Workshop For

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http//www.aucegypt.edu/academic/clt
Presents
Workshop For TAs/RAs Graduate Students
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RESEARCH SKILLS
Professor Pandeli M. Glavanis (PhD) Associate
Director, CLT
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Workshop Structure

• Research Skills Techniques
• (Problem Of Assumptions)
• Awareness of Research Environment
• 5 MINUTE BREAK
• Research Management

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All Examples Are Extracted From
FINDING OUT FAST INVESTIGATIVE SKILLS FOR
POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT A THOMAS, J CHATAWAY M
WUYTS SAGE PUBLICATIONS, LONDON, 1998
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I. Research Skills
The Ability To Recognize And Validate Problems
Knowledge Of Recent Advances Within Ones Field
And In Related Areas
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A. Zimbabwe Cooperatives
BACKGROUND Coop movement was in trouble
foreign NGO wants to helpcommission
research. EXAMINE Tension between government
coop movement ways in which foreign NGOs might
provide further funding without Increasing
tension with government. ASSUMPTIONS Government
bureaucracy had turned hostile despite political
rhetoric.
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Discussion
What Is The Research Problem ?
How Do You Validate It ?
What Is The Research Question ?
What Theoretical Context ?
What Background Knowledge ?
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Research In Zimbabwe
Most coops were in fact in serious trouble
Many government officials were hostile
Foreign NGOs had created dependency
BUT ALSO FOUND OUT THAT
Problem of attitude All saw coops as political,
charitable social organisations
A few successful coops which operated as
commercial entities
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More Assumptions
Coops were passive recipients of charity from
foreign NGOs
AND
Business sector was hostile to coop movement
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New Research Question

• How Can Foreign NGOs Help Coops To Become
• - Politically and commercially independent
• - Make best use of government and business
  resources
• i.e. break dependency on foreign NGOs

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B. Land In Mozambique

• BACKGROUND
• Peasants are being pushed off the land and afraid
  to talk about it. Foreign NGOs concerned.
• EXAMINE
• How to use public international pressure to stop
  it. Foreign NGO commissions research.
• ASSUMPTIONS
• Peasants cant defend themselves
• Government uninterested in peasant plight
• No public debate on issue

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Discussion

• WHAT IS THE RESEARCH PROBLEM?
• HOW DO YOU VALIDATE IT?
• WHAT IS THE RESEARCH QUESTION?
• WHAT THEORETICAL CONCEPT?
• WHAT BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE?

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Research In Mozambique

• Government has already established National Land
  Commission to draft revisions to law to safeguard
  peasant rights
• Several local NGOs raising public awareness of
  the issue and
• Local NGOs successful in helping some peasants
  defend their rights. (i.e. struggle to stop
  expropriation)

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New Research Question

• How to assist and influence the work of the
  National Land Commission?
• How to assist local NGOs to fight more cases of
  expropriation?

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C. Problem Of Assumptions

• Enter crowded airport lounge
• See one empty chair I go to sit when I notice
  someone spilt a drink on the cushion
• I dont have anything to wipe it so I sit on
  table
• Another passenger comes along, looks at chair and
  turns the cushion over and sits.

WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THAT?
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II. Research Environment

• Show a broad understanding of the context, at the
  national and international level, in which
  research takes place

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A. Famine

• Famine is due to a shortfall in available food
• In most famine areas food was being exported
  during famine.
• How can this happen?

PARADOX
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Analytical Framework

• WHAT DOES IT INVLOVE TO EXPORT FOOD?
• WHERE IT IS EXPORTED TO?
• WHO DOES IT?
• WHY DO THEY DO IT?
• WHO GETS IT?
• WHY DO THEY GET IT?

MARKET ECONOMY
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Answer To Paradox

• Amartya Sen (Nobel Laureate in Economics) has
  published extensively on the subject and showed
  from extensive research that
• Market mechanisms (purchasing power) usually
  attracts food to wealthy urban areas and away
  from rural famine areas who in fact produce the
  limited food.

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B. Global Worming

• Dispute between
• World Resources Institute in Washington
• Centre for Science Environment in India WRI
  argues that China and India (as countries) emit
  more CO2 than the EU or Canada.
• CSE challenged the results

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Analytical Framework

• IS IT SIGNIFICANT THAT WRI RELIES ON COUNTRIES
  FOR ITS ANALYSIS?
• IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE UNIT THAT CAN BE USED?
• WHERE DOES CO2 COME FROM?
• WHO PRODUCES IT?

POPULATION WEALTH
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CSE Challenge

• Emissions should be calculated according to
  population size and by country,
• Thus China and India are well below the EU and
  Canada in global league table.
• and
• Luxury emissions should not be compared to
  survival emissions.
• Driving to the shops vs. fuel for cooking

IMPLICATIONS FOR GLOBAL POLICY?
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C. Genetically Manipulated Organisms (GMOs)

• Third World Network (TWN) a Malaysian NGO is
  trying to influence global policy on GMOs
• TWN makes use of scientists from GMOs producing
  countries who are opposed to GMOs to support
  their case

IS THEIR METHODOLOGY OK?
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Analytical Framework

• WHAT ARE KEY ISSUES IN GMOs ?
• WHO IS AFFECTED?
• WHY IS TWN INVOLVED IN CAMPAIGN?
• WHY USE SCIENTISTS?
• WHO ELSE COULD THEY USE?
• IS IT A SCIENTIFIC ISSUE?

SCIENCE vs SOCIETY
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Science Is Not Always The Answer

• The use of such scientists may give scientific
  credibility to TWNs argument
• BUT
• Turns the entire GMO debate into a technical
  debate

THUS RISK IS TECHNICAL RATHER THAN SOCIAL IN
NATURE
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III. Research Management

• Apply effective project management through the
  setting of research goals, intermediate
  milestones and prioritization of activities

USING PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODLOGY
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• 5 MINUTE BREAK