Proposal Update! (Monday 30/9 to Sunday 6/10)

Hello lovely supportive readers,

Last week (Monday 30/9 to Sunday 6/10) I actually got about starting AND completing my method section (375 words... Woohoooo!) and making a good start of my introduction (728 words down people!!) for my proposal. I didn’t get a chance to meet with my supervisor, who as I have said is lovely. And so so so supportive. Which is amazing, it’s like having a cheerleader that actually likes someone…

My method section consists of the standard methods layout.

Design- this being what type of study is it.

Sample- who will be taking part as a participant (being tested or interviewed).

Procedure- what you will actually do.

Method of Analysis- how you will analyse the data.

This is normally the easiest part to do, as its all pretty straight forward. So here is a very simplified version of my method section:

Design

This study will be 5-6 single semi-structured interviews with a prewritten interview schedule (list of questions that you don’t have to stick to)

Sample

The criteria to be a participant in this study are:

A) The participant must have spent most of their life farming

B) Be willing to be interviewed,

C) Aged 55 or over

D) Runs or has run a pastoral farm.

Procedure

Essentially it’s just:

Find participants that are willing, interview them with the schedule at their choice of place and time. Their own homes probably and sometime over Christmas, as that will be when we are all free.

Method of analysis

This is hard because I don’t know yet what type of data I’m going to get if it’s a lot of experiential (experience based) data then I should use IPA (interpretive Phenomenological analysis) but if I get a lot of attitudes and perception based data I will use Thematic analysis.

So that’s a quick run-down of what I've done, I've read a few articles on farming and retirement.

Here are their references:

• Farming Futures Group, November 2001. Farming for the future: A new direction for farming in Wales. The Government of The National Assembly for Wales
• Errington, A.J., 1999. The intergenerational transfer of the farm family business: A comparative study of England, France and Canada. Paper to the Canadian Young Farmers Forum Annual Meeting, Regina, Canada.
• Errington, A.J. and Lobley, M., 2002. Handing over the reigns: a comparative study of inter generational farm transfers in England, France, Canada and the USA. Paper presented to Agricultural Economics Society Annual Conference, Aberystwyth.
• Ward, N. and Lowe, P., 1994. Shifting values in agriculture: the family farm and pollution regulation. Journal of Rural Studies, 10(2), 173-184.
• Whitehead, I., Errington, A., Millard, N. and Felton, T., 2002. An Economic Evaluation of The Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995. Newton Abbot: The University of Plymouth.
• Whitehead, I.R.G., 1996. Farm Business Tenancy Survey 1996. London: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
• Potter, C. and Lobley, M., 1996b. Unbroken threads? Succession and its effects on family farms in Britain. Sociologia Ruralis 36 (3), 286-306.
• Office for National Statistics, 2003. Social Trends
• Office for National Statistics, 2004. Regional Trends

I hope you don’t die from boredom but if you wanted to see them there they are…

That’s it for last week folks,

Take care now

Claire xx