Restructuring Schools in Armenian Neighborhoods: Does Social Capital Matter?
Think Tanks in Armenia: Who Needs their Thinking?
By Yevgenya Jenny Paturyan
Think tanks are considered to be an important part of civil society: providers and keepers of expertise on important social, economic, environmental, political and other issues. Organizations like Chatham House and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace come to mind. In addition to ‘pure’ think tanks, there is a plethora of organizations that combine research with advocacy and action, Transparency International being a prominent example.
The lay of the land: An interview with Hans Gutbrod on think tanks in the South Caucasus
[Editor's note: This is the second in a series of blog posts co-published with On Think Tanks. The views expressed within this blog series are the authors alone, and do not represent the views of CRRC-Georgia.]Interview by Dustin Gilbreath
Thinking about think tanks in the South Caucasus
By: Dustin Gilbreath
Finding work in Armenia and Georgia
CRRC’s third annual Methodological Conference: Transformations in the South Caucasus and its Neighbourhood
Who trusts the police in Georgia?
Junior Fellows at CRRC-Georgia: Facing new challenges
Kundera revisited: Are Armenians longing to leave their country because of unhappiness?
Russia, Georgians, and the State
A taxi driver’s tale, Part 1: Social status in the Georgian labor market
A taxi driver’s tale, Part 2: The poverty of social status in Georgia
This blog post examines how social status is associated with individual and household well-beingVoter Participation and Civic Engagement in Georgia and Armenia
This blog post draws upon official electoral statistics and public opinion survey data from the CRRC Caucasus Barometer (CB) survey to analyze expressions of civic engagement in Armenia and Georgia.Trust in Institutions in the South Caucasus
Do Armenians Still View Integration with the EU as Part of a Positive-Sum Game?
On September 3rd 2013 Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan surprised many observers, including some in his own government, when he announced that Armenia would sign an agreement with Russia to join the Eurasian Customs Union (ECU) and spurn a long-negotiated Association Agreement (AA) with the European Union. The move has been dubbed a “U-Turn” as well as a “sudden shift in policy,” although it was predated by landmark Armenian-Russian agreements in 1997 and 2006.The recent history of the South Caucasus as seen by the world’s media – Part 1, Armenia and Azerbaijan
SME Performance in Georgia and Armenia: Part 1
SME Performance in Georgia and Armenia: Part 2
People to rely on - Georgians and their social networks
Democracy in Georgia
The French Senate Bill and Armenian Perceptions on Turkey
Fatalism and Political Perceptions in Georgia
Social Capital in Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
ETF Migration Survey in Armenia | Update
Nagorno-Karabakh: Prospects for a Difficult Reconciliation (Armenia)
Armenia Civil Society Index | 2009 Findings
Spreading the News: File Sharing through Mobile Phones in Armenia
Conference Summary | "Building Turkish Awareness of Armenian Genocide"
By Ben BronsteinCRRC-Azerbaijan Junior Research Fellows Compete for the Best PowerPoint Presentation
The Caucasus Barometer 2010 Dataset Is Available!
Internet Penetration in Armenia
Blood Donation in the South Caucasus: Refill, Please!
Conference on Social Protection and Social Inclusion in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia
Georgian Social Capital in the Media!
Foreign Policy Perceptions in Turkey | new TESEV report
Carnegie Research Fellowship Program | Winners Announced
Upswing of Transition in Georgia
Material Deprivation in the South Caucasus
Exploring Neighbourhoods in Georgia: Promises and Challenges for Collaboration
In 2011 CRRC conducted a survey on Volunteering and Civic Participation in Georgia. A part of this survey aimed at exploring relationships between neighbours. The results indicate that the relationships between neighbours in Georgia can be a promising starting point for building social capital and achieving improved housing conditions through collaboration.Is the South Caucasus a homogenous region?
Migration from the South Caucasus
Armenian attitudes towards opening the border with Turkey
Armenian Corruption Survey Retrospective | still relevant
Graduation Ceremony for the Junior Fellowship Program in Azerbaijan
Boy or Girl? Child Gender Preference in the South Caucasus
Gender imbalances | The South Caucasus on the top of the list
Abortion rates in the South Caucasus among the highest in the world
Post-Soviet States’ Democratic Decline: Results from Freedom House Report
Respondent Evaluation | A Great Tool for Looking into Survey Interviews
Aleksey Hovakimyan on Rural & Economic Development in Armenia
Armenia’s ranking in the World Governance Indicators
Will You Be My Friend? Gauging Perceptions of Interethnic Friendship in the South Caucasus
Forbidden Love: Attitudes Toward Interethnic Marriage in the South Caucasus
Small changes in corruption rates in the Caucasus
Overcoming Negative Stereotypes in the South Caucasus
The Media in Armenia and Azerbaijan: Effective or Affective?
