Briefly reflect upon the extent to which stakeholder politics may be present within or impinge upon the ideas you’ve come up with so far for a possible research project.
You should keep notes of your conclusions for use when working on TMA 01.
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Well i haven't actually done a stakeholder analysis yet, so i am writing this with no strict concept of who my stakeholders are.But let's take a few examples:
1. donors. i addressed this in my last post. However, the fact is that i am paying for this course myself, which i was fed up with at the time, but now am grateful. If my research is not to their liking, it remains an academic exercise for my own purposes.
2. fellows. the research i have in mind is aimed to help the fellows' continue an AWARD-type trajectory even after the fellowship is finished. But of course there are 250 fellows with different needs, experiences, wants and i cannot expect to find a homogenous group. Nor must I assume that the research i have in mind will be useful to them. If they cannot engage with it, it will have no meaning so I must contact them asap.
3. Me. maybe i should have put this in the personal politics actually. Anyway, I confess that a part of me wants to do this research to advance my career. I think it is good to mention that as it is something to keep in check if ever there is a choice between sexy options and boring but appropriate options in my research methods or conclusions i can draw,
4. Colleagues. Colleagues are fundamental to this process. They are the interface between me and the fellows and have all the indepth knowledge about the African context and institutions. Their commodity is knowledge and if they withdraw their collaboration, my task will be very hard.
5. academics. Not sure how this will go but I anticipate that since one objective is to make a contribution to an academic discipline, that could possibly mean through challenge and critique, not necessarily through additional evidence in support, so that could be a political issue.