How Conflicts Affect an Economy, Focusing On Afghanistan - Research Paper Example

How Conflicts Affect an Economy, Focusing On Afghanistan Section 2: Research Design for SISU-306 (4 pages) Hypothesis In developing the hypothesis of the study, the research first took into consideration the possibility that they could be testable1. The area of study, conflicts, is wide, and a research can develop many hypotheses from the topic. A general hypothesis in this case would focus on the various dimensions of conflicts that affect economic growth. In this case, it is easy to develop a hypothesis like “conflicts affect a country’s economy since they have negative impacts on the development". A hypothesis like this is general, and the research can alternatively focus on measuring development level of the country in question. Development indicators are some variables to measure when determining the level of a country’s economic growth. For instance, life expectancy can be a development indicator, and it is a variable that is easy to measure. Another hypothesis in this study can focus on conflict conditions that affect economic development. In this case, the hypothesis can be "conflicts leads to political instability creating conditions that do not favor economic growth". This can be an alternative hypothesis and the reason for setting for the research question is that it gives measurable variables. It is easy to conduct interviews and collect opinions of the Afghanistan business people about what political instability implies for their investment. Therefore, the research has both general and alternative hypothesis and prefers them since the variables easy to measure. The hypotheses Research hypothesis, H1: Conflicts reduce developmental rate of a country thus slowing the economic growth Null hypothesis: Conflicts least influence the rate of development and does not slow economic growth. Research hypothesis: Conflicts create political instability thus creating poor economic conditions that slow the economic growth of a country Null hypothesis H: conflicts do not influence political situations in the country and have least effects on economic growth. In all the above hypotheses, there is a clue on what variables to measure, and this explains my choosing of them based on the research questions. Conceptualization The research will not be complete without good conceptualization of the design and approach to the study. In the conceptualization stage, researchers attempt to define their study to the details or they make it as clear as possible2. In this case, it will be necessary to dig deep about conflicts. The word conflict has different meanings depending on the context that individuals use it. In general terms, conflict refers to the state of disagreement between two or more people. In civic terms, a conflict refers to differences in ideologies between one or two people. However, the term conflicts bring the image of battle and wars in the country, society or a community. Therefore, this study refers to conflicts in terms of war and raging battles. The aspect of conflicts that the study seeks to cover is economic implications of wars and battles. In the Afghanistan for instance, conflicts have been responsible for many problems in the country ranging from insecurity to slow economic growth. Conflicts in this context refer to the situation where the country cannot operate normally because of raging wars. A deeper understanding of the term conflict will enable the study to evaluate the situation at Afghanistan and find out some of the effects of wars and battles. In this case, it will be necessary to research on the developmental trends of the country to determine how conflict has affected economic growth. Afghanistan had been in conflict since the year 2001 when Taliban administration collapsed. There have been efforts from the international community to revamp the situation at Afghanistan to no avail. Conflicts have created political disorder in the country where the government has been battling with insurgents or militants. Conflicts in Afghanistan are bad for the economy since with plenty of oil resources, the country has a poor economy. Wars in the country have seen Afghanistan go through insecurity, poor health and education services thus reduce the countrys GDP. Conflicts influence a countrys level of development in many ways. For instance, conflicts disrupt distribution of resources to the entire country. On the other hand, conflicts devastate provision of many services like education that leads to high illiteracy rates in a country which is a negative implication for economic development. Conflicts also create population imbalance where young, active men engage in wars but not economic activities. Operationalization Operationalization involves measurement of the concepts thus entails how the researcher figures out the best approach to measure his or her variables3. Since this research adopts a qualitative approach, the variables are intangible, and it is impossible to quantify such concepts. It will be difficult, for example, to quantify how Afghanistan citizens perceive the healthcare services of the country. In this sense, the research can only make conclusions based on their views and responses. A good measurement of such variable is a norminal representation of their views where, for instance, lower levels of education and limited access to healthcare may represent negative effects of conflicts. Variables A research may choose to measure qualitative or quantitative variables. Qualitative variables are attributes or feelings towards an issue while quantitative variables are measurable and have numerical representation4. In this study, I chose to focus mostly on qualitative variables since they suit the nature of the study and topical or research question. For instance, it is easy to get citizen’s views about their health status as an indicator of economic development. In this case, the research will be relying on the underlying assumption that good health represents high economic development. Therefore, it will be possible to design qualitative questionnaires