PISA 2009 | Results for Azerbaijan
TI: Corruption Reigns Worldwide; Georgia Comes Out on Top
Why do so many Armenians leave Armenia?
The Global Broadband Speed Test
Bertelsmann Transformation Index | Using a New Interactive Tool to Analyze the Caucasus
Inflation in Armenia? | Lecture by IMF Representative
Book Review | The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict and Nationhood in the Caucasus | Christoph Zürcher
PISA in Azerbaijan | Take 2 | great maths scores
Philanthropy in Georgia
Brookings Index of Regime Weakness | State Rebuilding or State Collapse in the Caucasus | The Annals of Data
Armenia and Azerbaijan’s Performance | Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Meta-Index
Counting People Makes them Count | Richard Rose
Georgian Party Archive: extraordinary Soviet History
Diaspora Internet Presence | Switzerland and Germany
Study of Economic Relations Between Georgia and Armenia
Religious practices across the South Caucasus | Take two
European Cup Craze : Who Supports Whom in the Caucasus?
Maths in Armenia | comparing through TIMSS
CRRC Publication Research Fellowship 2008 Available
Caucasus Data | Language: Russian versus English?
Diaspora Armenians in Armenian Society: the Problem of Adaptation
PFA Report on “Armenia’s 2008 Presidential Election”
Caucasus Data: Tolerance towards Others
Vouchers for Childbirth | A Field Study
No Adult Male Role Models: Distorting Armenian Male Teenager’s View of Masculinity
Polling Data on Turkish-Armenian Bilateral Relations
South Caucasus Data 2007 on Unemployment
Institutionalization of Ethnic Communities in Azerbaijan
Comparing Civic Participation: Caucasus Data 2007
EBRD Life in Transition Survey | worth analyzing!
Weak State Institutions | Weak Social Capital?
Math and Science in the South Caucasus | TIMSS 2007
Caucasus Election Programs in the 1990s
History vs Public Policy
Framing the South Ossetian conflict
Migration from Georgia: capturing data
Snapshots on Attitudes towards Education
Financial Sector Snapshot - Armenia
A special issue of the Armenian Journal of Public Policy (published by AIPRG, with CRRC's Heghine Manasyan as one of the Editors) is devoted to Financial Sector Development. All the papers are engaging for non-specialists.Reproductive Health in the Caucasus
Student Migration from the South Caucasus
Snapshot: Border Crossing Armenia-Georgia
Gabala Radar Station -- local health awareness
Migration between Georgia and Azerbaijan
Higher Education and Employment -- a broken link
Labor Dynamics in Armenia | Youth Unemployment
Georgians living in Gali
Unemployment in Azerbaijan: Beyond the Economic Consequences
HIV/AIDS: Azerbaijanis' Attitudes and Knowledge Explored
The Dynamics of Diaspora Investment in Armenia
Schoolchildrens' Attitudes in Armenia: What Kind of Impact Has Civic Education Had?
"The Economic Dynamics of the Countries of the South Caucasus"
Civil Society in Post-Soviet Armenia
The study and analysis of civil society and civic participation is a fundamental way of better understanding a region and its processes of development and democratization. Researcher Babken Babajanian has studied civil society and civic participation in post-Soviet Armenia.Prioritizing the personal: People talk more about personal issues than political events
In general people are primarily interested in their own lives, rather than in social or political events. In other words, social and political events will, most probably, be overshadowed by events in one’s personal life. CRRC’s 2015 Caucasus Barometer (CB) survey data provides more detailed insights on this. In this blog post, we compare answers to two CB questions: “When you get together with your close relatives and friends, how often do you discuss each other’s private problems?” and “When you get together with your friends and close relatives, how often do you discuss politics / current affairs?” in Armenia and Georgia.Taking partly free voters seriously: autocratic response to voter preferences in Armenia and Georgia
Do voters in less than democratic contexts matter or are elections simply facades used to create a veneer of democratic accountability for domestic and international actors? Within the Autocratic Response to Voter Preferences in Armenia and Georgia project, funded by Academic Swiss Caucasus Net, CRRC-Georgia and CRRC-Armenia aimed to help answer this question, at least for Georgia and Armenia. On October 27, Caucasus Survey published the results of the project in a special issue, available here.Are Georgians as tolerant as they claim to be?
On 15 November, the Ministry of Culture announced it would give ‘Georgian tolerance’ the status of intangible cultural heritage. Historically, Georgia may have exhibited relatively high levels of tolerance, with many pointing to the reign of King David the Builder in the 12th century. David is celebrated for presiding over the start of the country’s golden age, and many point to his encouragement of other ethnicities settling in Georgia as a good example of Georgian tolerance.Who in Georgia wants to study abroad?
