Interpretation and mutability: socio-legal texts of the Quran; three accounts from contemporary Iran

Since the advent of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, radical changes have taken place in the views of many Iranian scholars regarding the nature of religious belief. In particular, the issue of the compatibility or incompatibility of Islam's socio-legal precepts and the challenges of time and space have become a crucial matter for numerous Iranian intellectuals. This paper discusses how three prominent Iranian intellectuals of the post-revolutionary era, namely Mostafa Malekian, Mohsen Kadivar and Hasan Yousefi-Eshkevari, have put forward arguments in favor of the contingent nature of the Quran's socio-legal passages. The paper argues that these scholars challenge the notion of the immutability of the Quran's socio-legal texts, claiming that they could be applied differently depending on the specific time and place. In this sense, the paper establishes the groundwork for showing how these scholars have re-examined traditional understandings of religion in light of the new challenges that are arising in the modern world.     

Retraction Note to: Economic and legal regulation of the use and development of renewable energy sources

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics -     

Third Party Funding in Arbitration: Questions and Justifications

Utility of third party funding is an undeniable fact, especially where a party is under financial strain, yet its increased usage in private arbitration has given rise to a number of substantive and procedural issues. In view of this, the present paper attempts to map the growing utility or otherwise of the mechanism of third party funding, and analyses its various nuances and legal sustainability within the framework of international arbitration. Further, an attempt is made to analyse the ways and means of ameliorating the utility of third party funding and for enhancing its acceptance in the global arbitration community.

     

Implementing management tools in Turkish public hospitals: the impact of culture,politics and role status

The government of Turkey has attempted to substantially improve the management of its public hospitals. However, an analysis of the performance of the quality certified hospitals finds only minor improvements. This study seeks to explain these disappointing results by interviewing 46 hospital managers and employees about the successes and failures of the management reform effort. The interviews suggest that traditional Turkish organisational culture often hinders attempts to decrease hierarchy, but, more positively, it also encourages the use of frontline teams and group rewards. Moreover, Turkey's hybrid system of allowing public doctors to maintain private practices has provided doctors with both the resources and the incentives to fight management reform efforts. Finally, organisational decentralisation in Turkey has evoked fierce political opposition, ironically even from many pro‐modernising forces that fear it could increase the power of Islamic fundamentalists. Turkey's experience suggests a number of broader points about management reform in non‐western societies. It suggests that decentralisation can often impede, rather than strengthen the other aspects of management reform; that a hybrid market organisation is often harder to move toward market efficiencies than a purely governmental one; and that national cultures should help guide the order in which reform tools are implemented. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Solid or Flexible? Social Trust from Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood

The belief that people are generally fair and trustworthy has generated plenty of scholarly attention in recent decades, particularly in the Scandinavian countries, which are often known for high levels of social trust. This article draws attention to the current discussion in the literature on whether social trust is a stable cultural trait marked by persistence or is based on experiences and subject to change throughout life. Based on unique longitudinal data from five different cohorts of young people in Sweden, ranging in age from 13 to 28 years, this article provides an empirical contribution on how social trust develops over time. The results show that there is a greater degree of instability in social trust between 13 and 15 years of age than in other age groups, and that social trust appears to stabilize with age. Findings also indicate that there are substantial inter‐individual differences in social trust among young people within the same age group, both in initial levels and in the rates of change over time. The article concludes that although social trust is relatively stable it tends to crystallize in early adulthood, highlighting the relevance of the impressionable‐years hypothesis.     

Analysing stages of subnational mobilisation across the European Union: The case of subnational administrations in Turkey

Subnational mobilisation literature has tended to focus on EU members and either their establishment of liaison offices or the engagement activities of their subnational administrations (SNAs) with the EU institutions in Brussels. Extending this scope to include cases from a candidate state, this article aims to enhance our understanding of such processes by proposing a four-stage model for subnational mobilisation in the EU. The model includes: growing awareness; changing organizational settings; building transnational activities; and conducting EU-level activities in Brussels. Based on 65 semi-structured interviews with representatives from local and national institutions in Turkey and EU institutions in Brussels, this work evaluates six SNAs from three Turkish cities (?zmir, Samsun and Diyarbak?r) between 1999 and 2013. Findings reveal that patterns of subnational mobilisation can vary significantly within a single candidate country, owing mostly to organizational-level factors and region-specific factors related to how particular administrations are embedded.     

State Transitions from Rigidity to Fragility and Failure: The Case of Middle East and North Africa

ABSTRACT

The taxonomy of the state’s effective governance capacity present in the literature is evolving around state fragility. However, this article argues that a state moves along the state transition curve, resulting in governance capacity variations over time. It begins as a fragile state, consolidating to becoming a vibrant state, only to embark, eventually, on a downward trajectory through phases of rigidity, decaying, and fragility, before becoming a failed state. About one-third of MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries are either fragile or failed states. Only technological change and knowledge accumulation and diffusion can shift this curve upward, thereby increasing a state’s effective governance capacity.     

The influence of emotional intelligence on leadership styles: A profile of executives in ASEZA organization

This article reports new insight into the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) dimensions and leadership style at the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA). Multiple regression results have revealed a negative significant association between EI and leadership style in three major dimensions of EI, namely, self‐awareness, motivation, and empathy. Stepwise regression analysis revealed a significant positive association of self‐regulation and social skills dimensions on ASEZA's leadership style. Results further indicated that there are no significant differences between the dimensions of EI and demographic factors as well as between leadership and undertaken demographic factors. However, no research has focused on the relationship between EI and leadership style in ASEZA‐Jordan context. The current research identified this gap in the literature by connecting leadership through EI. Implications are that leaders lacking all or some EI dimensions are less likely to have a healthy relationship with their subordinates and are likely to be classified as being ineffective leaders. Organizations could benefit from being able to differentiate ineffective leaders from leaders who suffer from some or all EI dimensions. Therefore, the lack of some major EI dimensions in an organization like ASEZA negatively influences its competitive advantage as well as its performance.