that seek to know the views of Afghans on the country’s healthcare status. In this context, the personal views are the qualitative variables the research will be measuring. Another reason for choosing the qualitative variables is that currently, there are computer-aided programs that help with the interpretation of qualitative data. In fact, programs like SPSS enables for the numerical representation of qualitative data5. For instance, the views on qualitative on life can range from poor to very poor where. A quantitative representation of the data can range from 0 10 where 0 represent very poor, and 10 represent excellent healthcare. In this case, the research will be able to measure the qualitative variables and use modest programs like SPSS to analyze and interpret the data. Scope of analysis The study focuses on a wider scope of analysis of the variables and data. Firstly, it will be imperative to analyze conflict and trends in economic development. Analysis on this scope paints a clear picture on the predictable trends of conflicts and economic deterioration. To analyze the economic trends in Afghanistan, the research will support its inferences with existing statistical research on how conflicts have impacted negatively on the economy of Afghanistan since 2001. The secondary data will thus show the predictability of effects on conflicts on the country’s economy. The research will collect the secondary data from the country’s national bureau of statistics from the world economic index rankings by the World Bank. The secondary data will supplement the qualitative analysis of conflict and economic development. For instance, predictable trends on conflicts and deteriorating health services will also help in analyzing how conflicts affect a country’s economic growth and development. Another trend to analyze and interpret in from the data set is political instability and economic growth. In this case, the analysis will understand the implication of political instability on a country’s economic development. Case studies/case selection and data representation Before settling on a case study, it is imperative to understand that the validity of inferences in qualitative research depends on the case selection6. In fact, this applies mostly to cause-effect studies like in the case of Afghanistan. Therefore, this study took into consideration the significance of case selection on the outcomes of research. It is also imperative to note that the chosen case must be aligned to objectives as well as the research question of the study. The study seeks to focus on using multiple case studies as a way assuring validity and reliability of the study. The study thus intends to use numerous case studies that discuss effects of conflicts on a country’s economic growth. There are many case scenarios in history to borrow from. Nonetheless, it is imperative to do a proper and unbiased representation of all research projects. Data representation depends on the sampling technique that the study adopts. For instance, random sampling will ensure a rough representation of the research design but may result in biases thus reducing the research reliability. A better representation of data occurs through cluster sampling that focuses on specific groups within a population. Therefore, a good representation will categorize data according to age, gender, and occupation among others. PART 3 Alternative options for the research Variables to measure Alternatively, the research can as well adopt a quantitative approach by focusing on measuring quantifiable variables7. For instance, the research can measure the level of economic development in Afghanistan by focusing on its GDP. The only disadvantage with the approach is that it will require good knowledge and skills of financial management. GDP values of the country exist in secondary sources, or the study can alternatively visit the countrys ministry of planning and development to get the figures through interviews. Nonetheless, the research can ensure measuring quantitative variables like the level of foreign direct investment in Afghanistan. The underlying assumption is that FDI shows the level of economic development in the country. High levels of FDI imply that a country’s economic sector is flexible and favorable for foreign investment. Another value that the research can alternatively quantify is mortality rate in the country. The underlying assumption is that high mortality rates are poor economic indicators. It implies that the countrys health sector is underdeveloped and this lead to the conclusion that conflicts may play a part in the deterioration. Besides, it is easy to record and document the number of students enrolled in schools in the country. In this case, the research will measure the level of education in Afghanistan. Conflicts have everything to do with a number of students enrolling in the learning institutions thus may be a clear indication of poor or positive economic growth. Alternative data collection techniques There are many techniques of collecting but their effectiveness depends on the research approach8. The study prefers the use of questionnaires to collect the views of different households about the countrys economic status. However, it is imperative to make a clear distinction on the type of questionnaires that suits the society. A country with raging wars like Afghanistan has low literacy levels implying that most of the population is semi-literate. In this case, closed questionnaires may face the challenge of the respondents failing to understand what the research requires. Therefore, an open survey questionnaire can be an alternative method of collecting data. Open questionnaires involve reading out the questions and recording their views. The only disadvantage with the approach is that it requires direct participation in the research. However, the research would prefer closed questionnaires with simple instructions to the respondents. One advantage with closed questionnaires is that it is possible to disseminate them through convenient means like emails. On the contrary, many respondents can ignore