Studying abroad can offer students the opportunity to learn new languages, travel, experience different cultures, and form relationships in addition to studying. The Knowledge of and Attitudes towards the European Union survey (EU Survey) implemented by CRRC-Georgia for Europe Foundation provides information about what share of the population in Georgia would like to go abroad to study, and the demographic characteristics of those who would like to.რა ფაქტორები უწყობს ხელს კარგი სამსახურის შოვნას? მოსაზრებები სომხეთსა და საქართველოში
რა ფაქტორები უწყობს ხელს კარგი სამსხურის შოვნას? ეს კითხვა მთელ მსოფლიოშია მნიშვნელოვანი, განსაკუთრებით კი ქვეყნებში, სადაც მაღალი გაცხადებული უმუშევრობაა. სომხეთი და საქართველო ასეთი ქვეყნების რიცხვს მიეკუთვნება. იმის გასაგებად, თუ სინამდვილეში რა ეხმარება ადამიანებს კარგი სამსახურის პოვნაში, საჭიროა კონკრეტულ ქვეყნებში შრომითი ბაზრის სიღრმისეული კვლევა. თუმცა, აგრეთვე საინტერესოა ხალხის მოსაზრებები ამ საკითხთან დაკავშირებით. CRRC-ის 2017 წლის კავკასიის ბარომეტრის კვლევის ფარგლებში მოსახლეობას სომხეთსა და საქართველოში ჰკითხეს, თუ რა ფაქტორებია მნიშვნელოვანი კარგი სამსახურის საშოვნელად მათ ქვეყნებში.Temporary emigration intentions from Georgia: Do migration networks count?
The UN estimates the number of international migrants worldwide to be on the rise. Academics and policy makers continue to pay considerable attention to drivers of international migration, i.e. the factors that cause people to move from their home country, either temporarily or permanently. While a significant body of scholarship exists on the structural ‘push’ factors of international migration, such as limited economic opportunities, poverty, poor governance, or war in migrants’ home countries, interpersonal factors are no less important in shaping migration. This blog post investigates the latter, seeking to examine how individuals in Georgia with and without close friends and family living abroad differ in their willingness to emigrate from the country temporarily.Which foreign language should children learn in schools in Georgia?
Since Georgia is a small country with a language that people outside the country rarely know, it is not surprising that people in Georgia want their children to know a foreign language. CRRC’s Caucasus Barometer (CB) survey has regularly asked about a foreign language which, in people’s opinion, should be mandatory in secondary schools in Georgia. Since 2009, a majority of people in Georgia have named English as such foreign language, followed, with a large gap, by the Russian language. Other languages were named by less than 2% of the population and less than 10% said that no foreign language should be mandatory.During Sargsyan’s incumbency, dissatisfaction with government grew and support for protest increased
Serzh Sargsyan, formerly the President and then Prime Minister of Armenia, resigned from office on April 23rd, 2018, following 11 days of peaceful protest. Over the past 10 years, which coincide with Sargsyan’s time in office, Armenians were increasingly dissatisfied with their government. At the same time, the country witnessed growing civic engagement, with “youth-driven, social media-powered, issue-specific civic activism,” referred to as “civic initiatives”. CRRC’s Caucasus Barometer data from 2008 to 2017 reflect both these trends.Willingness to temporarily emigrate from Armenia and Georgia: Does fatalism matter?
Scholarship points to a number of factors that contribute to an individual’s willingness to emigrate, either on a temporary or permanent basis. Political, economic, and social conditions are all important variables in the emigration equation. This blog post uses data from CRRC’s Caucasus Barometer survey to see whether or not people who express a willingness to temporarily emigrate from Armenia and Georgia differ from others in terms of the reported belief that people shape their fate themselves. Those who believe so may be more inclined to consider actions such as temporary emigration.Five data points about homophobia in Georgia five years after the IDAHOT riot
Five years ago, on May 17, 2013 a homophobic riot took place in Tbilisi in response to a small LGBTQ rights demonstration on the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. Thousands of protestors, including frocked priests, chased the demonstrators through the streets of Tbilisi as police struggled (some say facilely) to protect the demonstrators from violence. In the time since, LGBTQ rights have remained on the agenda in Georgia, with an anti-discrimination law passed in 2014, which gives some protection to LGBTQ people, and the first openly homosexual candidate running for office in the 2017 local elections. Despite this progress, homophobic and transphobic violence still occurs in the country (for example, see here, here, and here). Five years after the events of May 17, 2013, this article presents five findings from CRRC’s Caucasus Barometer (CB) survey about homophobia in Georgia.Willingness to temporarily emigrate from Armenia and Georgia: Does education matter?
A previous CRRC blog post showed how people’s willingness to temporarily emigrate from Armenia and Georgia varied according to their belief in whether everything in life is determined by fate or people shape their fate themselves. The blog post concluded that compared to people who are not interested in temporary emigration from these countries, those who are tended to believe slightly more often that people shape their fate themselves.How is memory about Stalin kept in contemporary Georgia?
