Hi there. I'm in the process of applying for a PhD and I'm obviously required to include a section on methodology in my proposal. However, my research will (potentially) be entirely theoretical, so I'm a quite uncertain as to what to write in the methodology section, since I won't be conduction interviews or any kind of empirical research fro that matter. Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Sisyphus

Hi Sisyphus

I hope this doesn't double up on some stuff I said in the past. May I ask (for the benefit of your audience) what are the two disciplines you prefer to write in (e.g. Sociology, Philosophy) as these will determine your method. Sociologists should focus on social structures and philosophers (I think) focus more deeply on the foundation roots of ontology, epistemology, metaphysics etc. These two fields very much overlap e.g. Derrida and post-structuralists.

I would argue that all PhD's are "entirely theoretical", but I do know what you mean.

I think that the method will be a content analysis method such as the "critical literature review method" but you may decide to chose something else such as phenomenology, critical theory (etc).

Please consult widely as "entirely theoretical" PhDs are tough but rewarding. I wonder if a way to go about this is to say something like "my research objective critiques the limitations of Beck's Risk Society Theory by showing how (I am making this up) this has lost relevance in the emerging world order that we have witnessed over the past decade whereby new non-Western authoritarian global superpowers such as China ..." This fictitious example would give you a time (2005+), place (China, Sino region), institution (Military, communist government) bounds to tighten the focus of your study. In this fictitious example, empirical observations (historical events and facts) that relate to these three parameters become your data/evidence. One alternative is to write more universally in an abstract manner, which I personally think is hard, probably beyond my capacity and work best in Philosophty.

I wish you well

Jay

http://www.business.illinois.edu/josephm/BADM504_Fall%202011/Session%206/Miller%20and%20Tsang_SMJ_.pdf


This is the sort of methodological literature you might work with.