The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has historically underrepresented Indigenous Knowledges (IK) and scholars in its Assessment Reports. This marginalisation overlooks the valuable insights IK offers for managing ecosystems, freshwater systems, food security, and community health in the face of climate change. Here, we highlight contributions from Indigenous-gathered advice to the Australian Government, showcasing IK’s role in climate monitoring, adaptation, and mitigation. We describe existing research that involved Indigenous-led ‘yarns’ with 70 knowledge holders with cultural connections to 43 traditional Countries and/or language groups from across most states and territories in Australia. In March 2025, the IPCC’s call for author nominations for Assessment Report 7 included a deliberate focus on IK and Indigenous Lead Authors. This shift, driven by internal and external advocacy, marks a significant step towards inclusivity and, more importantly, a deeper understanding of global climate science that sets a promising precedent for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP30 in Brazil.
In the context of a community-university partnership, we reflect on the co-development of a research process centred on urban Indigenous women's leadership, cultural resurgence, and collective well-being. Together, Indigenous and university-based co-researchers created spaces for participants in a grassroots leadership programme to reflect on and enhance their roles through storywork, relational accountability, and cultural teachings. We share three examples of how we enacted Indigenous research principles, through sharing circles, storytelling and tea, and storymaking as a method of analysis and explore key learnings that emerged through these collaborations. In this account, we centre the experiences of the urban Indigenous women leaders among us, illustrating how re-awakening of ancestral knowledge and reclamation, grounded in matriarchal values, can inform ethical, relational research practices and support ongoing transformative impacts in both community and academic contexts.
This cultural-critical autoethnography advances a multilayered critical reflexivity approach that reorients research practice toward complex accountability grounded in Indigenous relationality. Through three autoethnographic vignettes drawn from lived research experiences, the article traces an evolving understanding of research as a relational responsibility rather than a procedural act. Reflexivity emerges as a multilayered relational practice that redistributes authority, resists epistemic extraction, and recognizes knowledge as relationally stewarded rather than individually possessed. Reciprocity becomes the lived expression of relational accountability through which complex accountability is enacted in support of Indigenous self-determination. Grounded in the author’s positioning as a non-Indigenous scholar, the article examines the possibilities and tensions in cross-cultural research relationships. It offers a praxis-oriented framework that demonstrates how multilayered critical reflexivity can support ethically accountable research while honoring Indigenous self-determination.
Brazilian Indigenous communities are experiencing a growing prevalence of noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCDs), partly linked to dietary transitions and the weakening of traditional food sovereignty. This phenomenological study, grounded in Heideggerian thought, explored the perceptions of Indigenous people living in villages in Ceará, Brazil, regarding their daily diets, traditional knowledge, and the effects of these changes on health. Based on 11 semi-structured interviews conducted across three villages, the findings revealed tensions between traditional and urban food systems, increased consumption of ultra-processed foods, and changes in decision-making related to food. Despite these pressures, expressions of cultural resilience, such as the use of medicinal plants and ancestral knowledge, persisted. The study highlights the importance of culturally sensitive health-promotion policies that incorporate Indigenous worldviews and support community-led food practices.
This study explores the experiences of patients who have undergone an apronectomy surgical procedure in Te Tairāwhiti, (East Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand). An apronectomy involves the surgical removal of excess abdominal skin, and access to this procedure through the public health system is limited. Utilising Kaupapa Māori Research methodology, interviews were held with patients who had an apronectomy in Te Tairāwhiti between 2015 and 2023. The research team comprised primarily Māori clinicians and researchers, as well as local iwi – Ngāti Porou – researchers, who undertook qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews using reflexive thematic analysis. Four key themes were identified relating to apronectomy as part of a broader weight loss surgery journey, the challenges of living with a large abdominal apron, the life-changing benefits of surgery, and the complexities of postoperative recovery.
This article examines how on-Country healing practices operate as cultural determinants of health for Indigenous men in Australia. Country, understood as ancestral lands that embody lore, kinship, spirituality, and identity, remains central to wellbeing, yet few self-determined studies have explored the therapeutic benefits of such programmes. Health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are stark, with Aboriginal men experiencing some of the most adverse outcomes at the intersection of ethnicity and gender. Drawing on 11 semi-structured interviews, this study identifies four key benefits of on-Country participation: safe expression of Indigenous masculinity, strengthening of cultural identity, holistic improvements to health and wellbeing, and the development of social connections. Framed by settler colonialism and cultural determinants of health, findings suggest how land-based programmes challenge colonial disruptions to culture and identity while fostering holistic wellbeing. The study highlights the importance of incorporating cultural determinants and promoting Indigenous self-determination within health policy and practice.
