Ethical approval has been received! This means I can contact potential case studies for interview. In my plan this isn't supposed to happen until later in 2012, so it is nice to have everything in place. Something that isn't exactly going to plan is the registration of research degree. This is supposed to happen ten months into the programme, but every time I've submitted my report into what my research is about it has been returned with one problem or another. Part of the issue is that I don't get to meet with the research committee to explain my research (this happens at some universities). The process is useful for highlighting potential problems with lack of understanding about the research, in particular jargon. The lack of being 'registered' doesn't really prevent me doing anything (unlike the ethical submission) but it would prevent me jumping through further administrative hoops down the line. Supervisor meeting #15 took place this month.

Supervisor meeting #14 took place. Have been really busy with teaching as well as doing the PhD, but managed to produce about a third of a chapter which my supervisor thinks is going well. Have some good guidance on thinking about political and technical arguments and consequences for increasing scale of local government areas. Feel quite confident about producing my first article from the chapter. The only problem is finding the time to do it. As ever I am a slave to the PhD admin and form filling and need to make changes to my registration first. 

Making a short update sooner than expected. Had supervisor meeting #13 to go over changes to my ethical submission and degree registration. PGCE is going well, but unfortunately other distractions are eating into time that would be spent on the PhD. Will need to devote some time over Xmas to meet the research committee deadline in January.

I have passed my progress report, a requirement for moving on to the next year of the PhD. Still waiting to hear about ethical approval and also my registration submission. For me the PhD is going to enter a quiet time for a while. I will schedule another supervisors meeting in early September and then don't envisage much activity for a some time. I will be enrolled on the programme part time during 2011/2012 as I will also be doing a full time PGCE from September 2011 to June 2012. In terms of my research subjects this gives some more time for attempts to form parish councils to reach maturity, either as a success or a failure. Both outcomes will be interesting to study. Enrolling at two academic institutions simultaneously is already causing to be a little confusing. Unsure if I'll stick to monthly posting for the whole of 2011/2012, but we'll see how it goes.

Another mid-month posting, mainly because I know if I don't do it now I will forget to do it by the end of the month. Also I have some good news.

I had supervisor meeting number 12 last week. A rare meeting involving both of my supervisors. Both seem very happy with my progress. As well as a recap I set out my expectations for next year when I will be doing the PhD part time.

We talked about transfer from MPhil to PhD and the general feeling was there is no hurry to do that. I certainly don't want to go through this process whilst I am completing the PGCE. That means this is almost certainly not going to happen until 2013. This means the next of the dreaded admin forms I need to do is the end of year report in June 2012.

I'm currently working on the first five chapters that make up the literature component of my thesis. One of these looks at census data and size of local government units. My supervisors have both pointed out that the way I am interpreting the data is original. They have suggested I write an article based on that chapter to be published. This is great news as one of my immediate ambitions is to have some published work. This also helps me prioritise the work I am doing. Anything motivational like this is definitely a help.

There are two months now until I start the PGCE so I have two solid months of being able to work on these early chapters. Summer? What summer?

Lots of things completed this month. The ethical approval request is submitted. As my investigation is mainly looking at documents and interviewing community leaders it was challenging to find any real potential ethical concerns.

Secondly, I completed the registration on the research programme. This should have been done some time ago, but other things got in the way. Finally, I completed a first progress report. From now on I will complete a report at the end of each academic year. However, my next administrative activity will be in September when I complete the transfer from MPhil to PhD. I am going to start work on this now as it is quite an important document and it actually relates to the literature review work I am doing.

I found the forms and reports very tedious to deal with and the duplication of near-identical information a little distracting, especially as I am in a period of writing. If I were to draw a lesson from this, I'd say get the forms done as early as possible and don't let them bunch together.

I now have until 16 September to get on with some writing and complete my transfer documentation.

I'm writing! This update comes earlier than usual as I'm concerned I may otherwise forget to do it. The good news is the planning of my literature chapters has reached a point where it is so granular there is nothing left to do but write. Once the chapters are conceived as individual essays of around 7,000 words it is a lot less scary and feels manageable.

