Journal Entry #17 - 2/21/12

Working on Section B of my research proposal has caused me to think hard about my project this coming summer. It is one thing just to go to class, to participate, to do some minimal research and writing on a regular basis, and then to actually submit a finalized introduction to and justification for my research in London this summer. Drafting a careful, rational argument for the research I will do pushes me into a corner a little bit and forces me to come up with more valid arguments for my research than ever before. "It means gathering yourself together into a single point rather than letting yourself be dispersed everywhere into a cloud of electronic and social input," as William Deresiewicz said in a lecture given at West Point in October, 2009 (see the full speech here). However, preparing for the proposal draft has been very helpful, and I have had a lot of thoughts (mostly scattered, as usual) that I want to keep track of because they will be useful later, so I'll put a few down here:

First of all, I don't have a faculty mentor yet. However, I think I'm going to talk to my PL SC 200 teacher Ray Christensen and see if he could be mine. Dr. Christensen is so passionate and fascinated by social science research, and I think he will really be able to help me create the kind of really effective research design that will make this summer's project incredible. For instance, last week we talked about whether our "x's" in our research could be manipulated or not (i.e. randomized). I think that mine could. Because I have a hypothesis. I believe that although citizens in the United Kingdom have shown themselves to be decreasingly religious and increasingly liberal in their attitudes toward things such as the role of religion in forming public policy (74% agree or tend to a agree that religion shouldn't affect public policy according to a Ipsos MORI survey that was released last week) or whether it is wrong for a woman to have an abortion in the legal time limit (only 20% agree that it is wrong), I think that most British citizens generally feel that the decreasing religiosity of their country is hurting their country and their society. I read about a clever study that was done in the United States that sought to discover how supportive Americans really are of a Mormon President. They placed several unrelated characteristics in a list and asked the survey takers to give the number of negative characteristics on the list (without saying which ones they thought were positive). A control group was given the list without "is a mormon" or something to that effect, on the list, and the results were compared to those who were given a list that had "is a mormon" among the other characteristics. The results showed that there were significant concerns felt by many American about having a Mormon president, because the mean number of negative characteristics on the list increased when "is a Mormon" was added to the list. So, going back to my project, I think I might be able to use the same model to find out how Englanders feel about the decreasing religiosity in their country, and I could do it one of two ways. First, I could create a list of current trends or events occurring in the UK (like devolution, keeping the British pound, involvement in Syria, etc) and ask people to list the number of positive movements in the country from the list. I would have a control group that would take the survey without "decreasing religiosity" on the list, and another group with "decreasing religiosity" included. Then I would compare the results afterward. To do it the other way around, I could ask them to list the number of negative movements or events occurring in the country and perform the same experiment, with a control group and a normal group taking the survey. I think the latter would be more convincing, since if the reported number of negative movements in the country increased among those who had "decreasing religiosity" on the list, the change could be directly attributed to the negative feelings that Britons have toward the decreasing religiosity in the country. I theorize that most British citizens are aware of the positive effects that religious beliefs have in peoples lives, and although they are increasingly irreligious, most do not view the change in a positive light. Through interviews and surveys and talking to people, I hope to evaluate the various attitudes that people have toward the trend of decreasing religiosity in the country. The results of the study could either validate or vilify the actions of government in the United Kingdom in defense of religious liberties and Christian values.

Journal Entry #12

I have to say, the IAS 360 Field Study Prep class has been incredibly helpful so far. I remember being very excited about the whole idea of the Field Study when I first learned about it and made the decision to sign up. Then came the preparation interviews, the paperwork (purposefully signing my life away), and the class. Jumping through the hoops was all well and good until this point, but during the last few weeks I started thinking seriously about my day to day in London, and the reality of this ninety day adventure actually happening at the end of this semester actually started hitting home. At the same time though, the discussions in class and the research sources that I've been looking up and writing about three times a week have had a bracing effect. I can say that I'm more excited about going to London today than I have ever been. I feel more confident about my research topic, the methods I'll be using and the activities I'll be doing on a day-to-day basis while I'm there. The semester has been extremely busy with Political Science 200 and huge papers to turn in on an almost weekly basis. I enjoy learning about the topic I'm researching in London this summer I could spend hours and hours reading articles, poring over maps of the underground, and watching Youtube videos of different bus routes :)

At the same time, however, so man of the things I've been involved in have been helpful as I've prepared and thought about this summer. First of all, PL SC 200 is exactly the kind of rigorous writing and research preparation that I need in order to do this project effectively. My job as a sales person at Bluehost 20 hours a week has given me opportunities to talk to people from London, England several times this semester already, and I've told almost all of them about how I'm going there this summer. One of them even gave me his number and email and gave me some tips about where to get a place to live and places to go visit. He told me to call him if I needed to ask some questions while I'm there. That's sweet :D Studying in my History of England class has been incredible as I've been refreshing my memory of English history that I learned when I took AP European History as well as the study of the political system in the UK when I took AP Comparative Politics. Since HIST 323 is a class that focuses only on the history since 1689, I've been able to understand the history in a lot more detail than I have before.

There are still a lot of variables that I don't understand and haven't thought about. However, I'm feeling really good about it all :)

Journal Entry #8

So during last class we discussed our research projects in a very frank, pragmatic way that got me thinking about what I'll be doing on the ground each day while I'm in London. Essentially, my question is a rather simple one:

What do Britons think about the decreasing religiosity in their society?

The answer is key, because as far as I have been able to observe through my research, the nation is very polarized, and the heavier end of the spectrum is shifting more and more to the nonreligious. On the other hand, there is considerable evidence that religious practice provides many different benefits to society, from physical health to strong marriages. Powerful figures like Prime Minister David Cameron have made arguments for a more assertive confirmation of religious convictions, and especially Christian values, in society (see the post below for Cameron's comments). It will be incredibly interesting to discover how the British people, and the various minority groups that can be found in London especially, feel about these changes in the country, and what they feel are the major impacts on their society.

However, then comes the question of how exactly I'm going to do it. It would be possible to ride the tube back and forth between stations, and talk to individuals about how they feel about this issue. What I might do is hand out a simple survey to people seated on the subways (like 2-3 questions) and ask them how they feel. I can visit schools, churches, cathedrals, and political buildings. I could interview families in their homes. I'm not going to have a camera though, and all in order to get direct quotes I'll have to have some sort of recording device, and disclaimers, and signatures...

Otherwise, I"ll have to use a pre made survey to evaluate each short conversation, or collect printed surveys from people.

That's going to be a lot of printing costs.