Our research is aimed at identifying problems related to women's entrepreneurship. Gender analysis is very difficult to implement in the field of micro, small and medium entrepreneurship, since there is almost no data on the representation of women and men in the business world. In addition, contradictory data on women's participation in enterprises of different sizes are essentially due to the application of different definitions and methodlogies. During the research, an attempt was made to analyze the main indicators of women's participation in business, the motivations for involvement in business, the main achievements the advantages of female entrepreneurs and the foundations of failures. Through empirical research, women's preferred areas of economic activity, trends toward expansion or limitation of business plans have been revealed. The unified database of state registry data served as the basis for the research. When selecting the sample, consideration was given to ensuring the representativeness of data obtained about women. The research was conducted according to forms of economic activity and sizes of economic entities, based on official statistical databases. The primary unit of the sample is the economic entity. The insufficient accessibility of financial-credit, property institutions, ownership and land use makes it difficult to involve women in new economic relations, limits women's professional growth and establishment in business. Let us also add that women's possibilities for control over assets in turn also predetermine their level of economic independence. The next problem is that women's unpaid work is greater compared to men, as a result of which women do not have time to engage in entrepreneurial or social work. Limited accessibility of such resources for women means that their possibilities to create their own capital are also generally limited. Our research aimed at increasing the role of women in business allowed us to make recommendations that will be useful in developing state policy directions.
This research explores the evolution of contractual sanctity, tracing its trajectory from the medieval Lex Mercatoria and the U.S. Constitutional Contract Clause to the contemporary challenges of the digital platform economy. Utilizing a multi-disciplinary approach – combining legal dogmatics, historical-comparative analysis, and case studies –the paper argues that modern digital platforms have emerged as "private sovereigns." By exercising arbitrary power through "black-box" account suspensions and deceptive "dark patterns," these entities mirror the historical lawlessness that the Founding Fathers and medieval merchants sought to rectify. The study analyzes landmark Supreme Court cases and the core principles of Bona Fides and Rebus Sic Stantibus to demonstrate that current platform practices create systemic institutional uncertainty, stifling innovation and undermining market trust. Economically, this "platform risk" functions as a barrier to entry for small-to-medium enterprises. The paper concludes by proposing a "Digital Contract Fairness Act," modeled after the modern three-part Contract Clause test. This framework aims to internalize the costs of platform enforcement, transforming arbitrary digital governance into a regulated, transparent system that protects consumer rights and restores the fundamental sanctity of the private agreement in the digital age.
The main objective of the article was to assess the role of the agro-processing system in Armenia, identify the existing challenges, and present key directions for their solution. Based on the specific characteristics of the agri-food sector, a comprehensive and detailed analysis was conducted, examining both the vulnerabilities of the sector and its main competitive advantages. The conducted research highlights the critical need to enhance the competitiveness of the agri-food system, as well as outlines long-term mechanisms for improving the competitiveness of the agro-processing industry at a systemic level. The proposed recommendations are aimed at increasing the sector’s resilience in both domestic and international markets, improving state support programs, and ensuring a more effective utilization of the untapped export potential of the agroprocessing industry. The proposed solutions also primarily focus on stimulating SME activity in the agro-processing sector, particularly in regional areas, and on clearly defining targeted approaches in this regard.
