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The elimination of economic impediments and dismantling of trade restrictions have increasingly become a common feature in the economic integration across nations in the world. Many countries in several regions in the world have increased their intra-flows of goods and also inputs. The Arab region has experienced an increase in their labour flows, in particular during the period of oil boom. Consequently, the remittances among the Arab countries registered a steady increase; especially remittances from the Arab Gulf countries (Gulf cooperation council region). Using the panel data fixed effects estimation, the study investigates the relationship between remittances and economic integration in the Arab region covering the period 1983–2003. Despite the rising tide in intra-Arab labour flows, we argue, the harmonisation of economic policies and the removal of further obstacles to intra-labour flows are necessary to give a further fillip to economic integration in the Arab world. Moreover, our work shows that a reduction of the gap between per capita gross domestic products of the Arab countries is important for enhancing Arab economic integration.

This study investigated the association between structural conditions and social incentives and their effect on the ethnic composition of mobile social networks. Regarding structural conditions, we examined the role of the ethnic group’s size, socioeconomic status, and heterogeneity of the city in which the business was located. Regarding social incentives, we investigated the social diversification hypothesis, which expects that residentially and socially segregated minority groups will take advantage of mobile communications to diversify their mobile communication ties with outgroup members.

Two data sets were used. The first was the aggregation of the mobile communication patterns of business customers as measured by one of Israel’s mobile phone operators in April 2010. The database included 9,099 call data records. The second was a data set of the social characteristics of 103 Israeli cities from the Israeli Bureau of Statistics. Both data sets were merged according to the place of residence of each customer.

Israeli Arab businesses in homogeneous Jewish and mixed cities operate in an environment with more structural opportunities to create outgroup ethnic ties than Arab businesses in homogeneous Arab cities. Jewish businesses in ethnically mixed cities have more outgroup mobile ties than comparable businesses in homogenous Jewish cities.

We expand previous models and suggest a structural diversification approach in which ethnic mobile social networks vary across homogeneous and ethnically mixed cities. These variations result in different social incentives as the diversification approach assumed, as well as different structural conditions, as the structural approach indicates.

The chapter looks at policies regarding access to higher education (HE) for the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel (PAMI). Recently, HE among PAMI has expanded compared to previous years, but the proportion of PAMI students in Israeli institutions of HE (14%) is still not equal to the percentage of PAMI (20%). The Council for Higher Education (CHE) in Israel has been trying to increase the accessibility of PAMI students in institutions of HE through the implementation of several projects and academic programs and the expectation of reaching 17% in 2021. The chapter has three main aims: (1) to describe the decisions and recommendations of CHE for increasing the rate of peripheral students in HE, (2) to trace their implementation in HE institutions, and (3) to investigate the influences of these policies in schools through interviews with secondary school principals and secondary students in PAMI schools to understand how they act to improve students’ awareness of these initiatives and to improve access to HE for their graduates. A qualitative-phenomenological study analyzes policy guidelines regarding HE for PAMI as set out by the two main committees established by the Israeli CHE. The findings may have international significance since similar difficulties are encountered in access to HE among underprivileged or peripheral populations in other world states.

This study employs Stein Rokkan's methodological approach to analyse state formation in the Greater Middle East. It develops a conceptual framework distinguishing colonial, populist and democratic pacts, suitable for analysis of state formation and nation-building through to the present period. The framework relies on historical institutionalism. The methodology, however, is Rokkan's. The initial conceptual analysis also specifies differences between European and the Middle Eastern state formation processes. It is followed by a brief and selective discussion of historical preconditions. Next, the method of plotting singular cases into conceptual-typological maps is applied to 20 cases in the Greater Middle East (including Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey). For reasons of space, the empirical analysis is limited to the colonial period (1870s to the end of World War 1). Three typologies are combined into one conceptual-typological map of this period. The vertical left-hand axis provides a composite typology that clarifies cultural-territorial preconditions. The horizontal axis specifies transformations of the region's agrarian class structures since the mid-19th century reforms. The right-hand vertical axis provides a four-layered typology of processes of external intervention. A final section presents selected comparative case reconstructions. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time such a Rokkan-style conceptual-typological map has been constructed for a non-European region.

