international development needs and the interorganizational forms that address them.

The Body of Margaret Atwood: Sex Work and Prostitution within Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood

In this paper, I will argue that Canadian author Margaret Atwood uses fiscal and socially conservative dystopias to show how sex work and prostitution are choices that women would never have to make in a world with true gender equality. In these radically different worlds, women have no agency beyond their sexuality and no ability to express themselves as equals within either society. And while the structures of both societies, the society of The Handmaid’s Tale and that of both Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, are inherently different, they both stem from modern conservative philosophies: for example, the country of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale holds Christian conservative beliefs on the role of religion in the state and the culturally designated roles of women. I define social conservatism as the idea that government organizations are used to pursue an agenda promoting traditional religious values such as “public morality” and opposing “immoralities” such as abortion, prostitution, and homosexuality. I define fiscal conservatism as an agenda promoting privatization of the market, deregulation and lower taxes. In this paper I argue that because these philosophies are incompatible with gender equality, they drive women to occupations such as sex work. Women find that they have no choices and sex work provides something to “trade.” For Offred, this “trading” is more limited, because she is a sex slave. For Oryx, this trading allows her to travel to the West, yet not before her childhood is marked by prostitution and pornography. Sex work allows for Ren to reclaim some agency over her life, yet she only chooses sex work because she is presented with few other options. All of these issues stem from the philosophies that define these dystopias.

HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUES IN THE WORKPLACE: THE CASE OF CAMEROON TEA ESTATE (CTE), A RISK COMMUNICATION APPROACH

In 2002, motivated largely by the uncontested belief that the private sector would operate more efficiently than the government, the government of Cameroon initiated a major effort to privatize some of Cameroon’s largest, state-run industries. One of the economic sectors affected by this privatization was tea production. In October 2002, the Cameroon Tea Estate (CTE), a privately owned, tea-cultivating organization, bought the Tole Tea Estate from the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), a government-owned entity. This led to an increase in the quantity of tea production; however, the government and CTE management appear not to have fully considered the risks of privatization. Using classical rhetorical theory, Richard Weaver’s conception of “god terms” (or “uncontested terms”), and John Ikerd’s ethical approach to risk communication, this study examines risks to which Tole Tea Estate workers were exposed and explores rhetorical strategies that workers employed in expressing their discontent. Sources for this study include online newspapers, which were selected on the basis of their reputation and popularity in Cameroon. Analysis of the data shows that, as a consequence of privatization, Tole Tea Estate workers were exposed to three basic risks: marginalization, unfulfilled promises, and poor working conditions. Workers’ reactions to these risks tended to grow more emotional as management appeared to ignore their demands. The study recommends that respect for labor law, constructive dialogue among stakeholders, and transparency might serve as guiding principles in responding to the politics of privatization in developing countries.

The Contested Floodplain. Institutional Change of the Commons in the Kafue Flats, Zambia

The Contested Floodplain tells the story of institutional changes in the management of common pool resources (pasture, wildlife, and fisheries) among Ila and Balundwe agro-pastoralists and Batwa fishermen in the Kafue Flats, in southern Zambia. It explains how and why a once rich floodplain area, managed under local common property regimes, becomes a poor man’s place and a degraded resource area. Based on social anthropological field research, the book explains how well working institutions in the past, regulating communal access to resources, have turned into state property and open access or privatization. The study focuses on the historic developments taking place since pre-colonial and colonial times up to today. Haller shows how the commons had been well regulated by local institutions in the past, often embedded in religious belief systems. He then explains the transformation from common property to state property since colonial times. When the state is unable to provide well-functioning institutions due to a lack in financial income, it contributes to de facto open access and degradation of the commons. The Zambian copper-based economy has faced crisis since 1975, and many Zambians have to look for economic alternatives and find ways to profit from the lack of state control (a paradox of the present-absent state). And while the state is absent, external actors use the ideology of citizenship to justify free use of resources during conflicts with local people. Also within Zambian communities, floodplain resources are highly contested, which is illustrated through conflicts over a proposed irrigation scheme in the area.

Carbon sequestration in community forests: trade-offs, multiple outcomes and institutional diversity in the Bolivian Amazon

Carbon sequestration in community forests presents a major challenge for the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programme. This article uses a comparative analysis of the agricultural and forestry practices of indigenous peoples and settlers in the Bolivian Amazon to show how community-level institutions regulate the trade-offs between community livelihoods, forest species diversity, and carbon sequestration. The authors argue that REDD+ implementation in such areas runs the risk of: 1) reinforcing economic inequalities based on previous and potential land use impacts on ecosystems (baseline), depending on the socio-cultural groups targeted; 2) increasing pressure on land used for food production, possibly reducing food security and redirecting labour towards scarce off-farm income opportunities; 3) increasing dependence on external funding and carbon market fluctuations instead of local production strategies; and 4) further incentivising the privatization and commodification of land to avoid transaction costs associated with collective property rights. The article also advises against taking a strictly economic, market-based approach to carbon sequestration, arguing that such an approach could endanger fragile socio-ecological systems. REDD+ schemes should directly support existing efforts towards forest sustainability rather than simply compensating local land users for avoiding deforestation and forest degradation

Regulation of the Telecommunications in Switzerland: A Network Approach to Assess the Regulatory Agencies' Independence

The liberalization process of the Swiss telecommunications sector follows a logic of ‘autonomous adaptation’ to the regulations of the European Union (EU). Switzerland, which is not a Member State of the EU, voluntarily adapts to the European policy without being for- mally required to do so (Sciarini et al., 2004). This process went hand in hand with the partial privatization of the legal statute and assets of the former monopolist and with the re-regulation of the liberalized telecommunications sector.

