[MUSIC] Hi everyone, in this video we will tackle an aspect that tends to trouble many young researchers and scholars. From the vast area of our research interest, how do we narrow down our research topic and how do we arrive at a strong yet clear research question. In this video, we will focus on with some examples, the process of narrowing down our research and arriving at a well-articulated research question. Before we go into the strategies of narrowing down our research, we need to understand the nature of a research question itself. What constitutes a good research question? We need to be clear that the kind of material our research will elicit will depend heavily upon the kind of research questions we ask. At a very basic level, any research project asks what, why and how questions. However, these are qualitatively different questions in terms of what each one of them elicits. In simple terms of what question generally elicits responses which are more descriptive in nature. While these are important questions to clarify certain concepts and get factual details, a research project will be limited if it only asks “what” questions. In order to elicit a more analytical response, a research project needs to rely more heavily on “why”, “how”, or “in what way” questions. When we ask these questions we are basically asking for causality or enquiring about the process through which a certain phenomenon comes to be. This automatically pushes the response towards a more analytical bent, not limited to a simple description, but a more complex understanding of reasons, nature, and process. For advanced research scholars, you should take care that your research questions are not exclusively “what” questions. But more reliant on “why” and “how” questions to ensure that your research itself becomes complex. Also, an effective research question will explore a new area of knowledge or will explore a new dimension or aspect of an established area of knowledge. This will help us in narrowing down our research question in the later stage of research. One of the most daunting tasks for new researchers is to arrive at a research question. Most of us begin with a broad area of interest. For instance, I might say I am interested in looking at the relationship between environment and development. Or I might say I'm interested in urbanization issues. This is how most of us might begin articulating our research interests. How do we move from these broad areas to a well-defined specific research question. Unless we arrive at a well-defined clear research question, our research project or dissertation runs the risk of being unfocused and will not eventually make any contribution to advancing the knowledge in our area of interest. Let us try to understand this process of narrowing down our research topic with the help of an example. Let us assume that at the very beginning of my research process I start with a broad interest in the area of urbanization and urban issues. I do have a little more specific interest in the idea of smart cities which is gaining currency in many parts of the world. How do we now move ahead from here? The first step in this process is to enlist the potential subtopics in this broad area that you are aware about. For instance, I know that within urbanization and urban issues there are several subtopics like urban policy and planning. Urban infrastructure, urban housing, urban environment, inequality in urban areas, urban subcultures, urban ghettos and urban governance and politics and so on. Listing out these subtopics is useful because it allows you to place your interest in a relatively more specific zone, thus also eliminating the other potential areas. Now that we have some subtopics listed, it would be useful to see how or if my interest in smart cities fits into any of the subtopics mentioned in the earlier slide. Two possible subtopics are relevant for me, given my interest in smart cities, the urban policy and planning section and urban governance and public policy. This is because the idea of smart cities is an important intervention in how cities are being planned. And also in aspirations of how cities should be organized and governed. This narrowing down is important because the two subtopics of urban planning and policy, and urban governance provide a peg on the basis of which we can start looking for relevant material. We can for instance, start exploring if journals on urban planning or urban governance include material on smart cities. Now that we have a slightly better idea of our topic which revolves around smart cities in the context of urban planning or policy and urban governance, we set down to narrow it even further. A useful way to do this is to use the following criteria to narrow down the topic. First by geographical context, let's say, for instance, smart cities in urban India or South Asia. Also, by time period, this might not always apply given that the idea of smart cities is largely a 21st century idea. But if our topic was about notions of urban planning in Europe, this might easily traverse historical periods like industrial revolution or early 20th century. The other aspect which helps in narrowing our research is dimension. This is a very important aspect, one which will help you lend complexity to your topic and question. For instance, do I want to study the practical aspects of the smart city, like financial models, smart city governance models, challenges to the execution of the smart city plan, role of digital technology in a smart city, impact of the smart city interventions on citizens, and so on. Or I might want to examine the politics of the very idea of the smart city itself. Why is it gaining popularity at this particular moment in history? What do its principles say about how urban spaces have evolved or how is it related to capitalist economies. Here I want to pause a bit and zoom out, in this exercise of narrowing down our research area, a crucial aspect we need to be aware of is the centrality of reading, only by continually engaging in a review of literature on smart cities will we be aware of the possible aspects of this phenomenon that can be studied. While there are strategies to narrow down our research, there is no shortcut to the task of reading that one needs to do even to narrow down our topic. Also, only when we are aware of what might be the possible gaps in existing literature can we also proposed research which might address those gaps. So, it is important to remember that a review of literature is not a step that we undertake after our research question is finalized. But in fact it is the driver of the process of narrowing down our research topic. We have to be aware that arriving at a research question is also not simply about cut and dry literature review or an academic exercise of choosing an ideal research topic. As scholars, our interest, our investment, our context also help us in arriving at our research question. Let us imagine that as a scholar interested in this broad topic, I come across a slew of news reports from across cities in India where citizens forums are protesting against the proposed implementation of smart city idea in their respective cities. I then join a Facebook group or follow a Twitter thread which discusses this issue in detail. Putting this development together with the narrowing down I have done earlier, I might start now piecing together a research question. How do citizens respond to smart city interventions in urban India or why do they protest against smart city interventions in urban India? Or are citizens’ protests a result from how smart city interventions interact with local, historical factors in urban India? I might go back again to search for literature on these aspects while continuing to follow the protests in my context. This will help me sharpen my research as I discover more complex aspects to this phenomenon. It is after a long process of research that I might arrive at a clearly articulated specific research question which might read like: How do citizens’ responses to smart city interventions in three states in India represent a critique of an increasing digitalization of urban governance? Of course, it is not easy to arrive at such a question in one go, and one needs to do several iterations of possible questions to arrive at the specific research question. Your topic will also have several smaller questions which will help you answer this larger question. In this video we examine the complex process of arriving at a well articulated research question. This process is marked by a rigorous review of literature, plugging into our own contexts and interests and a continual sharpening till we arrive at a specific question. A clear, well-articulated research question is the very foundation on which our dissertation stands. Thank you. [MUSIC]