This article examines the problem of foreign exchange management in a group of companies from the perspective of centralized treasury coordination, intra-group netting, and execution quality. The study is motivated by the fact that diversified corporate groups often conduct foreign exchange conversions through several banks and several subsidiaries at the same time, which creates duplication of external transactions, uneven execution outcomes, and avoidable spread costs. The aim of the article is to develop and empirically illustrate a framework that connects company-level currency behavior, bank-level execution differences, and group-level optimization opportunities. The empirical basis of the research consists of anonymized primary operational data covering 2,100 foreign exchange transactions executed by 49 companies in 2025 through March 2026. Company names and bank names are not disclosed in order to preserve commercial confidentiality. The methodology combines descriptive comparison of bank execution, analysis of company net positions by currency and time, and modeling of intra-group netting under centralized management. The results show that gross supply amounted to 39.94 billion, gross demand to 35.76 billion, and the maximum possible intra-group netting volume to 4.69 billion. This corresponds to a potential reduction of 9.38 billion in gross external activity. The strongest netting potential was observed in AMD, while high internal coverage ratios were also identified for EUR and USD. The article concludes that centralized FX management is especially useful for diversified groups with recurring multi-currency operations and that its institutional implementation should combine netting, multi-bank execution, and risk-management controls.
The research reveals the constitutional and legal status of the legislative body, the mechanisms for exercising the main powers in the parliamentary government system. Special attention is paid to the role of the legislative body in the system of relations between the branches of state power, as well as the peculiarities of exercising supervisory powers over the executive branch. The research is based on the methodology of comparative law, within the framework of which the experience of a number of states is studied, in particular, using the examples of Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Armenia. As a result of the analysis, the general patterns of the formation and exercise of the powers of the legislative body, as well as the peculiarities determined by national constitutional regulations, are revealed. The work substantiates that in the parliamentary system of government, the legislative body is one of the key institutions of state power, the effective exercise of whose powers determines the democratic nature of state governance, the balance of powers, and the effectiveness of political accountability mechanisms.
Business activity, as a sector of fundamental importance to the economy, requires thorough analysis, particularly at the regional level. Identifying business development potential and new opportunities is essential for ensuring the sustainable and balanced development of the Syunik Province of the Republic of Armenia. The aim of the article is to examine the economic foundations of business development and to identify the existing constraints, opportunities, and future prospects for business activity in the Syunik Province.Based on empirical analysis, the study formulates conclusions and proposes new approaches to addressing the challenges hindering regional business development.
The aim of the article is to study the level of influence of the main factors determining the movement of innovative entrepreneurship in the Republic of Armenia, using the capabilities of panel models. Panel series of 72 developed and developing countries were considered, which relate to the dynamics of economic complexity, economic growth, foreign investment and foreign trade indicators for the period 2006-2022 in relation to the density of new enterprises. The density of entrepreneurship was considered as a dependent variable, the remaining indicators were considered as independent variables. As a result of the study, it was found that a certain cyclical increase in economic complexity in the first part of the observed period was accompanied by a stable, but not high-speed growth in the number/density of newly created enterprises, while in the subsequent period, under conditions of a decline in economic complexity, a sharp increase in the number of newly created companies occurred. As a result of the model assessment of the observed relationships, it was found that the most significant factor affecting entrepreneurial activity/density in the Armenian economy is the increase in the economic complexity index.
First Nations families continue to endure profound trauma stemming from the disproportionately high rates of infant (<1 year old) removal, exacerbated by culturally unsafe practices and inadequate support from midwives. This scoping review examines existing literature on the experiences of First Nations families who experience removal of an infant, as well as the perspectives of midwives involved in these removals. A scoping review of online databases identified primary qualitative, or mix-method studies published between 2002 and 2025. Seven publications from Australia, Canada and the United States met the inclusion criteria. Five key themes emerged from the review: (1) The colonial legacy; (2) "It is because I am Aboriginal you know"; (3) The intense emotional toll; (4) No control and (5) The power of honesty. The findings highlight the pervasive absence of culturally safe practices during infant removals and reveal significant challenges midwives face in delivering culturally safe, women-centred care to First Nations families.
The article is devoted to the analysis of the self-sufficiency of local self-government bodies in the Republic of Armenia, in that context, referring to the current state of financial (budgetary) selfsufficiency of local self-government bodies and the problems associated with it. The article presents the essence of the self-sufficiency of local self-government bodies, its main components and manifestations in the law-enforcement practice of the Republic of Armenia. At the same time, the article presents the international legal experience characterizing the selfsufficiency of local self-government bodies, a comprehensive study of the national legislation of the Republic of Armenia, on the basis of which the existing institutional and procedural problems and issues that hinder the full self-sufficiency of local self-government bodies were identified. The article develops and presents recommendations aimed at increasing the level of financial selfsufficiency of local self-government bodies, improving the domestic legislative framework and law enforcement practice of the Republic of Armenia, which may have practical and scientific significance both in the context of state policy being developed in the field of local selfgovernment, as well as in the context of scientific and research work.