Foreign and Domestic Bank Performances: An Ideal Decomposition of Industry Dynamics

The aggregate performance of the banking industry depends on the underlying microlevel dynamics within that industry. adjustments within banks, reallocations between banks, entries of new banks, and exits of existing banks. This paper develops a generalized ideal dynamic decomposition and applies it to the return on equity of foreign and domestic commercial banks in Korea from 1994 to 2000. The sample corresponds to the Asian financial crisis and the final stages of a long process of deregulation and privatization in the Korean banking industry. The comparison of our findings reveals that the overall performance of Korean banks largely reflects individual bank efficiencies, except immediately after the Asian financial crisis where restructuring played a more important role on average bank performance. Moreover, Korean regional banks started the restructuring process about one year before the Korean nationwide banks. Foreign bank performance, however, largely reflected individual bank efficiencies, even immediately after the Asian financial crisis.

Technical Efficiency in Public and Private Sectors in India: Evidence from the Post-Reform Years

While India's state-owned enterprises are widely believed to be inefficient, there is a dearth of studies that document such inefficiency on any rigorous basis. Yet, since improvement in firm efficiency is one of the basic objectives of privatization, it is important to assess whether efficiency is indeed lower in the public sector than in the private sector. This paper compares the performance of state-owned enterprises with those of private sector firms in respect of technical efficiency. The comparison is made in eight different sectors over the period 1991-92 to 1998-99. We measure technical efficiency using the method of Data Envelopment Analysis. Judging by the average levels of technical efficiency, no conclusive evidence of superior performance on the part of the private sector is found.

A Brief History of Affordable Housing Cooperatives in the United States

For over 75 years housing cooperatives have been a source of affordable housing. Currently, the 376,000 dwelling units of affordable cooperatives is equivalent to seventeen percent of the rent reduction units owned by publichousing authorities. Understanding that affordable cooperatives have been developed under varying historical circumstances provides insights on how they could play a role in the future supply of affordable housing. The history of affordable co-ops starts during the 1920s and after World War II with the ethnic, union, and New York government financed co-ops. Through the 1960s and the early 1970s cooperatives were financed by various federal direct assistance programs. Since the late 1970s co-ops have been sponsored by nonprofit organizations and by federal and municipal government privatization programs. A workable institutional structure for affordable cooperatives has developed as a result of this historical evolution.

Productivity Growth and Efficiency in Indian Banking: A Comparison of Public, Private, and Foreign Banks

India's public sector banks (PSBs) are compared unfavorably with their private sector counterparts, domestic and foreign. This comparison rests, for the most part, on financial measures of performance, and such a comparison provides much of the rationale for privatization of PSBs.In this paper, we attempt a comparison between PSBs and their private sector counterparts based on measures of productivity that use quantities of outputs and inputs. We employ two measures of productivity: Tornqvist and Malmquist total factor productivity growth. We attempt these comparisons over the period 1992-2000, comparing PSBs with both domestic private and foreign banks. Out of a total of four comparisons we have made, there are no differences in three cases, PSBs do better in two, and foreign banks in one. To put it differently, PSBs are seen to be at a disadvantage in only one out of six comparisons. It is difficult, therefore, to sustain the proposition that efficiency and productivity have been lower in public sector banks relative to their peers in the private sector.

La función regulatoria del Estado (regulación y prestación de servicios públicos)

El proceso de reforma del Estado experimentado en la Argentina en la década de los 90, significó tanto para las instituciones como para los ciudadanos un cambio profundo en las relaciones que hasta el momento se habían dado entre sociedad y Estado. Los principales instrumentos de este proceso: la desregulación económica, la privatización de servicios y la descentralización de funciones, significaron en su conjunto un cambio sustancial en el papel regulador del Estado, quien deja de ser el prestador, y el corrector de las fallas del mercado, para constituirse ( real o potencialmente) en el garante de su cabal funcionamiento .Sin embargo en el caso de la transferencia de los servicios públicos al sector privado en la Argentina, al haber sido el Estado, el anterior prestador monopólico de los mismos, dejó un vacío que requirió del mismo no ya desregulación sino un nuevo papel regulador, respecto de los prestadores y los usuarios de dichos servicios. En este trabajo se efectúa una descripción de los enfoques económicos y jurídicos desde los cuales se plantea la función regulatoria del Estado a partir del conjunto de leyes, decretos, resoluciones y reglamentaciones del gobierno nacional que significaron cambios importantes en el papel asignado al Estado por el Gobierno en ejercicio durante la última década.