I’m writing this on the train home. Another term has quickly passed us by but I think it’s been a good one! I feel like I have direction, purpose and there are lots of exciting things to look forward to. The first 6 months of the PhD have more than lived up to expectations and I’m looking forward to more!

Although it is a bit studenty of me to be talking about the end of the week on a Thursday morning, the working week which has just passed has been a good one. The weather obviously helps and although it’s a bit cloudy and foggy this morning, we have had some glorious days this week which makes me feel like Spring has sprung!

Monday: I received feedback on the draft of my literature review/theoretical framework. On the whole, it was positive and it seems that I have made good progress this year. I’m told I clearly like social constructivism and sociological institutionalism so should spend less time trying to justify other approaches as I don’t really sound convincing when I do. So I feel I can position myself in academic debates a bit better, and dare I say it, label myself a ‘constructivist’?!!? I know this is a big deal for me, always one to avoid nailing my colours to the mast!

Tuesday: St Patrick’s Day. For once I managed to get through the day without consuming a drop of Guinness. The day started off with a presentation by one of my fellow politics PhD students, this was really interesting. And although I’m no IR theorist I enjoyed the talk and I felt I could make some connections with how I see the world. Whether my questions were that perceptive is another matter!!! Then later in the day we, me, the PhD student giving the presentation, another PhD student and a friend from the MA year went for a drink in Wylam, in the Tyne Valley. So I’m told, Wylam station is the oldest railway station in the world that is still working! The pub in Wylam is superb, largely because the brewery is in the same village! Anyway, the reason we went there was to try the special St Patrick’s Day brew – Paddy Whack! A nice tasting bitter coloured GREEN!!!

Wednesday: I went to Hull to meet the Portuguese academic José Magone who has made a brief return to Hull where he was a lecturer before he took up his chair in Berlin. As he’s the main man writing books on Portuguese politics in English he’s an important chap to make contact with. As the weather has been good, we sat in the street and drank coffee and a good chat. Although you couldn’t really mistake Hull for Lisbon! Anyway he gave me lots of tips and suggested lots of people to contact. Most importantly it’s just good to let him know that I exist and have read (and purchased) his work! Once we’d done I got the train back to York. I had a wonder round the city streets and had a couple of pints and got some dinner. Had a walk up to the Minster in the early evening sunshine, was nice! Most importantly found a few very good pubs and a beer shop. The problem comes in convincing the girlfriend to get me what I want… I have decided that when I submit my thesis or pass my viva (one of the two) I want to crack open a bottle of Chimay Grande Reservé. This is a trappist Belgian beer, about 9%, but this particular one matures in the bottle so gets better with age and it comes in a magnum champagne bottle! So it’s a litre and a half of dangerously strong (and rather expensive) beer!!!! But I need something to work towards!

So, Easter holidays… I need to get my progress review stuff sorted and prepare for my two presentations in May. And, most importantly, have some time out and relax!

So with my theoretical framework redrafted, hence the Yes Minister quote, today has been devoted to tidying up those loose ends and preparing for next week.

It’s been really useful to have a day in the office and the freedom to organise my library books which need returning and work out what needs to be printed off and photocopied etc before I go home for Easter. As the progress review process begins after Easter I don’t want to be doing much in the way of proper work, but I do need to make sure I have sufficient materials to organise the two presentations I shall be giving in May. These will be exciting opportunities although a bit scary! I’ll feel much happier once I feel prepared for it!

Last week I had a very nice day out in Leeds contemplating the future of democracy in Europe. I saw a very interesting video made by the students to try and educate school kids about the EU which was really good. I can see it being compulsory viewing for everyone! Also some very distinguished speakers, including 2 MEPs. As keen as I am on Europe, and democracy for that matter, I don’t think the day has helped me to decide whether I will vote in the forthcoming European Parliament elections, and certainly not WHO to vote for. Keeping the BNP and UKIP out of the European Parliament is much more difficult in the proportional representationsystem and would mean voting either Labour (don’t think so on Gordon’s performance as PM), Tory (which would somewhat go against the pro-EU bit) or Lib Dem (I might as well get a hammer and sickle tattooed on my forehead!). Anyway I shall need to give this some more thought.

This coming week… I’m meeting my supervisors on Monday to discuss my theoretical framework and I need to be sure of what I am doing over Easter. I am meeting a Portuguese professor in Hull, visiting from Berlin, on Wednesday. Tuesday night will mean raising a glass or two for Saint Patrick! And Thursday I’m going home, not been home for nearly two months. Looking forward to that.

The events of the coming will be reported on in my next post. Until then…

Nice thought. After a long weekend of actually doing work, I’m entertaining the thought that perhaps the PhD is the sort of dangerous addiction I should be giving up for Lent.

Of course, this is not the case. But it does help me illustrate what I think the situation is. I have now reached the stage where I can’t turn it off!!!! Thoughts and ideas running through your head, when you are in bed and meant to be sleeping (or whatever), the mad scribbles of notes on any piece of paper that comes to hand, the addiction of the PhD is really starting to manifest itself!

Now, that’s not a bad thing, but it is potentially very dangerous. Time to reflect and think about ideas is always a double-edged sword, you can get some things clear in your head, but then you are faced with a whole new set of problems to analyse and solve. Do you really want to go there?!?

Over Christmas I had the space to switch it off, but over Easter I know that’s not going to happen. So those nearest to me will have to put up with me going on about what I’m doing and writing notes all the time as an idea comes to mind. The creative process, I guess is what makes it addictive. Those moments of inspiration and the moment where it all falls into place is what makes it worthwhile. Those moments have largely been missing in the first five months of the PhD. I have, instead, been slowly demolishing my initial PhD proposal and now my theoretical framework is a nice complicated mess! But much better for it!

So since my last post, my time has been taken up by redrafting my Literature Review/Theoretical Framework section. I did the first draft before Christmas and then received some feedback from my supervisors. Then I set about engaging with more of the Foreign Policy Analysis literature and getting into understanding foreign policy in terms of conceptions of national role identities. This seems to me, to be really useful for thinking about Portugal. Its niche in European politics is its connections with its former colonies and broadly with the Mediterranean, so Portuguese foreign policy can then be constructed according to this broadly cultural role. Or so it goes, it’s been a long weekend my head hurts! So, with nearly 10,000 words chalked up and a section on ‘small states’ still to write, and the concluding analysis and loads of signposting and introductory bits, the 2nd draft is taking shape. And after meeting with Jocelyn and deciding on a better structure for the chapter it flows much better and is organised a bit more logically.

So progress on the theoretical side, but it comes at a price. I’m not a philosophical person and am reluctant to dwell too much on theory, largely because I’m scared of getting in too deep (and getting out of my depth and drowning!). But reflecting on the finer points of International Relations, European integration and how we conceptualise and construct political institutions and national identities has been an enjoyable experience. The ongoing structure-agency debate is something I have been trying to get my head round. I definitely agree that they can’t be separated and that one constitutes the other, but then you get into the whole muddy water of which came first and which one is more powerful. I told you my head hurts, so I’m gonna stop there.

I’ll try not to leave it too long until my next post! I am meeting another Portuguese professor this month so will report back about that. I also need to get my head straight as to what I need to do over Easter. But for the moment I need to get this Lit Review/Theoretical Framework draft done by the 12th.

But it’s nice to have had the afternoon in the office on my own with the freedom to do work, to procrastinate, to go on Facebook etc. in relative peace.