Economic growth theory initially developed on the basis of "Keynesian assumptions," where the key factor is effective demand. The difference between neoclassical and classical economic growth theories is the emphasis on demand factors rather than supply factors. However, the concept of "economic growth" itself was only introduced into scientific circulation by Joseph Schumpeter in the 19th century. It was not yet present in the teachings of the mercantilists, physiocrats, and classical school, as they focused on the conditions, factors, and sources of growth in national wealth. From the mercantilists' perspective, national wealth is created as a result of foreign trade, i.e., in the sphere of circulation. With a policy of achieving a positive trade balance, production serves only as a prerequisite for wealth creation. Also, the physiocrats (metaphysical approach) recognized economic development as a natural process, subject to certain laws that do not depend on the will of people [Smith, 2008, 378–379]. The scientist proves that the process of reproduction and implementation can proceed smoothly only when certain proportions of the development of the national economy are observed [Henderson, 2008, 579].
The article discusses the prospects for solving the environmental problem caused by the damage that humanity has already caused and is still causing to the planet. In the context of public administration, the most important approaches to be taken by public policy to solve the problem are considered. It is noted that the belief that modern man cannot consider himself "the conqueror of nature and the one who does not think about the consequences of his actions" must be affirmed, that man must master his new social role of "savior". In the present era, one type of current human being is ending its existence and development, and conditions are emerging for the formation of another type. It is necessary to prepare for the formation of a future human being living with “new cultural forms,” new communication experiences, and a new intellectual worldview.
The development of agriculture remains a central priority for community development and socio-economic policy in Armenia. Local self-government bodies, particularly following the consolidation of communities, continue to implement both their own responsibilities and state-delegated functions in the agricultural sector. The article addresses the community's management policy in the agricultural sector, highlighting existing problems in the industry through the collection and analysis of substantive and qualitative data, as well as statistic data and legal acts. It outlines a roadmap for comprehensive and short-term solutions to existing challenges. Emphasis is placed on the authority of local self-government in agriculture, on incorporating specialists with relevant professional education into municipalities, the establishment of rapid response centers, and the strengthening of local government–agriculture relations. The proposals are primarily presented from a management perspective, focusing on the creation of new subdivisions within local government bodies and the revision of management policies.
Within the scope of this study, a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the concept of “soft power” has been conducted, examining its evolution from Joseph Nye’s classical definitions to contemporary geopolitical realities. The analysis distinguishes between different instruments of power, highlighting the interactions of “hard,” “smart,” and “sharp” power. The work dedicates a central place to the Russian model of perceiving “soft power” and its practical significance in the post-Soviet space. Using the example of the Republic of Armenia’s foreign policy, the study examines the dynamics of combining Western liberal-democratic values with Russian cultural-civilizational influence. Particular attention is given to the economic dimension of soft power, including the structural incentives embedded in Armenia’s EAEU membership – preferential energy pricing, access to regional labor markets, and trade facilitation which functioned alongside cultural and humanitarian instruments as mechanisms of attraction and structural alignment. The article argues that the “complementarism” policy adopted by Armenia has been a rational response to the multilayered influence of global power centers, aiming to strengthen state resilience and the security environment in a multipolar world order.
This analysis examines the role of crypto-assets, particularly Bitcoin, in an investment portfolio. The crypto-asset market, with its rather rapid growth, has begun to attract the interest of a broad range of investors, and despite the uncertainties still existing in the legal framework regulating the sector, international experience shows that the involvement of institutional structures is also growing. The study investigates the impact of including Bitcoin – the largest crypto-asset – within a portfolio of traditional investment assets, focusing on the dynamics of portfolio risk-return indicators to reveal the investment potential of cryptocurrencies. Correlations with other assets were considered, and the possibility of constructing a Markovitz portfolio by including cryptocurrency in a traditional portfolio was considered. Within the framework of portfolio analysis, three scenarios were discussed to see the impact of cryptocurrency inclusion on the portfolio's risk-return indicators, Sharpe ratio. The results of the study generally confirm the hypothesis that cryptocurrencies can serve as a tool to enhance portfolio performance when included in a limited proportion.
