I'm a sociology PhD and working on my analysis/writing at the same time. But I am drowning in theory and can't put it all together in a way that makes sense to even me, much less examiners! I am doing critical discourse analysis (discourse-historical analysis) within a frame analysis methodology - while at the same time I need to deal with theories of nationalism and secularism. Oh and now the sociology of emotions is a new twist. What I've written so far just sounds like I don't know what I'm doing - so at least it's accurate. 😁

Any suggestions would be welcome, thanks!

Thanks, all! I do think the questionnaires will meet the same reluctance but I'm grateful for the Gunther Eysenbach tip! Thank you. I agree, bewildered, that it wouldn't be ethical to push people into taking risks but there really are no risks. There is absolutely nothing identifying participants and literally a million people could give similar answers. But it does illustrate the fear which is an interesting topic in itself. Rewt, I appreciate your thoughts. It's a bit different that quantitative research in that I know it would 'work' if I could find the people brave enough to talk. Thinking of hiring an interviewer now, a road I had not previously considered.

I'm more than halfway through a part-time sociology PhD. During my research in Turkey the attempted coup meant no one was willing to talk about the issues I was researching. A year later, because of foolishly signing a petition, I - and every other foreign academic that signed it - was deported from the country and given an entry ban. I won't even mention that all my books and everything I own are still in Turkey.

Now with Covid, when one would think people would be used to Zoom and willing to talk, I have managed to get just a fifth of the interviews I need. My supervisors have now said enough is enough and want me to superglue it all together with what I feel is fairly irrelevant data triangulation.

Has anyone ever been in a situation where they cannot get access to their research participants? What did you do? I'm desperate to find a way to stick to my original research, though all the subjects are in a country I can't enter. :(