On May 12, 2019, the Joseph Stalin museum hosted a public lecture in his hometown, Gori, dedicated to the “Day of Georgia’s Allotment to the Virgin Mary”, a holiday that the parliament of Georgia minted into the calendar a week prior in special session. Rather than a scene from a postmodern farce or satire, this is Georgian reality. In that reality, memory is bifurcated. As Nutsa Batiashvili has argued, this bifurcation in collective memory presents Georgia as glorious or heroic and wrong or inadequate at the same time. Memory of the legacy of Joseph Stalin in Georgia is no exception to this broader pattern, and the Stalin Museum in Gori is a clear manifestation of this.Why are Georgians Nostalgic about the USSR? Part 1
Several surveys in recent years suggest that close to half of the Georgian public considers the dissolution of the USSR a bad thing. After nearly 30 years since gaining independence, why do so many Georgians look back with nostalgia towards the Soviet Union? Reasons for Soviet nostalgia in other contexts are usually associated with how people experienced transition from state socialism to capitalism. The economic hypothesis explaining nostalgia argues that a perception of being part either “a winner” or “a loser” of the transition is associated with nostalgic feelings towards the Soviet Union. Other hypotheses introduce politics into the equation. According to this explanation, those who reject democracy on ideological grounds are more likely to be nostalgic as are those who think that democratic institutions are too feeble in delivering state services. Are these explanations true for Georgian Ostalgie? This series of blog posts explores these and other potential explanations to Soviet nostalgia.Why are Georgians nostalgic about the USSR? Part 2
Georgians are equally split in their evaluations of the disintegration of the Soviet Union. While younger, more educated, and wealthier Georgians are more likely to think it was a good thing, those with negative attitudes towards democracy, and those that prefer Russia over the West have more negative feelings. Although respondents named multiple factors to explain their dissatisfaction, these categories can be broken into broader constructs such as economic disarray and the political turmoil occurring after the collapse. This post further explores factors associated with positive attitudes towards the dissolution of the Soviet Union.სოციალური კაპიტალი საქართველოში: როგორ მყარდება ნდობა საქმით
Georgian parents are concerned about online learning
Georgia has postponed the reopening of schools in major cities due to a new surge in the pandemic, but what are the biggest concerns Georgians have with the education system?
Georgia’s new academic year started on 15 September, but physical attendance at schools and universities in major cities has been postponed until 1 October.
Georgian parents are concerned about online learning
Talk about political polarisation in Georgia is easy to find. Some have suggested that the recent United National Movement (UNM) announcement that Saakashvili will be their prime ministerial candidate will only make matters worse.
A new data analysis CRRC Georgia released on Tuesday suggests that this may in fact be the case. Data from several years of CRRC Georgia and NDI polling indicates that there are few ideological or policy issues that the supporters of Georgian Dream (GD) and the United National Movement (UNM) disagree about. Rather, attitudes towards politicians and political events are what divides, a fact the public intuitively recognises.
გახდნენ თუ არა ქართველები და სომხები უფრო მეტად ტოლერანტულები სხვა ეროვნების წარმომადგენლების მიმართ?
საქართველოსა და სომხეთში 2009 და 2019 წელს ჩატარებულ კვლევებში მოსახლეობას ეკითხებოდნენ, მოიწონებდნენ თუ არა საქმიან ურთიერთობას და ქორწინებას 12 სხვა ეროვნების წარმომადგენელთან. საინტერესოა, რა გამოავლინა კვლევამ. არიან თუ არა ქართველები და სომხები მეტად ტოლერანტულები სხვა ეროვნების წარმომადგენლების მიმართ?
„კავკასიის ბარომეტრის“ მონაცემების მიხედვით, ქართველები და სომხები უფრო ტოლერანტული არიან სხვა ეროვნების წარმომადგენლებთან საქმიანი ურთიერთობის ქონის მიმართ და საკმაოდ მკაცრი, თუკი საქმე სხვა ეროვნების ადამიანთან ქორწინებას ეხება.
War in Nagorno-Karabakh went unnoticed for a quarter of Georgians
The recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh resulted in thousands of deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands. Yet despite there being a brutal war near its borders, many in Georgia were unaware of the conflict.
Data from the Caucasus Barometer survey indicate that awareness of the conflict’s existence increased shortly after the war in 2020 compared to 2013, but only slightly. In 2013, when the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was ‘frozen’, 66% of Georgians reported they had heard of it. Around a third of the population was not aware of it. In December of 2020, shortly after the 44-day long war, 74% of Georgians reported they had heard of it. A whole quarter (26%) of the population, meanwhile, was not aware of military operations between the country’s two direct neighbours.