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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.

This work analyzes female immigrants’ integration in the dimensions of education, labor market participation and fertility in 15 European countries, considering individual characteristics, including cultural background, host countries’ attitudes towards immigrants, the role of women in the family and country-specific integration policy. All these aspects taken together are crucial to understand the main patterns of integration focusing on gender differences.

We focus on second- and first-generation male and female immigrants between the age of 25 and 41, with a length of stay of at least ten years. Enrollment ratios for tertiary education in parents’ countries, the total fertility rate and the female labor force in the mother’s country represent ethnic background. Diversity in the destination regions is captured by local attitudes towards immigrants, the perceived role of women and national policies to integrate migrants [Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX)]. The data are drawn from the European Social Survey (ESS) for 2010–2018. Our results are based on ordinary least squares (OLS) and logit estimates; multilevel analysis was conducted.

We find significant evidence of gender role transmission from mother to daughter; age at immigration seems to be crucial to examine the importance of the culture of origin among immigrants. However, females are responsive to attitudes toward immigrants and gender equality in receiving societies, while integration policies, by defining the set of opportunities, may contribute to both genders’ tertiary education and women’s probability of being in the labor force.

This work underlines that integration policies favoring equal rights as nationals may contribute to both women’s tertiary education and their probability of being in the labor force.

We explore female integration in Europe in the dimensions of education, labor market, fertility and the role of both immigrants’ cultural heritage and specific aspects of destination countries. Previous research, particularly in the USA, has generally focused on some of these features at the expense of a more comprehensive approach. This study builds upon the existing literature and contributes to it by taking a multifaceted approach to female integration in Western Europe, which presents not only an institutional context different from the USA but also some heterogeneity with respect to integration policies and socioeconomic factors.

In this article, the authors analyse a complex social process affecting historic public paths in rural areas in southern Spain. Despite the fact that urban populations are demanding the enhancement of this type of natural heritage for tourism, sports and recreational use, some parts of the network have been abandoned or usurped.

The study is multidisciplinary, comprising three interlinked studies. The cartographic study comprises an inventory of public paths in rural areas based on administrative sources. The legal study analyses local, regional and national regulations governing agricultural, environmental, heritage, sports and tourism uses of the infrastructure. The sociological study analyses social discourses on the uses of public paths, and identifies conflicts between farmers, landowners, environmentalists, sportspeople and tourists.

The preliminary results identified an important public paths network in Andalusia, approximately 160,000 km. The legal study found that there are laws regulating use, although local authorities do not monitor compliance or provide solutions to enhance management. The sociological study determined the attribution of environmental, cultural and economic value to public paths, but also the existence of conflicts between rural and urban populations.

Given that this is ongoing research, only state of the art and some preliminary albeit sufficiently consistent results are presented.

The results could help to guide public policy and governance of public paths.

Public paths promote rural development and a green/sustainable economy.

The research results and conclusions are original.

This paper aims to appraise the effectiveness of gender quotas in breaking the glass ceiling for women on boards (WoBs) in companies that are legally obliged to comply with quotas (listed companies and state-owned companies, LP) and in those that are not (unlisted companies and nonstate-owned companies, NLNP). Furthermore, it investigates the glass cliff phenomenon, according to which women are more likely to be appointed to apical positions in underperforming companies.

A balanced panel data of the top 116 Italian companies by total assets, which are present in both 2010 and 2017, is used for estimating ANOVA tests across sectors and fixed-effects panel regression models.

WoBs significantly increased in both the LP and the NLNP companies, and this increase was greater in the financial sector. Furthermore, the relationship between the percentage of WoBs and firm performance is not linear but depends on the financial corporate health. Specifically, the situation in which a woman ascends to a leadership position in challenging circumstances where the risk of failure is high (glass cliff phenomenon) is only present in companies with the lowest performance in the sample, in other words, when negative values of Roe and negative or zero values of Roa occur together.

These findings have relevant policy implications that encourage the adoption of gender quotas even in specific top positions, such as CEO or president, as this could lead to a “double spillover effect” both vertically, that is, in other job positions, and horizontally, toward other companies not targeted by quotas. Practical interventions to support women in glass cliff positions, on the other hand, relate to the extent of supervisor mentoring and support to prevent women from leaving director roles and strengthen their chances for career advancement.

The authors explore the ability of gender quotas to break through the glass ceiling in companies that are not legally obliged to do so, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, for the first time, the glass cliff phenomenon in the Italian context.

