Hello,

I would like to hear from people about what to do when you no longer see the importance of your research?

I am facing a difficult time at the moment. I'm halfway into my phd and have not started collecting my data yet either!


Nothing is going according to plan and I feel miserable!

hey what do you mean 'the importance of your research'? i.e. do you mean impact, intellectual contribution, political contribution/impact/significance...or your own personal sense of why its important to you?

i struggled with this for ages...because my field is sociology, theres always the rhetoric that your work should do some social good, i.e. throw new light on a problem, be put to use in policy, fight the corner of the marginalised etc...but i realised there is a big difference between an intellectual contribution to an issue, i.e. understanding something and describing it, and making a particular political intervention/approaching a problem from the position that you want to 'do good' or 'recentre the marginalised' etc. Sometimes actually political positions that make these claims can shrink and fix a problem and are unsuitable to see fine grain complexity/have a suitable scale of perspective to illuminate an issue more holistically. im writing about this in my theoretical frameworks now, and i am hoping it will insulate me to some extent against criticism about my research approaching an issue from an angle that is not usually taken.

is this the kind of thing that you mean or are you talking about something else? you dont say much in your post!

Thank you for your reply!


I meant the intellectual contribution. I fail to see what is so original about my research :(

I would wait until your data is ready. That way you will know how others looking at questions you are looking at have approached and concluded and what new you are adding. Start with the data, then narrow your theory and engage and critique and show what is lacking in them that you have managed to answer. You already have the theory with you now go with it and see if it fits your field and if it does not, then that is your contribution.

Remember you don't have to make a huge claim otherwise you will get into trouble in the viva. Keep your ambitious projects post-Phd. For Phd, play safe. Even if you feel the contribution is minuscule, it still matters to research. It depends how you will shape it in your writing and engage with the wider literature more that is what committee will look for-your awareness of the wider literature more than the scale of your contribution. Your story has to start from others work and then end it towards how you have taken it and re shaped it.

Until you do data collection, you won't be able to see what contributions your research will give. I know for myself I felt similar, but after data collection and doing analysis, I had some really great and interesting results that my examiners thought would make strong contributions.

Your data can and will surprise you if done correctly, so make sure you don't worry too much about the contribution portion and instead focus on the research! Your thesis will need to be changed to suit the data, do not try and make the data fit your thesis!