4 Dissertationen und Habilita- tionen / Dissertations and Habilitations

VORTRÄGE 18. DAVO-KONGRESS PAPERS DAVO CONGRESS 2011
sentation on their profitability and share prices. The
results show that some factors positively impact nominating
women directors. Those factors are; advanced
education, owning a variety of work experience,
membership in /certified from professional organizations,
having the right connections either political or
business, having a record of accomplishments, ability
to devote quality time, and finally, younger women is
preferable for board positions. Although the participation
of women directors in the most active publicly
traded 50 companies in the Egyptian market doesn’t
seem to have statistically significant impact on profitability
or share prices, firms with women directors
outperformed average profitability ratios and share
prices.
This finding calls for further researches with wider
sample, considering different factors such as number
of women directors serving on every board. Some
recommendations were reached to be implemented by
the market players, which are the regulators that need
to enforce the “comply or explain”, the companies to
establish and disclose a diversity policy, and the
NGO’s to increase awareness of social or cultural aspects,
such as the existence of stereotypes and opinions
about appropriate roles of genders in the society.
Sabine Hofman (Berlin): Business Women in the
Internet Economy
The presentation concentrates on women with a
strong affiliation to the Haredi population and the internet
economy and business in Israel. Using remarks
such as management, entrepreneurship, and ownership
the presentation elaborates and analyses four
groups of business women doing business in the
Haredi sector.
Summarizing, among Haredi women doing business
in the internet economy both development tendencies
are identified: business by opportunity, and an increasing
absorption in the modern internet economy
by necessity. These processes are supported and financed
to a certain degree by the government to reduce
the non-employment rate and poverty rate in the
Jewish Israeli population. Since the middle of the
1990s, female business in the web economy have
been generating growing acceptance in Haredi affiliated
social groups and in the political debate. But for
the longer term the influence on the whole society and
political landscape are still underestimated, for example
the growing number of women working in internet
economy companies established in the occupied Palestinian
territories, exclusively for adopting female
Haredi settlers.
Martina Zintl (St. Andrews): Euro-Mediterranean
Players par excellence? Conceptionalizing Transnational
Arabs' Logics of Action
This presentation investigates the logics of actions of
foreign-educated Arab expatriates and return migrants,
who do not fit into existing dichotomies between
"north" and "south". As ‘transnational’ persons
they possess specific traits and tools that are benefi-
cial not only to themselves but also to other agents in
their home and host society.
Mainly drawing on interviews with foreigneducated
Syrian returnees, this paper explores not only
how they position themselves between different
states and societies but also how both the native and
the host country try to tap their resources. Also, it
shows how these interactions have been affected by
the Arab Spring 2011:
Authoritarian Arab states' perceive them in an ambiguous
way: Unable to ignore transnational reality,
they co-opted foreign-educated citizen into modernizing
projects aimed at authoritarian upgrading but simultaneously
feared oppositional influence from
abroad, especially as the Arab Spring develops.
European and other Western actors have been treating
them as preferred “modern and secular” cooperation
partners, thereby unintentionally assisting Arab
governments' strategies at marginalizing "fundamentalist"
Islamic actors. Now, faced by completely new
political dynamics, they might reconsider their choice
of partners yet, as this paper argues, they will continue
favoring those who are, due to their transnational
assets, on same wavelength.
Transnational persons thus find themselves between
these conflicting narratives and centers of power.
They can be indispensable interlocutors or unpredictable
roamers and make use of their “transnationality”
according to specific incentives they face.
8. Islamische Autorität(en) in muslimischen
Minderheitskontexten
Philipp Bruckmayr (Wien): Die Geschichte dreier
Führer: Religiöse Autorität unter den Cham
Kambodschas
Seit den späten 1990ern erkennt der kambodschanische
Staat offiziell zwei verschiedene islamische
Glaubensgemeinschaften an. Die numerisch dominante
Gruppe wird seitdem durch den Mufti von Kambodscha,
Sos Kamry, repräsentiert, während der anderen
der On G’nur (verehrte Meister) Kai Tam vorsteht.
Zweifelsohne wichtige religiöse Autoritäten innerhalb
ihrer jeweiligen Gruppierungen, und zudem
staatlich gestützt, sind diese beiden jedoch keineswegs
die einzigen großen religiösen Führer unter der
lokalen muslimischen Cham-Minderheit, welche ca.
5 % der Gesamtbevölkerung ausmacht.
Unberührt von offiziellen Kontakten zum Staat präsidiert
Suleiman Ibrahim, der lokale Führer der Tablighi
Jama’at, nicht nur über die größte Moschee des
Landes sondern ist auch Bezugspunkt für die beständig
wachsende Anhängerschaft dieser transnationalen
islamischen Organisation, die sich lokal zu einer Massenbewegung
entwickelt hat. Diese dominanten Führerfiguren
stellen bezeichnenderweise drei verschiedene
Typen moderner fragmentierter islamischer Autorität
dar: ein klassischer staatlich gestützter und den
Staat stützender ‛alim; eine „Krisenautorität“, welche,
durch ihre sichtbare Verbindung zu einer zuvor bereits
fast verschwundenen lokalen Tradition, in Folge
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