The nature of the relationship between the Arabs and China in its historical and current dimensions raises the issue of compatibility and coexistence and the possibility of its continuity among nations and cultures. During the fifteenth-century-period, in which Arab–Chinese relations developed, a model of coexistence and harmony between the two civilizations and cultures emerged, which is rare to find in the history of relations between societies and countries. In this chapter, the researchers attempt to return to history to discuss the forms of the development of peaceful relations between China and Arab societies, and the cultural and psychological motives that led to the normalization of political relations in a pattern of mutual respect and peaceful cooperation on many common issues, which still continue to affect positively the relations between China and the Arab world nowadays. The study found that the nature of the eastern mentality of both parties and the positive stereotypes that each side has about the other long time ago have contributed decisively to shaping these relations in the subsequent centuries.

An empirical study of the aspirations of Israeli Arab high school students shows that in comparison with the low educational and occupational attainments of their predecessors, Israeli Arab high school students hold unrealistic, highly optimistic views regarding their future educational and occupational destinations, irrespective of their social origins. These findings contradict extant sociological perspectives, which view the gap between aspirations and destinations as improbable, and to the extent that this gap exists, as an expression of naiveté, ignorance, or non-rationality. The puzzling gaps between aspirations and destinations among Israeli Arab adolescents led to a new model of the production of minority aspirations. This model suggests that high aspirations among minority youth are produced by converging expectations of local community leaders, school personnel, and parents, who actively heat up future aspirations amongst young cohorts. The paper concludes with proposals for comparative studies of minority aspirations in different societies.

Although the phenomenon of the corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) has derived the interest of several scholars, in recent years, the comparative studies between Islamic banks (IBs) regarding CSRD quantity versus quality have not been the subject matter of studies till now. In this perspective, this chapter aims to investigate the importance given by IBs to the quality and quantity disclosure of CSR. Moreover, it seeks to explore the impact of CSRD quality and quantity on the IBs' financial performance (FP). To meet these objectives, we used a sample of 59 IBs from 2011 to 2016 in the Arab world and non-Arab world. Then, by adopting the content analysis approach, the authors constructed two CSRD indexes (quality and quantity). The empirical results indicated that IBs give more importance to the qualitative disclosure than the quantitative. Our findings will be very helpful for the policymakers and the managers of IBs because maintaining a good CSRD policy increases the capacity of IBs to deal with possible reputational events, thus protecting their profits and financial results. As far as the comparison between the Arabian and non-Arabian IBs, based on financial reports and Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) governance standard N°7 is concerned, our study is among the first studies that provides two new CSRD indexes (quantity and quality).

The Arab countries are a complex and diverse world, within which exists a cultural diversity that manifests in multiple dimensions: ethnic, tribal, religious, and linguistic, resulting from history, tradition, and immigration. This chapter aims to shed light on the diversity spread across the Arab countries in general, and on the management of this diversity in businesses. We first offer a general description of the societal context of the Arab countries and then highlight the religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity that exists within this context. In the third and fourth parts of this chapter, we outline the means of managing this diversity.

The research aimed to clarify how supervisors in the Arab education system act to close the achievement gaps and to introduce learning programs that can empower students and improve their achievements. Qualitative research employed in-depth interviews with supervisors in the Arab education system, which constitutes a substantial element of the schools’ governance. The research attempted to answer the following questions: (1) Which steps do education administrators in the Arab education system take to reduce students’ underachievement, widen circles of cooperation and empower change agents during crises that deepen achievement gaps between Arab and Jewish students? (2) Do Arab school supervisors understand their interplay with government policies as empowering or disempowering them to improve students’ achievements and ensure the curriculum’s cultural relevance? (3) To what extent do the supervisors believe that cultural change is required to enable them to empower school communities to become societal innovators for equity, peace and renewal within existing administrative structures?

Research findings were interpreted through the lens of Turbulence Theory (Gross, 2014). Findings indicated that the supervisors strive to improve students’ achievements. A major challenge is to ensure the relevance of learning programs to the school community, while mediating between local community demands and the technocratic accountability imposed by the Ministry of Education for the implementation of its policies. This leadership is isolated in its efforts to establish fairness and education for empowerment and coexistence in a divided society. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.