Coordinating groups of civic initiatives in Armenia: cases of Teghut, Dem em and Electric Yerevan

Abstract

Coordinating groups of social movements play a key role in shaping the movements, voicing concern of the public, effectively using political and economic opportunities, inspiring and mobilizing people thus impacting the outcome of the movement. The capstone studies the coordinating groups of three civic initiatives in Armenia (Teghut, Dem em and Electric Yerevan). It uses qualitative methods to achieve its objective. Media analysis has been used to build a chronology of events of the initiatives. In-depth interviews with group members have been conducted to reveal internal relations of the group members and their interactions/alliances with outside groups and each other. Analysis of the findings reveals that trust and friendship play a crucial role in the productive functioning of the coordinating groups in civic initiatives. Although members claim to be equal inside the groups, there are latent leaders –members with more experience from previous initiatives, better public speaking skills, and greater media exposure. There is also obvious learning experience between initiatives with overlapping membership. Stronger the relations between group members, more effective is their interaction with outside groups.