Learning_Log

Poli2030 2009/2010 Learning Log 1. Introduction I am not quite sure about the exact research question of my dissertation at this point but I know it is something along the lines of international relations and within that the examination of IPE and emerging economies in East-Asia. I find it important to state this as early as this stage of my work so whenever I hear/read something that is particularly important in connection with these topics during the following weeks I can refer to them. Lecture 2: Clarifying your Approach Professor Stoker identified 3 stages of a research cycle and introduced us to the first one which he called: “From hunch to approach” In my opinion the most important part of the lecture was the list of the 6 categories that one should be guided by when designing a research. Professor Stoker put them in the following order: hunch, ask, method, measurement, explanation and relevance. He described them all and I believe they will prove to be a useful guidance during my research especially when finalizing my exact research question and begin to write it up. Once I have the exact research question I should make sure that it is comprehensive by specifying the meaning of each words in the introduction as words can often have rather broad meanings. For that I should follow the “ladder of generality”: the more specific the term/word the more specific and detailed definition it requires. The last point I especially found to be of great value for my research was the distinction Professor Stoker made between an essay and a research. A research relies on both outside and personally generated data while an essay usually uses only externally generated ones. This I think is important to be aware of in order to guarantee that my work is not just an extended essay but an actual research. Lecture 3: From Approach to Doing In this lecture we continued the analysis of a research through Professors Stoker’s model of research cycle. Stage two -“from approach to doing”- was again introduced to us by the inventor itself. Fortunately the second half of the lecture either did not concern me too much (e.g. measuring: one of the possible drawbacks that Professor Stoker mentioned, like outlying data, relate more to quantitative research) or I was already aware of the methods that were explained (e.g. how to carry out a desk based research) The last two final points were however rather valuable. They both helped me in reassuring myself in my research. On the one hand it is important to argue that my research is probably correct because I have used several and different kinds of sources while on the other Professor Stoker admitted that things sometimes go wrong even in his research still now days. It is somewhat comforting that even for someone with so much experience at this field things do not always work out perfectly and of course that also shows that just because something does not work out for the first time the whole project should not be abandoned..it is probably the method that requires adjustments. Lecture 4: The Logic of Delivery In this lecture Professor Stoker explained the third and final part of his research cycle. It is called “from doing to delivery” which (as its name is rather telling) about writing up the conclusions made from the research. I agreed with Professor Stoker about the importance of constant writing and note taking during the research already which would largely facilitate my work during the actual writing up process and definitely the earlier I do it the better. Also the idea of understanding the dissertation as a construction of four essays will help me when organizing my dissertation into different sections and in general it provides me with a very practical idea for formulating its framework. Developing an interactive approach can also in many ways enhance my work. In other words clashing the points, that I make from the given data, with other people’s understanding of them can have a positive impact on the overall outcome of my work and shoud also further develop my points. In lecture five we were provided with a brief introduction to research ethics by Professor Claire Saunders. We basically covered the procedure of receiving both an academic and governmental approval on the content of our research. I found this lecture helpful because before I was not even aware of the fact that we needed any sort of approval on the sources we used based on their ethical usage. Prof. Saunders informed us about the basics of the data protection act and how that worked in the first half of the lecture which helped me to understand why this lecture was necessary. In the second half of the lectur more practical examples were presented about obtaining consent. A video on youtube was brought to our attention which was put together by a group of students in the USA. It explained that people who are interviewed first had to be provided with a sheet of paper containing the rights they had during and after the interview (I.E. their right to withdraw or their name to remain confidential in the research) and how to overcome problems if they actually did decide to live with some of these rights..:)E.G they decided to leave in the middle. One of the ways I can rely on for most of the time is offering them some sort of financial benefit for doing/continuing the interview. Professor Saunders also pointed out a number of useful sites from where official documents can be downloaded which I should be able to use during my research to I.E. gain people’s consent by getting them to sign it. Lecture 6: The Empirical and the Normative Professor David Owen in the bigger part of the lecture explained what was awaiting us for the second half the semester for this module, with other words how to actually carry the first bits of our research out. While in the remaining fifteen minutes he talked about normative and empirical research. Dr. Owen indentified three questions that a research design should focus on. What' Why' and How' However I heard of the idea of risk assessment for the first time. This is very important for my research because I need to make sure that together with what I was told of in connection with ethics I need to stick to the formalities and collect all the relevant documents. However risk in the sense of physical danger will probably not follow my research given the nature of my topic. In the last fifteen minutes I only found one point to highlight in my résumé, which is that regardless of whether I was doing a rather empirical or normative research (Dr. Owen gave examples for both) I should think of (and do) ways of building the other type into it as well while of course mainly using only one of them. Only this way a research can be complete. 3. Seminar overviews Seminar 1: The first seminar was only introductory however it still proved to be rather useful in several ways. Not only was I introduced to my seminar tutor Miss Patricia Shamai but also to several members of the group in which I was allocated to. These newly generated relationships will hopefully be very valuable at later stages of the course when i.e. group work was necessary for a problem or if we found comparison of each other’s understanding of different elements of the module helpful. The short personal introductions everyone had to present about themselves gave me an overall first impression about everyone in the group, although I recognized many of them from other lectures and seminars as well. Why I also felt that it also created a more personal atmosphere within the group as a whole. Seminar 2: At the beginning of the seminar I still had a number of unanswered questions concerning the learning log and by the end I had a lot answered concerning the dissertation that I was not even aware of. The seminar contained several constructive hints for both my present work regarding the learning log and for the future regarding my dissertation that I am sure I will be able to apply. 4. Reading overview This text book has accompanied me in extending my knowledge about the different issue areas of IR since year one however I never used it as a reference. I always thought of it more as a very wide-ranging encyclopaedia that provided me with a firm base to understand the writings of different theorists as well as to realize patterns in world events. Thus the book has proved to be a useful guidance in my studies for IR – especially in the field of IPE- and continues to be. B, The book gives a very deep insight into both American and European foreign policy since the end of the Cold War and explains the background behind the changing relationship between the two. At first I was only going to read the book to help me with my essay for American power, however it soon turned out to hold greater values that concerns my dissertation’s subject in several ways. Despite the book containing only 160 pages it gives a very extensive analysis about both American and European foreign policy with several historic examples. The bits that held special interest for me in terms of my dissertation were examples of how foreign policy is influenced by both domestic and international economic factors. Kagan describes international issues like the Gulf or Bosnian conflicts from both the perspective of the hegemonic USA and the emerging EU while pointing out several elements that determine power relations, above all – for me- the financial causes. The books final conclusion is that Europe’s relative peace and flourish in the last 50-60 years is mainly the result of the USA’s will to guarantee protection from outside forces and help resolve internal issues. In exchange European states – with same basic value system- can support and legitimize her actions in other corners of the world and global governance institutions. The book’s most important contribution to my topic was that it presented to me the understanding of the international political economy from a hegemon’s point of view .This I believe can prove extremely valuable when later I will investigate the several theoretical approaches to IPE. C, Pennings, P.; Keman, H.;Kelinnijenhuis,(1999) J. Doing Research In Political Science: an introduction to comparative methods and statistics London:Sage Publications I believe this book will prove to be play a key role in my research both during the one I have to carry out for the second half of the module and also during the one I am going to do for my dissertation. Especially concerning that I am planning to combine the two and so the research I would carry out for the former I should be able during the latter as well. 5. Final review The course up till this point has provided me with very valuable knowledge both in terms of preparations for and the actual carrying out of my dissertation.