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The Climb!

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Ever heard of the Chinese phrase, “Outside of this mountain that you’ve marveled at or climbed, there’s a taller one waiting for you somewhere”? If you have, then you can most certainly relate to this blog post. That saying seems to be resonating through me as I write this blog entry. It makes me think about the different objectives that we pursue, not just in research but also life: it’s almost like life is this never-ending hike, with hill after hill after hill that we need to climb if we want to reach the top of the final mountain. Just like Miley Cyrus says in her song, The Climb. “There’s always gonna be another mountain, I’m always gonna want to make it move. Always gonna be an uphill battle, sometimes I’m going to have to lose, it’s not about how fast I get there, it’s not about what’s waiting on the other side, it’s the climb”.

Personally, the past few weeks have been filled with incredible triumphs (see my previous blog). I’ve just conquered the peak of data collection and analysis for my MSc. Unfortunately, there isn’t time to relax and bask in my glory and I’m sitting in the shadow of another looming mountain.  That latest mountain is reporting, discussing, concluding and formatting my dissertation.

Few scientists choose this career because they like writing and communicating…. and I guess that makes me a typical scientist. I have been somewhat struggling with writing up my dissertation. I do believe that the brisk pace that I have been working at might just have an effect on that struggle.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I feel like there is a need to make amends for not submitting my dissertation last year. One way of doing that was to work on my document and submit it as soon as possible. That’s all well and good, but I reckon that one thing that I did not consider was that writing up in a hurry would affect the quality of my work. “It’s not about how fast I get there, it’s not about what’s waiting on the other side, it’s the climb.” So it means the process of writing up is more important than just submitting.

You’d think that after years of listening to those lines, they would actually mean something to me by now!

Only after many attempts to submit my chapters to my supervisor and getting them back with lots of unpleasant red ink, have I finally decided to slow down, to pause and think about what I want to do before doing it. Because when I keep rushing rushing rushing to just put something – anything – on paper for her, I lose sight of my real goal; I’m getting somewhat lost. And I don’t want to keep wandering aimlessly, after all.

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Just had a flashback of a book called “Think Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman that I bought a few months back. I haven’t finished it by the way, but I’ve read enough of it to grasp the concepts echoing through the book. Sometimes you have to make fast and instinctive decisions and, sometimes, you have to be reflective and more deliberative in your approach. The dark tunnel phase of my research has passed, the phase where had to move fast and instinctively. Now I need to slow down and be more purposeful in my approach, I need to read the results, be one with them and discuss them as they are.

Easier said than done though, right? Like I said in my earlier blog, not a lot of work has been done on Moringa oleifera seeds and egg laying chickens. This too is a mountain that I have to move. I guess it’s called “Masters” for a reason. It’s not about just feeding chickens and getting eggs but also about the scientific consequences of that. Because no matter how solid your research may be, if you don’t publish it, don’t grapple with the methods and conclusions yourself, then it’s as good as never having being done. In the scientific world, it doesn’t exist.

I’m a little bit of a twitter fan, so whilst I was there, minding other people’s business, I saw a post shared by one of my fellow student, Nobuhle Sharon Lungu. The post said, “We Screenshot_2016-06-03-20-16-19win every day but we don’t appreciate, we only celebrate when we win big”.

I hope this blog will change this mindset; you must celebrate every victory, every small mountain top that you reach. I had to take joy in finishing data collection, or else I would not have had energy for this current slog. So, yes, every peak you reach, celebrate it — even if you think it’s not too high; because it is those small hills that make us stronger to fight and reach the ultimate peak.

Posted on by Odi · 2 Comments

A Social Scientist’s Lab

When I think of a laboratory, it conjures images of pipettes and burners with complex mathematical equations written on a board. My laboratory, however, as a political scientist, has little to do with Bunsen burners and more do with measuring political heat. Very few people, outside the social sciences, understand how social science research is conducted and often liken it to tea leaf reading.

Research in the social science, particularly in politics and international relations, is really dynamic. There is an adage that ‘a week is a long time in politics’. A political leader can move from a hero to a villain and back again within a few days. Because of this dynamism, the work of the social scientist is important because their job is not only to analyse current state of affairs but also pick up on issues that could be arising soon. The social scientist should be able to direct policymakers to areas that that need attention and draw in the expertise other disciplines to meet the societal need.

Conducting social sciences is further complicated by the plethora of techniques and approaches to draw from. A number of analysts prefer more traditional quantitative approaches that they ‘borrow’ from the natural sciences. Alternatively, they may decide to use more qualitative approaches. I fall in the school of thought that purely scientific approaches are not always appropriate to examine social issues. For instance, research into political psychology would require a more experimental approach to political science but examining government decision-making needs a more holistic view. If you think about it, statistics presents a state of affairs but can’t help you predict how a leader, or government would respond to that state of affairs. There are so many  structural and relational power dynamics that affect decision making that statistics can only be a part of the overall picture. The only way to fully understand, and to an extent predict, possible future scenarios, is to understand the internal and external environment that  guide governmental and political decision-making. This exploration has to make use of international legal instruments, historical decisions making and being able to read shifts in the social environment.

The political scientist also has to draw on important skills that can’t be taught in a lecture hall, such as relationship building and listening skills. Listening goes beyond hearing what is said but includes being able to pick up to what the speaker is truly trying to convey. Many times, as it is with politicians and bureaucrats. The words that they use often have dual meaning or are a signal of something larger. A gruesome example is from the 1994 Rwanda genocide, there was a lot of rhetoric in the media about cockroaches needing to be exterminated. Tapping into relationship networks and listening carefully helps social scientists do their jobs better which can help, in some instances, save lives.

So what does my dream political science and international relations ‘laboratory’ look like? Aesthetically, it would be a cross between Olivia Pope’s apartment and office on the hit TV Show Scandal; basically it would be the love-child of comfort and function. The bookshelves would contain archive material, policy documents, newspapers and transcripts of interviews with experts in my field as well as others related to my subject matter. The living room would have a smart TV that would allow me to access the Internet as well as be linked to news sites around the world. The beauty of a smart TV is that is also does away with the need for a phone because communication is possible via Internet call applications such as Skype. There would also be a blue-tooth enabled keyboard so that I can type from the comfort of my couch when I need to. The only non-negotiable item that I would like is a feature wall with a magnetic glass white board. I prefer glass to regular white boards because they are easier to keep clean and, importantly, they are difficult to photograph. I often use paper or a white board to sketch my ideas or plot out concept relationships so having a stylish whiteboard would be great. Though, I must mention that I recently discovered new mind-mapping software that actually helps with mapping out key ideas (I plan on writing a review once I have fully mastered the program).

Ultimately, I don’t believe that your best social, or political, analysis comes from solely from facts and figures but also requires a good amount of intuition … and a comfy chair to sit on whilst you write.