In contrast to Ahmet Kuru's argument that a critical juncture occurred in the 11th century when a repressive anti-intellectual state-ulema alliance appeared, which destroyed the creative spirit of the previous centuries in Islam, this review argues that the critical juncture must be sought in the modern era with the development of citizenship in the Middle East.

This chapter aims to estimate the impact of the use of an innovative cultivation method on the social, economic and environmental aspects in the French region Aix-en-Provence, by using the survey data for 200 heterogeneous vegetable producers (organic and conventional). It distinguishes three types of producers in the French region Aix-en-Provence. First, conventional producers (n = 100) who used a high level of mechanization, better access to water, high yield, high labor costs. Second, certified organic producers (n = 70) who used organic technologies such as biotechnology and rotation, low yield, high organic product price compared to conventional products, a family workforce and high transport. Third, noncertified organic producers (n = 30) have used the same technologies as certified organic producers, while they sell their products at the same price as conventional products. Labor is the member of the family. These noncertified farms are marked by high operating and transport costs and low yield compared to conventional producers or certified organic producers. The results show that this cultivation method has a positive effect on the environmental aspect, however a negative one on the social and economic aspect.

Information and communications technology (ICT) is helping to create a sustainable information society and foster development. This study aims to investigate the interdependencies of organisational flexibility enabled by ICT, demographics and containment measures in the ever more dismal economic performances seen during COVID-19 with a view to preparing socio-economic systems for similar future shocks.

Using non-classical fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, the authors are able to capture the asymmetric relationships and complexities found in real life.

Analysing data acquired from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker and Eurostat, the authors find these conditions give mixed results depending on how they are combined. The results imply that countries under strict containment measures might only be able to survive when fully equipped with ICT solutions. E-commerce also plays an important role in countries with a below-average decrease in their growth rate. Put differently, the presence and absence of telework produces mixed results. If the population is old, telework seems to generate the desired outcomes. Yet, when the population is young, it might be more beneficial to avoid this practice.

Unlike studies that mainly assumed symmetrical effects and linear relationships, this study investigates the interdependencies of organisational and macro-level factors. On the micro level, this study is useful for managers allocating IT investments for any future occurrence of a general disaster/pandemic. On the macro level, the study can act as an example for the rest of the world regarding the appropriateness of assorted COVID-19 pandemic responses as witnessed in European countries.

The aim of this chapter is to investigate the immigrant women entrepreneurship phenomenon by analysing management academic literature on the issue. Stemming from the most current data on immigration and from the awareness that entrepreneurship is a viable instrument of immigrant (women) integration and inclusion, this chapter analyses the most updated management results on the issue. The analysis is mainly centred on works published after 2019, and some interesting insights emerge. Among them, we can refer to the awareness that research on immigrant women entrepreneurship is still in its infancy. Although, indeed, immigrant entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs have been analysed considerably by researchers, it has been mainly in isolation. Therefore, room for investigating still exists, and this chapter uncovers some possible future research avenues. Moreover, by reviewing the selected papers, it clearly emerges that not all immigrant women entrepreneurs are alike; different targets (that is, different ethnicities) must be addressed differently by policy makers when policy measurements are identified. In other words, generic programmes aimed at increasing entrepreneurship among immigrant women cannot necessarily be successful.

The aim of this study is to determine the fracture behavior of wool felt and fabric based epoxy composites and their responses to electromagnetic waves.

Notched and unnotched tensile tests of composites made of wool only and hybridized with a glass fiber layer were carried out, and fracture behavior and toughness at macro scale were determined. They were exposed to electromagnetic waves between 8 and 18 GHz frequencies using two horn antennas.

The keratin and lignin layer on the surface of the wool felt caused lower values to be obtained compared to the mechanical values given by pure epoxy. However, the use of wool felt in the symmetry layer of the laminated composite material provided higher mechanical values than the composite with glass fiber in the symmetry layer due to the mechanical interlocking it created. The use of wool in fabric form resulted in an increase in the modulus of elasticity, but no change in fracture toughness was observed. As a result of the electromagnetic analysis, it was also seen in the electromagnetic analysis that the transmittance of the materials was high, and the reflectance was low throughout the applied frequency range. Hence, it was concluded that all of the manufactured materials could be used as radome material over a wide band.

Sheep wool is an easy-to-supply and low-cost material. In this paper, it is presented that sheep wool can be evaluated as a biocomposite material and used for radome applications.

The combined evaluation of felt and fabric forms of a natural and inexpensive reinforcing element such as sheep wool and the combined evaluation of fracture mechanics and electromagnetic absorption properties will contribute to the evaluation of biocomposites in aviation.