I started my journey as a doctoral student at the beginning of this year. During my twenty years in working life I have many times thought about doing a dissertation, but \u201clife happened\u201d as it so many times does. But last autumn, almost suddenly, many things fell into place and I realized I was writing my research plan.<\/p>\n
After being admitted to the doctoral program of social sciences I felt the joy and the excitement of all the new things ahead. As my supervisor said to me, I now have the opportunity and freedom to do research on the subject that really interests me. Freedom, what a lovely and at the same time complicated thing!<\/p>\n
Despite at least the seemingly endless possibilities, I have a strong vision of what will be the main focus of my research. For a human geographer who has worked throughout her career in the field of regional development and is now starting as a doctoral student in regional studies, what would be more suitable than focusing on the complex system of regional development and how it is managed.<\/p>\n
In the constantly changing world of globally connected phenomena but regionally and locally implemented policies there must be different perceptions of how regional development is implemented and managed. What is particularly interesting is how long can the old ways of managing the system be better than a bag full of new views, actors, and networks.<\/p>\n
However, before I can completely immerse myself in the world of regional development from the perspective of scientific research, I have many practical issues to solve. For now, I must manage my time between working full-time and attending courses, and doing research at the same time. Fortunately, many courses are not time dependent and can be taken online.<\/p>\n
Still, it\u00b4s clear that I also want to focus entirely on research for a while. This means I need to find time and funding for a research leave. As much as I see my everyday work as a benefit and an inspiration to my research, I feel it\u00b4s also essential to change my perspective towards being a researcher. For me, it is the opportunity to dive deep into the theories and concepts of my research topic and at this moment, that is what I look forward to the most.<\/p>\n
Marita Mutka I started my journey as a doctoral student at the beginning of this year. During my twenty years in working life I have many times thought about doing a dissertation, but \u201clife happened\u201d as it so many times does. But last autumn, almost suddenly, many things fell into place and I realized I was writing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[46,48,25,47],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-en","category-yleinen","tag-doctoral-studies","tag-in-english","tag-phd-studies","tag-regional-studies"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/strong>Doctoral student in regional studies
\nDoctoral Programme of Social Sciences
\nUniversity of Vaasa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"