Workplace Friendships among Bank Employees in Eastern Libya

The purpose of this study was to examine workplace friendships among 536 employees of Wahda Bank in four cities in Eastern Libya. In this study, a Workplace Friendship Scale (WFS) was used to assess opportunities for and the presence of friendships. Participants in this study reported mainly positive friendships at the workplace. Participants of different gender, ages, education levels, cities, and durations of work in different departments reported various opportunities for workplace friendships. However, marital status and type of occupation were not significantly related to friendships at the workplace. Findings suggest both similar and unique patterns of friendships compared to those studied outside Libya.     

Femonationalism and populist politics: The case of the Swiss ban on female genital mutilation

This article examines configurations of Swiss national identity that were generated in the course of the drafting of the 2012 Female Genital Mutilation Act, a new law that seeks to regulate practices of female genital modification (including female circumcision and genital cosmetic surgery). Our analysis of Swiss parliamentary debates on this legislative proposal between 2005 and 2011 shows that Swiss MPs came to depict female circumcision as a threat to the Swiss nation but portrayed genital cosmetic surgery carried out in Swiss clinics as a signifier of “Swissness.” The Swiss debates over women's genital modifications produced an unusually high level of political unanimity between pro‐feminist left‐wing MPs and anti‐feminist conservative and populist MPs, all of whom claimed to defend women's rights. In this process, MPs formulated criteria for membership and non‐membership of the Swiss nation which, we argue, reflect wider political dynamics, best understood through the lens of femonationalism.     

Milieux innovateurs: Determinants and policy implications

National and regional differences are more and more frequently explained by differences in milieux. This type of explanation raises three questions: Can we identify milieux? What are the determinants of milieux? Are there differences between industries in the matter of determinants of milieux? Most studies on milieux innovateurs are based on case studies and qualitative data. This paper is quantitative and comparative in nature. It attempts to identify milieux and their determinants by using data from the 1999 Statistics Canada Innovation Survey. Based on two synthetic indicators of interactions (weak/strong) and learning (weak/strong), four categories of milieux innovateurs are differentiated which become the dependent variables. In order to see what the determinants of the various milieux innovateurs are and to see in what ways the most favorable milieux innovateurs compare to the others, binomial logit models have been estimated for four industries using the following independent variables: competitive pressures, barriers to knowledge exchange, use of government support, number of employees, collaborative arrangements, R&D activities, regions.