These five open access factsheets were created following a unique ‘base-superstructure’ dialectical approach. They are useful when working with participants both in training settings, as well as in self-taught learning programs. The goal is to establish the political economy of both sectarianism and coexistence as the foundation for studying Lebanon through following a systematically rigorous approach and analyzing social phenomena and practices. These factsheets are open educational resources (OER) and are intended for awareness raising and as a foundation for further study. Therefore the ...

This study is a first of its kind attempt to integrate the questions of gender and youth into the debate on good governance in the extractive industries sector in the Middle East. This intersectional and diversity management-based approach is already being applied to other sectors of society as we reach the end of the climactic year 2021. We see this research as a contribution to the improvement of the living conditions for everyone in our crisis-ridden part of the world. The main message of this study remains relevant in particular when it comes to good governance and policies even under ...

Based on the concept of ‘affectedness’ (or ‘Betroffenheit’, Mies 1978), this article attempts to demonstrate how all participants in research, education, and social activism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are impacted by the lack of a stable social environment, which is seen as the bedrock of scholarship by mainstream Northern theories and scientific methodologies. Researchers, academics and activists – as part of civil society – must deal with this intentional lack of security, social justice and freedom. In it we can recognize a form of elite-produced, and potentially indefinite, ...

This article is based on a discussion of the scientific concept of ‘Subjectivity’ as proposed by Father George F. McLean, former head of the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (CRVP) at Catholic University, Washington DC. The suggestions contained herein are derived from a Taufer understanding of the concept of the secular state and the "Diaspora Church" taken from the writings of Hans-Juergen Goertz, Paul Peachey, Ernst Troeltsch and John Howard Yoder. Furthermore, it demonstrates that, given an Abrahamic understanding of God, as well as a subjective approach to both state and church, ...

This article deals with the disabilities-employment nexus. Based on an empirical survey of employability of women with disabilities in the Italian province of South Tyrol in 1993, it provides both significant scientific results on the topic, as well as dealing with the theoretical weaknesses and gaps in social science research at the time in Central Europe. At the end of the 20th century, studies on disabilities largely ignored issues related to gender and sexuality. Inversely, work done in the fields of women’s, men’s and gender studies rarely dealt with the problems facing the ‘handicapped’, ...

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