them implying that response rate may be a limiting factor with closed questionnaires. Hence, open questionnaire are the alternative solutions to problems arising from the suitability of data collection technique. Alternative sampling techniques Another alternative option is about the data sampling and representation strategy. From the research design and scope, it is only possible to assign the study populations randomly. In this case, the study will focus on finding out the general views of the Afghanistan residents on their country’s economic status. Therefore, the study will carry out random selection of the participants as a representation of the whole population. However, random representation is highly biased and has a negative effect on research reliability. Therefore, there are alternative sampling methods like the use of clusters. The clusters are groups or cohorts with shared characteristics. In this research, the study can focus on different clusters of the population like gender, age, occupation, and level of education. Cluster sampling ensures that the population is diverse and is a true representation of the population. For instance, it will be easier to analyze the data trends based on gender, age, as well as occupation of the respondents. However, cluster sampling tends to be time consuming and requires certain the right knowledge and skills to operate. As an alternative to population and data sampling, the method will be a disadvantage to this research due to resource constraints and limited skills for grouping and organizing clusters. A reflection on intellectual journey By considering the available alternatives, it is vital to infer that my understanding of research approach has changed a great deal. For instance, I now believe that there are alternative ways of dealing with problems like biases in research. The choice to use random sampling could have had a biasing effect the final results as well as on the interpretation of the data. Give chance, I would reconsider using a more precise sampling method like clustering the population. In this case, I will be able to categorize the population based on distinct characteristics. Another intellectual problem concerns ethical issues in research. There are many issues when it comes to handling personal data and information. The issue of data confidentiality and privacy came into play when I was conducting investigations. Ethical issues in research sometimes impact directly on the achievement of goals and objectives of the research. For instance, it is unethical to ask some questions in a religious sensitive country like Afghanistan. Ethical issues, therefore, compel the research use data collection methods that assure confidentiality of the information or data that respondents leave behind. The research findings and analysis bring a new perspective of conflict. From the results, it is possible to predict the effects of conflicts on a given economy. Like in this case, the study began by basing its rationale on the negative effects of conflict. In the conceptualization section, the proposal discusses how, to a higher degree, conflicts may slow the rate of growth of a country. In the initial stages of developing the research design, the study was entirely focusing on the negative effects on conflict on Afghanistan by not digging deep on the trends that may noticeable trends in the society. For instance, the state of education and healthcare of the society can paint the real picture of the economic status of a country. To my understanding, conflicts have direct negative impacts on education and provision of health care services in the society. However, the research had not identified how conflict may have direct impact on such important sectors of the economy. Therefore, I have a new understanding of conflict as a concept since its negative impacts on the economy are not sometimes direct but can be residual as with the case of increased illiteracy levels in the society. Thus, the intellectual journey reveals that maybe poor healthcare and low levels of education in Afghanistan are residual effects of conflict. Challenges and difficulties The first and obvious challenge in the research is time management as a limiting factor9. Time is an important factor for both respondents and researcher. A researcher always experience difficulties in aligning or adjusting his or her time schedule to those of the respondents. For instance, it was difficult to plan for the household interviews since people have different chores to attend to at various times. Therefore, it was difficult timing the research population since the focus should be to ensure that they have ample time to respond to the interviews and questionnaires. Another challenge was resource constraint in terms of money. Money or capital is important in research since it helps in transportation as well as preparation of research materials like questionnaires. Another challenge was upholding of ethical standards in research10. The study involved collection of some sensitive data like income levels of households or to a broader extent, requesting for income statistics from the relevant organizations. However, handling of such data involves many ethical considerations, and it is quite a challenge keeping up with the obligations. Therefore, the main challenge was convincing the respondents that the research would treat their views with utmost confidentiality, and no issues would arise. Nonetheless, some respondents were not getting the motives behind the research thus it was difficult getting precise and direct views from individuals with limited knowledge on research topic. Another challenge was choosing methodology or the entire research design. The implication is that a researcher should have the necessary skills and knowledge when using different methodologies and approaches. Bibliography Östlund, Ulrika, Lisa Kidd, Yvonne Wengström, and Neneh Rowa-Dewar. "Combining qualitative and quantitative research within mixed method research designs: a methodological review." International journal of nursing studies 48, no. 3 (2011): 369-383. Read More