I'm at a point now where most of my problems could potentially solve themselves once I start working on my project in a more consistent manner. I still feel like the solutions I'm finding to my operationalization issue are inadequate, but I won't really know until I try to analyse some of my documents. I made some progress after watching a series of Margaret Thatcher's speeches that made me want to staple my ears shut and unfortunately it seems like there's going to be a lot more of those in my future. Nevertheless, the speeches were able to give me some examples of words I could potentially use to code the documents. Apart from that issue, my concerns now are more to do with writing the paper itself and what things specifically I should be paying attention to. In terms of policy relevance, I was having some trouble figuring out exactly how my project is relevant, so it was helpful to clarify that it's my topic that's relevant, not necessarily my case.
In this blog the AU Global Scholars document their efforts in applying rigorous research methods to their projects in the field of international studies. The aim is to briefly present a challenge that they encountered AND the solution they came up with, such that their peers can respond and/or learn.
I completely understand your problem because I haven't been working on my project very consistently either. I also understand the relevance factor because I think that my case isn't necessarily all that relevant but the outcomes and conclusions drawn on the basis of the topic are instead, which I think are more important because it makes your research more general and applicable to other issues.
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