About the Organizer: The Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC) is a network of research and research support centers in the capital cities of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Established in 2003, CRRC’s goal is to strengthen social science research and public policy analysis in the South Caucasus. CRRC is funded largely by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, but it also implements project-specific activities for other donors. Over the last ten years, CRRC has become a nexus of activity for the social science community in the South Caucasus by providing open access to scholarly literature, data and professional training for social science researchers. For more information about CRRC, please visit: http://www.crrccenters.org/

About the Conference: The current socio-economic and political climate in the South Caucasus produces various forms of social inequality that are often tied to economic disparities, but have broader manifestations. Our goal is to broaden and deepen the exploration of the forms, causes and consequences of social inequality in the South Caucasus and its neighboring regions by advancing methodological innovation.

The conference will be relatively small-scale, and will focus on constructive "how-to” discussions, thus offering researchers the opportunity to discuss and compare their methods and findings. To achieve high quality discussion and feedback for presenters, a limited number of papers will be accepted. We aim to give equal opportunity to young as well as more established scholars from around the world. Scholars and researchers from all social science disciplines (e.g., economics, demography, sociology, political sciences, and psychology) who specialize in either quantitative or qualitative research are eligible to apply.

Possible Topics: We invite papers that explore a range of topics related to social and economic inequality and methodological approaches to study its different aspects. We welcome work with a wide range of empirical approaches, such as case studies, comparative research projects, ethnographies and surveys. We equally welcome papers that apply quantitative or qualitative research methods, as well as a combination of both. Presenters will be expected to emphasize innovative methods used in their research projects and described in their papers.

Abstracts will be selected based on three criteria: focus on research methodology, innovative approach and relevance to the region. Submission: Researchers desiring to present their work at this conference are required to submit an abstract online via the abstract submission form by February 28, 2014.

Abstracts should be a maximum of 500 words long, and should include the following:

• Title of the presentation;

• Three to five keywords;

• Contact person's name, title, organization affiliation, address, telephone, and email address;

• Co-authors’ names and affiliations.

Important dates:

Submission of abstracts – 28 February, 2014

Notification of pre-acceptance – March 15, 2014

Submission of full papers – May 1, 201

3Notification of final acceptance – May 20, 2014

Language of the conference – English

Financial Support: CRRC will provide 2 nights of lodging, lunch and dinner at the conference venue to all participants. Group transportation by road will be provided for participants from Armenia and Azerbaijan. The cost of airfare will not be covered. However, CRRC offers a limited number of scholarships covering travel and accommodation expenses to support postgraduate students and early career researchers who are in need of financial support in order to attend the conference. Scholarships will be granted based of the quality of submitted papers. If you have any further questions concerning the submissions of abstracts, please contact us:Address: 3 Kavsadze Street, 0179, Tbilisi, Georgia

Tel: (995 32) 225 27 78 (ext.116)

source:www.crrc.ge