I spoke to soon. Once I got around to writing my thesis proposal I realized how flawed my topic was. It's a neat area to study, but the way I structured the topic made it not conducive to an actual scholarly research paper. The main problem is the lack of a narrow, focused research question that can be examined either quantitatively, qualitatively, or both. For instance, my Hamilton thesis had a simple research question: "Do strategic retrenchments ever benefit a great power?" To examine that question I looked at three cases where great powers had retrenched to their benefit. No drama. Simple.
The question I posed for this project was not simple. For starters, there is likely to be little scholarly research on the impact multipolarity would have on CARICOM for me to access. Without that, I am left to hypothesize throughout the paper with no credible sources to lean upon. To make maters worse I cannot even think of previous examples of multipolarity affecting regional organizations, therefore leaving me without historical examples to draw upon as road maps. Finally, the topic is just too broad for the project. The question of how CARICOM will navigate a multipolar world cannot be answered, in its entirety, in 20,000 words. I thought of narrowing the topic down to CARICOM security cooperation in a multipolar world, but I am still left with the sources problem.
The result was a mini panic last night, as I realized my topic was crap and that I needed to come up with something new. After a couple of hours of fruitless brainstorming I remembered the paper on democracy I wrote for my research methods class last semester. In it I examine three hypothetical variables for democracy in 29 Caribbean and African countries (all former British colonies): years under British rule, GDP per capita, and % of GDP from remittances and official development assistance (foreign aid). It was an interesting paper to work on and I received a good grade on the assignment, all of which make me think I should appropriate it for my thesis.
Since it was a quantitative paper, I am thinking of adding two case studies to make it a mixed-methods study. I could examine, generally speaking, the nature of democracy in the Caribbean and Africa and then compare the stories told in the case studies to the results from the data I already have. I could also add more variables to the study to expand it that way. Needless to say I have a lot more brainstorming to do regarding this, but I think I am on the right trail. It would make my life a lot easier to simply expand upon what I already have rather than start something new from scratch. And right now, I'm all about making my life easier! Island time!!!!!!!
Hi, Stephen. I'm wondering whether you're still being a bit broad and might wish to consider not "The Caribbean" but individual nations within the region for your case studies. A way of looking at groups within the Caribbean may be those conquered primarily or solely by the British, those who were conquered primarily or solely by the Dutch, those who were conquered primarily or solely by the French, and those who were conquered solely or primarily by the Spanish. Another way of parsing the groups within the Caribbean may be by the means through which they gained their independence (peaceful, revolution, whatever).
ReplyDeleteJust a thought.
I thought about doing that Simone but my quantitative methodology aggregates the individual cases for better correlation. Also, I am only concerned with former British colonies in the Caribbean and Africa. There are not enough former French/Spanish/Dutch colonies in the Caribbean to do a similar study. However, I am sure I will encounter problems along the way that I will need to resolve. I have no doubt that the thesis I hand in a few months from now will look different from the one I am proposing now!
ReplyDeleteAh. Well, maybe the ways in which they gained independence will correlate to their present economic status.
ReplyDeleteProposals are always tough, and the final product always varies from the proposal given what the data reveal. Good luck! (I'd had close to 5,000 data for my dissertation.)