Hello all,

The more I think about my research, the more I feel like it is not worthy of a Phd. It is not filling a gap, nor challenging old assumptions. It is just about applying a hypothesis to a different geographical area to test the strength of this popular hypothesis. Plus, the fact that my supervisor is not an expert in the field, but knows somewhat about it, means that I am not getting a true picture of the worth of my research.
I am so scared of failing this!

If you can come up with some good data and it results in a few publications and then I think it is worth it.

Sorry - was trying to post a link to a diagram that I find helpful on the topic of the original contribution, but I'm guessing this forum doesn't like links, and it won't let me do anything with the blank post now.

Testing the strength of a popular hypothesis is not a bad idea.
Maybe you can try adding some of these thoughts:
- Testing a few more methods / maybe with more data needed and check some interesting cross correlations
- Get in touch with more experts in your field - the worst they can do is not reply!
- Check the outlooks on latest (!) research on your hypothesis. There usually is something that is not yet discovered or worth mentioning it.
- I don't know how it is in Geography, but eventually you just start with your idea, make a few articles out of it and see where you end up!
- Cross-cultural validation is - as far as I can see - pretty famous right now, in many research areas of social sciences. Maybe there's more to your idea than just applying an old hypothesis to a new region? Cross-cultural validation with other tested regions?