27-28 March 2012 Tutorials

I think I got some creative juice running after our philosophical tutorials!

27 March 2012

Today, we did not talk about our projects in detail; rather we discussed more about the philosophy behind research. It gave me some comfort that somehow I'm not totally lost in what I  am doing... I'm actually undergoing an inductive process where I am looking at the context of things and thereby (I might) form a theory.  Also we talked about the phenomenology of meaning in research. Is the meaning of the world given or is meaning derived from the way we interpret and observe things? I am a bit more of an interpretivist, I think meaning is formed from the perspectives of our minds (influenced by culture etc...); as opposed to a positivist who argues that meaning is out there and absolute (?).  It was a mind boggling discussion but it got me into a different way of thinking. Which I really need at the moment!

28 March 2012

I benefited a lot from our one-to-one session, it answered a lot of my worries. We talked about...

1. the possible discussion I can have with Eddie to get started with the data I need,
2. a different perspective on the approach to my research; which I think is fantastic! I can look at my research as a form of a risk assessment for UNDP,
3. a diagram of how how outputs-outcomes-impacts relate to each other and how risk is embedded in it,
4. my research question (and made some iterations),
5. the depth of risk management theory I have to look into
6. the comparison and contrast of MSP guidelines and the actuality of 
7. the course of action if the data returns to me is not what I expected

With these discussion raise a lot more questions that I need to answer (some basic, but some more in-depth):

1. What is a country office?
• How is it organised?
• What is the turnover? Is it a factor for risk management?
2. Define risk management
3. Given that I will do the project as a risk assessment of UNDP, what data do I need?
4. Are the asserted goals matched with the outcomes?
5. Does UNDP require risk management process to be aligned?
6. What does MSP say about the risk management methods? 
• Does UNDP conform to it? Why? Why not?

Generally a productive meeting. But I still feel like I'm in a fog, but I got an idea.! I'll share the idea once I get some fruition from it.