Social Studies

The aim of the study was to assess the anxiety, social skills and coping skills of underprivileged children. The objective was to undergo transformation for better adaptability with self and environment by integrating thoughts, feelings and behavior through art. These children were in the age of M- 10.6 years, SD-0.5 and education M-15.06 years, SD- 0.45, from a village in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Intellectual functioning of these children was below average in vernacular system of education in their area. Gestalt therapy was applied through art and creative activities to reduce anxiety of children and increase their social and coping skills. In the Experimental group 15 boys and girls were exposed to Gestalt therapy for three months thrice a week. The control group was seen once in a week for the same period which also consisted of 15 boys and girls. Pre and post measures were assessed on Paediatric Anxiety Rating Scale, Social Skills Form and Children’s Coping Behaviour Questionnaire for the assessment of their, anxiety, social and coping skills respectively. Parents and teachers were also involved in the process of assessment and evaluation. Intellectual functioning was assessed through Standard Progressive Matrices. Outcome variables of Paediatric Anxiety Rating Scale suggested reduction in their anxiety and increase in verbal pragmatics and social behaviour following diminution of fear and avoidance as per findings on Social Skills Form. Children’s ameliorative coping augmented than destructive coping in their day to day life. The results showed an improvement in the level of severity of anxiety symptoms and coping strategies – problem solving. The severity of anxiety symptoms showed a decrease by 35%.The coping skills – problem solving improved by 25%.

Islamic finance is currently the fastest growing segment in the world economy. Apart from providing funds for investment activities and eventually promoting economic development, it is interesting to understand the implication of Islamic finance development on the development of institutional quality of host country. With Islamic finance is based on Islamic values of no oppression, profit and loss sharing and helping-hand concept, it is expected that the rapid growth of Islamic finance will help to promote good institutions. Hence, focusing on several OIC countries with Islamic banking sector, this study examines the role of Islamic banking on institutional quality for the period between 2001 and 2015. The result shows the institutional quality depends on economic growth and Islamic finance development. Policy makers are encouraged to spur economic activity and the growth of Islamic banking in promoting good institutions.

This study aims to examine the effects of macroeconomic variables on non-oil exports in Iran, for the period of 1965-2010. The paper employs the ordinary least square (OLS), unit root tests and co-integration technique of Johansen as analytical tools. Result found indicates that the positive significant effects of real gross domestic product and free market exchange rate on non-oil exports. While, the effect of inflation rate on non-oil exports have been found insignificant with unexpected positive sign.

War is the greatest catastrophe that brings death and destruction, merciless slaughter and butchery, disease and starvation, poverty and ruin in its wake. A disturbing side of modern wars is that they tend to have global implications. The psychological and economic impact of war on their belligerent societies is huge. Terrorism is driven by politics even when the justifications given for the killing of innocents and the recruiting tools of terrorist groups are cast in religious, ethnic, linguistic or moral terms. The war in Syria is a befitting example. The image of Aylan Kurdi, the small Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach, was so heart wrenching that the European politicians and the public opened their arms and their hearts to these refugees. It is high time that the regimes should realize that there are other choices to violence and its attendant terror to gain what they want. The paper seeks to explore the reasons behind the Syrian War and to analyze the deplorable condition of the Refugees. 

Women empowerment is a multi-dimensional nature of power suggest that empowerment strategies for women must build on „the power within? as a necessary adjunct to improving their ability to control resources, to determine agendas and make decisions. Though the Garowe II Principles agreed in February 2012 stipulated that women will get a minimum 30% representation in Federal Parliament, they only secured 38 out of 275 (14%). Somali women lack equal participation and representation both in politics and private sector despite the fact of transforming gender role in Somali where more women become household heads and making up over 60% of the country. In addition, Somali is one of the countries with the highest level of Gender inequality and it is ranked fourth with the Gender Inequality Index of 0.776. To respond to these challenges there have been international and local efforts made for country?s gender empowerment and among the gender sensitive programs activities included; offering technical advice and capacity building support to the government and civil societies in the review of existing gender policies and legislation, building up the organizational capacity of women?s groups and networks to mobilize and advocate for gender equality across the public and private sectors, improving skills of key stakeholders such as traditional and religious leaders to promote gender equality and women empowerment. More specifically, in 2011, US African Development Foundation (USADF) has established a gender sensitive program in Somalia with the primary goal of improving the standard of living June 2013 through addressing a youth job and enterprise placement program preceded by on-the-job training. But there was knowledge gap about the role of gender sensitive programs on women empowerment and gender inequality in Somalia. This study therefore aimed to bridge this knowledge gap by investigating the role of gender sensitive programs on gender empowerment in Somalia and more specially, the objective of this study is to investigate the role of gender sensitive programs on women empowerment in Somalia case study USADF training and placement program.

