Civic Activism as a Novel Component of Armenian Civil Society

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information on the case helped identify key interviewees, who provided additional insights on the cases and additional important contacts. Eventually, the process of soliciting names reached a saturation point: any name provided was already on the list. Thus, Electric Yerevan is the only case for which an observation method was utilised. Team members spent at least 30 minutes per day on site at various times of the day. They had general guidelines on what to pay attention to during the observation, but the overall observation approach was kept flexible. Team members were encouraged to engage in casual conversations or join groups. Observers took written notes after the visit; the protesters could have perceived taking notes on site as suspicious. 3.3 Interviews and Focus Group Discussions To explore the issues in greater detail, a qualitative method of interviews and focus group discussions was employed during the research. We conducted ten focus groups: with leaders and members of NGOs (four), civic activists (four), and non-activists as representatives of the general, sceptically oriented public (two). Eight of those took place in Yerevan, one was in Gyumri (the second largest city in Armenia) and one in Kapan: a town in the south with an active NGO and civic activism community focused on environmental issues. One of the activist focus groups was composed of Armenians of Diaspora origin currently living in Armenia, as they seem to be a distinct type of activists. All discussions were organised and moderated by senior researcher. The information on the focus group discussions is summarised in Table 1 below. Table 1. Structure of Focus Group Discussions Participants Location FG1 NGO leaders and members Yerevan FG2 NGO leaders and members Yerevan FG3 NGO leaders and members Yerevan FG4 NGO leaders and members Kapan FG5 Civic activists Yerevan FG6 Civic activists Yerevan FG7 Civic activists Gyumri FG8 Civic activists Diaspora Yerevan FG9 Non-activists Yerevan FG10 Non-activists Yerevan We also conducted a total of 30 semi-structured interviews: 20 interviews with leaders and organisational team members of the case study civic initiatives and ten interviews with leaders of NGOs actively involved in civic initiatives. See Appendixes 1-5 for all the interview and focus group discussion guides. The fieldwork lasted from August 2015 to March 2016. 21
Focus groups and interviews were voice-recorded and transcribed. The transcripts were imported into MAXQDA software. We created an indexing system, taking into consideration both the categories derived from the research questions and themes emerging from the data. The indexes were applied through MAXQDA software, which was further used to enhance the data analysis. See Appendix 6 22
Page 1 and 2: Civic Activism as a Novel Component
Page 3 and 4: The present study was conducted wit
Page 5 and 6: 5.1. Case Studies .................
Page 7 and 8: List of Abbreviations ARMedia CB CS
Page 9 and 10: A note of caution is in order here.
Page 11 and 12: demonstrated that voluntary associa
Page 13 and 14: volunteering by Swedish citizens, T
Page 15 and 16: communication tools lies mainly in
Page 17 and 18: 2.1. The NGO Sector The NGO sector
Page 19 and 20: mentioning a few key points here to
Page 21: 3.2. Case Studies To move from the
Page 25 and 26: explore the overall political cultu
Page 27 and 28: (signing a petition, joining in boy
Page 29 and 30: activists are being targeted throug
Page 31 and 32: eport higher levels of trust in onl
Page 33 and 34: while actual and potential activist
Page 35 and 36: Some segments of society perceive t
Page 37 and 38: efforts to save the waterfall mean
Page 39 and 40: In March 2010, Mariam Sukhudyan was
Page 41 and 42: like a “spontaneous volcano” th
Page 43 and 44: concerning the constitutionality of
Page 45 and 46: in the North). The Twitter account
Page 47 and 48: On 13 June 2014, activists started
Page 49 and 50: However Bagiyan (2015) reports that
Page 51 and 52: weddings took place on Baghramyan,
Page 53 and 54: Voch Talanin (No to Plunder) Facebo
Page 55 and 56: VI. Civic Initiatives and NGOs Alth
Page 57 and 58: Table 3. NGO involvement in civic a
Page 59 and 60: to seek out those organisations tha
Page 61 and 62: increase of feeling of loneliness.
Page 63 and 64: people, change their thinking, risk
Page 65 and 66: street, activism can take different
Page 67 and 68: public activism (because, in a true
Page 69 and 70: lack of political will on the part
Page 71 and 72: “As a non-participant to any prot
Page 73 and 74:
8.2. Civic Initiatives in Armenia T
Page 75 and 76:
8.2.2. Why Do Civic Initiatives Fai
Page 77 and 78:
IX. Perceptions 9.1. Activist Perce
Page 79 and 80:
At times, the public regards activi
Page 81 and 82:
and not just the public at large, h
Page 83 and 84:
The mother of another activist orig
Page 85 and 86:
easons. There are some groups of pe
Page 87 and 88:
X. Other Issues -- In Armenia, acti
Page 89 and 90:
the society to become an equal part
Page 91 and 92:
Conclusion For the past two decades
Page 93 and 94:
is not the point we are attempting
Page 95 and 96:
References Aarhus Convention Compli
Page 97 and 98:
Flanagan, Constance A. 2004. “Vol
Page 99 and 100:
McAdam, Doug, John D. McCarthy, and
Page 101 and 102:
Tilly, Charles, and Sidney Tarrow.
Page 103 and 104:
Appendix 2 Focus Group Guide for NG
Page 105 and 106:
Appendix 4 Interview Guide for Civi
Page 107 and 108:
Appendix 6 Qualitative Data Indexin
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