WASTA in Arab Societies: Optimizing or Worsening Quality of Life? The Role of Religiosity

IF 1.7 Q2 SOCIOLOGY
Societies Pub Date : 2024-06-27 DOI:10.3390/soc14070101
Ibrahim A. Elsaher
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Abstract

WASTA, a word widely used in Arab society, implies using people’s connections to generate mutual advantages. WASTA is rooted deeply in the culture of Arab societies and has a double effect that stimulates a continuous argument. On one hand, WASTA is considered a valuable social practice that optimizes social bonds and dual support to improve the overall quality of life (QoL) for all parties. In contrast, WASTA is regularly criticized for extending inequality and corruption in the community, which might worsen QoL, taking into consideration the mediating impacts of religiosity. This paper investigated the dual effects of WASTA on QoL and the mediating role of religiosity in Arab societies. Three hundred and ninety small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) owners in Saudi Arabia participated in a self-structured questionnaire that was analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results showed that the appearance of some dimensions of WASTA in Arab societies can optimize QoL. At the same time, other elements can worsen the QoL of the participating parties, but the adverse effect can be mitigated when religiosity is a mediator. These results suggest that WASTA can act as a positive connection method in Arab societies when accompanied by religiosity but can accelerate corruption in its absence; several practical and theoretical implications were discussed and elaborated.
阿拉伯社会中的 WASTA:优化还是恶化生活质量?宗教信仰的作用
WASTA "是阿拉伯社会广泛使用的一个词,意指利用人们的联系来创造共同利益。WASTA 深深扎根于阿拉伯社会的文化之中,具有双重效果,引发了持续不断的争论。一方面,WASTA 被认为是一种有价值的社会实践,可以优化社会纽带和双重支持,从而提高各方的整体生活质量(QoL)。与此相反,考虑到宗教信仰的中介影响,WASTA 经常被批评为扩大了社区中的不平等和腐败,可能会恶化 QoL。本文调查了阿拉伯社会中 WASTA 对 QoL 的双重影响以及宗教信仰的中介作用。沙特阿拉伯的 390 名中小型企业(SMEs)所有者参与了自我结构化问卷调查,并使用 PLS-SEM 进行了分析。结果表明,阿拉伯社会中出现的 WASTA 的某些维度可以优化 QoL。与此同时,其他因素也会恶化参与各方的 QoL,但当宗教信仰作为中介时,这种不利影响可以得到缓解。这些结果表明,在有宗教信仰的情况下,WASTA 可以作为阿拉伯社会的一种积极联系方法,但在没有宗教信仰的情况下,WASTA 可能会加速腐败;讨论并阐述了若干实际和理论影响。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Societies
Societies SOCIOLOGY-
CiteScore
3.10
自引率
9.50%
发文量
150
审稿时长
11 weeks
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