This paper titled “ethical evaluation of the impacts of mining in Ebonyi State, Nigeria” was carried out to find the extent to which mining operations in Ebonyi State were consistent with named ethical principles. It was geared toward unearthing the history of mining in Ebonyi State, examining the impacts of mining in Ebonyi State and evaluating the impacts of mining in the light of some ethical principles. Data were collected through oral interviews and use of available data in printed records, reports journals, text books and so on. The following were the findings of this research:In the early 30’s, local miners in Ebonyi State (the villagers) engaged in artisanal quarrying/ mining of lead employing local methods before the coming of expatriate miners in the early 40’s. Mining has impacted positively in various dimensions to the development of the State; the negative impacts are however severe and include habitat modification, deforestation, contamination of air, land pollution, underground and surface water pollution, destruction of roof tops through fly-rocks, soil erosion, crack effect on houses resulting from blasting, noise pollution, socio-political impacts and so on. The impacts were found to be a negation to the ethical principles of justice, human rights and sustainability. The viable means of ameliorating the impacts were found to include: value re-orientation and education of miners to appreciate the above ethical principles; organizing awareness campaigns and sensitization programme for people living in mine areas; diversification of the economy of Ebonyi State through prioritizing agriculture in order to shift emphasis from mining; organizing artisanal miners into groups and co-operative societies for easy training and monitoring; enforcement of mine closure, revegetation and resettlement of fauna.

The goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between export and economic growth for the Iranian economy over the period of 1966-2006. The study applies several econometric techniques that involve: unit root test, cointegration test, impulse response function (IRF), and Toda & Yamamoto (1995) causality test. The findings of the unit root test indicate that two variables are stationary in their levels. Result of cointegration confirms the existence of the long run relationship between export and growth in Iranian economy. Finally, the finding of Toda and Yamamoto test indicate the bidirectional causality between export and growth.

‘Change’ is the campaign strategy Alhaji Mohammadu Buhari used in emerging the winner in the March, 28, 2015 Presidential election in Nigeria. Recently, Nigerians took to the online media to discuss the nature of the ‘change’ the president promised during his election campaign. This article explored the online discourse on the ‘Change’ agenda based on the context of Public Sphere Theory. The study used survey with a questionnaire as the instrument for data collection to sample 300 academic staff in the South-East geo-political zone in Nigeria to determine if their use of online media induced their participation in the discourse on ‘Change’ agenda and the credibility of the discourse. The study found that exposure to online media discourse is associated with political participation. online media platforms did not only provided avenues for political interaction but also effective in persuading participation in the discussion of matters of public interest like the ‘Change’ Agenda of the government. The study, therefore, recommends that citizens should utilize the opportunity presented by the online media platforms to present public service agenda which can attract attention to the essence of participating in governance and holding people in the position of authority accountable.

This paper reviews teaching strategies that secondary school (SL) teachers generally used for teaching of Pakistan Studies. Data for the study was collected from SL teachers through a questionnaire. Findings report that SL teachers consider memorisation of taught concepts as the main objective of teaching of Pakistan studies. Teachers perceive that oral lectures cannot develop in students’ desired traits of a citizenship and social values. Lecture strategy was found main strategy for teaching of Pakistan studies at SL. Inquiry or project strategies are usually not used for teaching of Pakistan studies, teachers generally do not plan lesson, they do not use maps or other aids for teaching of content about location, etc. Due to non availability of teaching aids in secondary schools. Pakistan studies may be taught through projects relating to students’ real life. Use of audio visual aids can make learning of Pakistan studies interesting for students. Resources like audio visual aids relating to the content of Pakistan studies for SL may be provided in schools.

In many countries tourism has become a source of wealth and growth, this sector is perceived as a pillar of the national economy. This study examines causal relationships between tourism receipts and economic growth in Tunisia for the period 1965–2012. Granger causality test is used herein to assess the contribution tourism makes to economic growth. Our empirical results support the evidence on the direction of causality. The results indicate that only the tourism receipts affect GDP and not the other. Despite the importance of this sector, its contribution has slowed in recent years. Should therefore encourage manager’s hotels to improve their strategic policies, diversify their products and gain a competitive advantage.