Arevik Anapiosyan Critical Thinking as an Instrument for Conflict Resolution
The researcher works at the Centre for European Studies at Yerevan State University and is enrolled in a Phd program at the department of Political Science. In the context of the on going discussions in the higher education policy community regarding the Bologna process, the fellow’s research aims to reflect the interwoven and explosive nature of today’s reform priorities. The main research focus is the capacity of higher education institutions to foster the culture of critical thinking. While assuming that the Armenian education system currently fails to adequately teach students to think critically, the researcher is set to evaluate whether the universities are able to educate students to live in a different post-Soviet society and guide them through the process of civic literacy. Importantly, drawing on the social psychology literature, she suggests that there is a positive correlation between the strength of critical thinking facilities and inter-group prejudice reduction. Thus, the researcher argues that critical thinking has the potential to offer feasible steps toward resolving and reconciling Armenia’s socio-political conflicts with its neighbors. Based on a comprehensive study to be conducted in four state and six non-state universities, Anapiosyan hopes to advance policy recommendations for key stakeholders to overcome existing challenges.
Olya Azatyan How to Make a Successful Policy Transfer
Olya Azatyan, projects support officer at the British Embassy Yerevan, aims to formulate a concrete policy design for a successful policy transfer. She asserts that the Armenian government has failed in policy transfer in the field of healthcare, education, elections, public services, taxation, urban development, and social security. Against this background, the legitimacy and cumulative impact of the process has become an issue for public scrutiny. According to the fellow, the authorities are failing in the policy transfer process due to lack of appropriate skills, information and tools to filter the policy transfer and adjust it to local needs. Azatyan believes that it is necessary to evaluate the ontological and epistemological basis for the policy transfer, its main phases, sources and evaluation. Based on the analysis from this initial stage of the study, she intends to develop a policy paper that singles out a series of tactical steps that guarantee successful policy transfer. In addition, Azatyan is determined to draft a policy transfer guidebook to be disseminated amongst decision makers.
Mkhitar Gabrielyan Social and Cultural Aspects of Agricultural Development of Armenia: financial crisis and cooperatives
Based on the alarming statistics on agricultural production that showed a decline by 14.5 % in 2010, Gabrielyan, Deputy Dean of Faculty of History at YSU, suggests that rural economic development is one of the most immediate policy concerns in Armenia. He believes that systemic issues in rural Armenia that have a direct impact on the way agricultural production is organized are not being addressed in the existing government strategy for rural development. Given the current underdeveloped state of economic policies that are meant to improve the performance and resilience of Armenia’s rural economy in post-crisis era, the fellow intends to focus on the analysis of key factors of agricultural development, specifically, the possibility of formation of cooperative enterprises. The research paper will evaluate social and cultural indicators that currently hinder the rural communities from embracing the multi-stakeholder cooperative model.
Hovhannes Hovhannisyan Crematories in Armenia: Problem of Religion, Morality or Business
Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, chair of Anthropology Department at Yerevan State Linguistic University and associate professor at Yerevan State University, raises critical questions in his research regarding the issue of introduction of crematories that has become a subject of contentious public debate lately. According to the fellow, the key issue here is limited space for cemeteries, and serious luck of information and social understanding of the alternative methods that are available out there. The researcher’s underlying assumption is that this reform in the social life of the Armenian people is a revolutionary step and it might potentially lead to public disagreements particularly in the religious circles. Given the fact that the society is not willing to participate in meaningful debates on this issue and make relevant amendments tailored to its interests, it remains unclear whether the society is ready or willing to replace the existing system with a method more environmentally friendly and financially affordable. Hovhannisyan intends to asses what the main profits and damages of the system of crematoriums are, and whether the Armenian Apostolic Church is set to rethink its policies in this area.
Anna Makaryan The Economic Crisis in Armenia: Macroeconomic and Social Impacts
The fellow is currently enrolled in a PhD program at NAS of Armenia and is the deputy head of Macroeconomic Analysis and Financial Markets department of NAS. While attempting to identify transmission channels in order to asses the social and macroeconomic impact of the crisis, Makaryan will target the urban population in marzes since it is assumed that they were more severely affected than rural and Yerevan households. Based on Spence’s list of coping mechanisms, the study will provide recommendations on policy changes that need to be undertaken to shift the threshold or to introduce new social safety net programs. In addition, the applicant aims to analyze external and internal public debts.
Ruzanna Tsaturyan Gender Issues in Armenian Textbooks of Primary School
Invoking the recent Gender Policy Concept Paper adopted by the government to address the alarming gender gap, Tsaturyan argues that education is a powerful tool of cultural norm and gender based stereotypes formation. The fellow strongly believes that at the moment the education system does not provide gender balanced perceptions and the gender equality norms are not yet embedded in textbooks and teaching materials. Having done an extensive literature review, Tsaturyan concludes that this issue has been largely ignored in academic and policy making circles. Since primary schools are the important starting point for socialization and value formation, the fellow aims to evaluate gender roles representation in Armenian primary school textbooks. Identifying biased or discriminative gender based representations such as images, names, and characteristics will set a platform for a constructive discussion on the appropriateness of the teaching and learning materials.
Narek Vardanyan Legal Reforms for the Effective Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Armenia
Vardanyan holds a PhD in Economics and Management, and has been academically focused on the agricultural development and management issues. Drawing on the current government policies on improvement of agricultural production, the fellow argues that the strategy rightfully focuses on cooperative formations as the primary effective tool of land usage enhancement while failing to initiate a new law on agricultural cooperatives, the taxation mechanism and government support models. According to Vardanyan, despite the fact that on the discursive level top government officials have emphasized the need to establish agricultural cooperatives, the authorities are still due to development implementation tools and campaigning tactics targeting the farmers and rural communities in general. For that matter, Vardanyan intends to conduct a comparative analysis of international legal frameworks regulating cooperative enterprises and put forward feasible policy recommendations for the facilitation of development of an enabling legal and business environment in Armenia.