Civil Society; Democratisation; Conflict Management; Caucasus
Background & Qualification
Aytan Gahramanova holds M.A. degrees in International Relations from the Institute of Public Administration and Political Science (Baku), Peace and Development studies from University Jaume I (Castellón, Spain), and Political Economy of the Countries in Transit from Central European University (Budapest, Hungary). Aytan has 10 year experience of working for various international development organizations in Azerbaijan such as GIZ, USAID, Oxfam, where she managed multi-million programmes on technical assistance for Azerbaijan in the areas of economic reforms, public administration reforms, and assistance to civil society organizations. She has several publications in the academic journals on the topics of democratization and conflict management in Caucasus region. Currently she holds a position of the Early Stage Researcher at DCU School of Law and Government as a Marie Curie Fellow.
Research Title
The dynamics of civil society development in the petro-states of the Caspian region: The Case of Azerbaijan
Research Overview
The main purpose of the study is to explain and test hypothesis about how and why petroleum wealth affects dimension of the relationship of the state and civil society with regard to the “good governance” discourse. The case-study will offer a new perspective on the civil society function in the context of authoritarian country, which can potentially inform international democracy promotion assistance policies.