Biggest problems right now are dealing with procrastination and finding the best times and locations to write. I need to get to the library more often, but other issues have got in the way of that to some extent. So, basically all the usual concerns of writing. I have a schedule to keep and things are going well with that. Hopefully there is adequate flexibility built-in.

Finding it hard to care about administrative tasks at the moment, because, frankly, writing is just much more fun.

Planning to do this at the end of the month is working out to be a good idea because somehow I just remember in time to write a new post. First some good news about that most tedious of subjects: funding. I have secured some grant money for 2011/2012! This is a great relief. Another change is that during 2011/2012 I will do the PhD part time whilst I am doing a one year PGCE in Post Compulsory Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. So more good news, an extra qualification and broader opportunities for after the PhD in terms of teaching and/or research.

I already have a broad road map planned that included for this change, but I need to make more detailed chapter summaries. I need to have all my literature chapters done by September 2011. And before I get to that I need to get all the various forms in to the university to move the PhD along. Seriously though, forms or writing? Which do you think I would prefer.

During April I planned to have supervisor meeting #11, but this has been pushed back to May. Our discussion will focus on the chapter structure and timescales. The IoE (Institute of Eduction) lecturer I met felt confident a PhD could be completed at the same time as the PGCE and said it happened all the time. This has given me renewed confidence in my plans.

I am about to move from a phase of the PhD I would probably describe as the tentative/planning phase into a time of considerable activity, with just one hoop to jump through: the completion of a series of forms and administrative processes. A PhD really is part pleasure and part pain. 

So, I appear to have got into the habit of updating my research journal on the last day of the month. Love the routine!

March was a month I expected to be full of forms, but I've deferred the majority of them until April. A distraction was applying to do a PGCE in September at the Institute of Eduction. I have an interview lined up and if I am successful I will start the one year course in September. The PhD will go part time during 2011/2012. I have a revised work plan agreed with my supervisor. My estimated end date for the research is 2014. There will be an increase in workload this year, especially over the summer.

I met with one of my potential case studies this month. Although data collection is such a long way off I felt it would be a good idea to gather some ideas to inform my literature search. I had a really informative one hour meeting where I was able to identify various concerns and barriers that might manifest when setting up a formal community council. 

In terms of structure I've returned to both my original research question and my tentative chapter headings. I'm currently working on fleshing out a summary of each chapter to give more of an idea of what it will contain. This is a useful exercise to connect what I have been reading to a written work that could form the basis of my thesis. I also had some writing practice producing a short summary article for a website on city governance.

February was dominated by the most tedious of subjects: funding. The cuts in research finance have started to bite, but I think I have found an innovative way to keep my PhD going through this year and next. I hate it when my research gets sidetracked by funding applications, but needs must.

To add to the tedium there are a plethora of university forms, of which some need to be completed as soon as possible, or in other cases factored in to my plan for the year. I'm finding it difficult to get motivated to complete these. Hopefully I will wake up one morning and be in the mood to tackle it. It was easier earlier on in the PhD to satisfy admin demands as the terror of a blank canvas causes a craving of structure. However, now things are moving along (and I have become more reclusive) I feel like I just want to be left alone to get on with it.

I periodically return to two things as I progress. Firstly the fitness of my original research question, and secondly the time plan I have to answer it. Last year I produced a fairly detailed time plan as part of an ESRC application, but it is time to revisit it. In particular I need to create a more granular plan for the literature review and literature chapters as I will be working on these imminently, and in truth I have already started.

The number of potential case studies continues to grow and keeping track of them is a slight demand on time, but one I am happy to spend. There is also a nice dialogue going on in London about the possibilities parish councils could offer. The timescales appear on my side. It should take about a year to set up a council which means the first might come into its powers in 2012 right around my data collection time. A successfully created council isn't a prerequisite of my research and a failed attempt will perhaps give better insight into the barriers to setting them up.

March is most likely going to be a month spent planning and form filling, which is possibly the least enjoyable part of doing the PhD. However, once this is complete the work on the literature chapters can really begin and things will enter a new phase.