Dr. Adel Karaa

Date of visit: 19 November 2023 to 22 December 2023 (Philipps-Universität Marburg)

Dr. Adel KARAA is a Full Professor of Quantitative Methods at the Higher Institute of Management-University of Tunis, Member of the National Recruitment Committee of Full and Associate Professors in Quantitative Methods in Tunisia. He is also director of the Graduate School of Management Science and Management Computing of ISGT-ESSECT-TBS, University of Tunis.

Activities:

• Lecture on the topic “Towards an Integrated Model of the Mediating Effect of the Process of Individual Perceptions on the Relationship Between Job Quality and Mobility Intentions” as part of the MACIE Research Seminar (Marburg Center for Institutional Economics)  (30 November 2023)

Project carried out during the visit:

Do better employment conditions reduce migration and professional mobility intentions among higher graduate workers in Tunisia? An integrated model of real and perceived job quality.

The aim of this research is to establish an analytical framework for a better comprehension of the phenomena of migration and occupational mobility (turnover), which are increasingly prevalent among young graduates in Tunisia. Faced with the general deterioration in working conditions and job quality in the country, many of young graduates are more and more enticed to seek opportunities elsewhere in the hope of finding better living conditions.

Based on individual data from a survey of a representative sample of 814 higher education graduates working in various sectors and covering all regions of Tunisia, the study used an appropriate theoretical and empirical approach to develop an integrated model that schematically represents the process of managing individual career trajectories in the face of the diverse working conditions and job quality. By retaining a wide range of characteristics (salary, type of contract, social security cover, working conditions, holidays, health insurance, working hours, etc.), empirical investigations have revealed the high degree of heterogeneity in the jobs held by young graduates. In this respect, a typology of jobs is established, showing the existence of five categories that differ according to employment status (salaried vs. self-employed), degree of informality and quality of (environment) working conditions.

The estimated results of the aforementioned model corroborate also the mediating role of the cognitive, affective and emotional dimensions in the relationship between the type of occupation (i.e. objective dimension) and the mobility intentions (i.e. conative dimension) among young graduate workers in Tunisia. One of the main practical implications of this research suggests the need for intervention policies aimed at improving employment conditions, workplace quality and organizational practices that are supportive of employee well-being.

Dr. Elizabeth Bishop 

Date of visit: 1 October 2023 to 30 November 2023 (Philipps-Universität Marburg)

Dr. Elizabeth Bishop joined Texas State’s History Department during 2008 with a PhD from the University of Chicago. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in her areas of her scholarly expertise—the history of the Middle East, Postcolonial Arab history, the history of the Global Cold War. You can visit her profile here.

Activities:

• Conversation with Diana Abbani on the TRAFO Blog for Transregional Research under the title “Arab Engagement at the World Festival of Youth and Students in the USSR in 1957– A Conversation with Elizabeth Bishop”  (15 April 2024)
• Lecture on the topic “Ghosts of Empire in Algeria and Egypt” as part of the seminar “Comparative History of Ottoman and European Imperialism” (Nessim Znaien) (8 November 2023)
• Lecture on “Cholera and Colonialism in the Maghrib: 1830-1837” as part of the seminar “History of the Epidemic, Hygiene and Care in the Maghreb” (Nessim Znaien) (15 November 2023).

Project carried out during the visit:

Under the slogan, “with diplomas, we will not make better corpses”, the UGEMA (L’Union générale des étudiants musulmans algériens) called an indefinite strike for 19 May 1956; this strike marked a turning point in Algeria’s national liberation struggle; with (and without) diplomas, organizers of the students’ strike became leaders for the new nation, eventually serving as cabinet ministers, diplomats, and general directors for the state petroleum company after independence. Understanding MECAM’s primary aim is to create a high-quality and flexible setting for peer-to-peer exchange and debate, I would complete revisions on a monograph regarding UGEMA which was active between 1955 and 1962. Research on this student organization after World War II relates directly to MECAM’s guiding theme “Imagining Futures: Dealing with Disparity” because the population estimate of 1955 introduced a term (“Français d’origine algérienne”) which represented a form of institutionalized disparity, and these students’ struggle for legal recognition brought them into the “imagined future” of the Front de libération nationale (FLN), which culminated in recognition of a République algérienne démocratique et populaire (RADP). Research on UGEMA also relates directly to MECAM’s IFG V, “Identities and Beliefs” because the students attained their legal status through France’s Law of Associations (1901), that guaranteed their administrative autonomy based on their cultural identity.