| I have difficulty deciding what is feasible within the time I have available for research (A6).
An assessment of the ‘researchability’ or a research project is one of the most important phases in doing research. A feasibility study needs to be done before you formulate your (detailed) research question, do interviews and the like.
The most important aim of a feasibility study is – in a relative short period of time – to reveal the kind of (re)sources available and how difficult/easy it is to use them. A feasibility study can take considerable time. For an M.A. thesis, for instance, expect to take at least one week to do a feasibility study or your initial research question(s).
Three main categories of resources to consider in a feasibility study are personal resources, secondary sources – relating primarily to literature – and primary resources. Personal sources:
• Time: How much time is available?
• Intellectual: What is your experience in the topic and in doing this kind of research?
• Social: Who do you know who you could contact to help you with the research?
• Financial: Do you have an opportunity to hire assistants? What is your budget for making photocopies, or for travelling?
• Ambition: Your ambition level defines the ‘energy’ resources available for a project; do you go for a ‘pass’ only, or are you only satisfied with a ‘distinction’?
Secondary sources:
Find out what kind of information is available on the topic. This is called secondary data. Make a distinction between theoretical and empirical literature. Theoretical literature will be more important in the first phases of your research project, because it can put your research question in a wider perspective. The empirical literature (of the lack of it) will be more important later on. Assessing the availability of these categories separately will enable you to plan more realistically. See Skill Sheet A6 for six techniques for assessing the availability of literature.
Primary sources:
Making use of primary resources means that you collect information from the original sources. You should at least consider the availability of two sources of primary information:
• Your own observations through participation
• Interviews and/or questionnaires.
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