Making Sense of Sustainability: An Application of Ostrom’s Theory of Collective Action Towards the Development of a General Framework of Sustainability in Savings and Credit Associations Despite the widespread recognition that a majority of lower-income and rural populations across the world rely on community-based financial service providers such as savings and credit associations (SCAs), there is scarce research on when and why these local self-governing mechanisms exist sustainably and successfully in some cases and not in others. This dissertation sought to apply Ostrom’s theory of collective action towards the beginning of developing a general framework for understanding the factors driving the sustainability of SCAs. A plausibility test of the theory was conducted through structured, focused case study comparisons of three SCAs in the Philippines, finding that the theory holds. Findings from this research should contribute towards a better integration of SCAs into financial inclusion strategies. Perhaps by finally incorporating the vital player of communities, we can achieve financial access for all at a faster and more inclusive pace. Sarah is currently working in policy and practice impact with the Economic and Social Research Council.
Sarah Tan Song-En: [00:00:00] Hi everybody, I am Sarah and I'm a master's student at UCL's public policy course. Today I'm just going to give a brief overview of my process throughout this dissertation and hopefully some of my experiences can be helpful for you as you go through your own dissertation.
So a bit of background about myself, I came from a law undergraduate background which I studied at the University of Sheffield.
And then I spent a couple of years working in a microfinance network in a few different countries. And now I'm back doing my master's at UCL. My research project is based on informal financial institutions, particularly local level self governed community groups. And the approach that I'm taking is looking at Ostrom's framework for governing the commons and in particular her institutional designs that she thinks are necessary for these groups to [00:01:00] sustainably provide financial services to themselves. And so, I'm taking a qualitative case study approach. And looking at two to three cases of savings groups in the Philippines and collecting kind of secondary and primary data in the form of reports and interviews.
Starting to think about the dissertation in Term One I had come into the master's program knowing that there was going to be a dissertation component and felt a little bit nervous about it because I had never done a dissertation before, not in my undergraduate degree or any kind of other major research project before. So I had come into the program knowing that. It was a present component, but I didn't spend that much time thinking about it in Term One. Specifically because, well, Term One is, well, the master's program is quite hectic and it requires a lot of [00:02:00] reading and a lot of other things going on, especially as you're settling into your master's program, so to be honest, I didn't spend that much time thinking about this in Term One.
And I think another reason for that as well was because I had wanted the dissertation project to be something that was based on things that I was learning during the master's program. And so during the time in Term One, I wanted to kind of get a foundation of a sense of what public policy, the public policy course was going to be about and things I was going to learn and then build on that for my dissertation. So I kind of gave it time.
So I did engage with my personal tutor on this. I arranged a meeting with him to discuss how to approach a dissertation, how to select a topic and also to, kind of, go through a few ideas that I had with him. So I met with him around the middle of January. So that wasn't quite Term One. That was Term two. So, some people [00:03:00] might say that's a little delayed. And that may be true. [laughs]
So I think, I mean, everyone has a different approach to this. So some people might start coming up with ideas early and some people later for me, because my topic was very much influenced by concepts that I was learning in Term One that's why I had come up with a topic a little bit later, but I think some advice for your students, students in Term One. As far as thinking about your dissertation would be not to stress about finding a topic so soon and immediately, but kind of letting ideas and things that you're learning in Term One flourish in your mind and throughout the time, throughout your lessons and courses in Term One to constantly kind of jot down ideas and insights that you might have that you might, you think you might want to pursue later. So having kind of, maybe even a notebook or a special book where you put down questions and ideas that [00:04:00] you have throughout the course so that you can look back on it later and be like, well this is something that I want to pursue for my research topic, whether it's your dissertation or otherwise in life.
Let's move on to Term Two. In terms of preparing a research approach, research proposal and approaching supervisors. Basically in this time, students are required to submit their research proposals in early February and also to name two possible supervisors. Coming back from winter break, I still did not have a clear idea of what I wanted to do and who I wanted to approach, but I had Had spent some time in the winter break thinking about it and had narrowed my topics down to two areas.
And I know that students probably come into a master's, especially something as broad as public policy, having a quite a wide range of interests and things that they're passionate about. [00:05:00] So it might be hard narrowing down a topic, research topic, to choose. My approach may not work for everybody, but I can kind of just run through it.
But basically I narrowed down to two topics that I was really interested in. Just broad overview topics. And then from there, I had two kind of more specific research questions that I wanted to focus on from each topic. And looking at these kind of four research questions that I wanted to pursue, I then approached my personal tutor about it and went through each topic with him.
And I think that process of, having to explain kind of the research question that you're looking for and the topic that you're interested in helps you to realise how feasible and how practical each one can be and also where, which are the ones that you think you're more interested in. So that process of talking it through with my personal tutor and other people around me was really [00:06:00] helpful.
It wasn't just my personal tutor that I spoke to, but for each topic that I chose. So just to give a little clarity, the first topic that I was thinking about was foreign direct investment in Africa. And the second topic I was thinking about was institutional design. So regarding the second topic, I approached two different supervisors and received their feedback on what they thought about my topic.
And for the second topic, I spoke with my personal tutor and one of my lecturers about it and followed up with them through emails and follow up questions. So these conversations were extremely helpful, and I don't think that I would have settled on the topic that I did had I not gone through these conversations with them.
What I found most challenging at this time was definitely narrowing down my research question. And to be honest, I don't think I'm done doing that yet, so I wouldn't say that's something to stress too much about. [00:07:00] I think after I had narrowed it down to two topics, it was really difficult deciding which one I wanted to pursue because both were interesting to me and I wasn't sure which one would go better.
And I think at the end of the day, either one would have gone fine. I think it's a good problem to have, to have several topics and questions that you're interested in pursuing. And I don't think that you can really go wrong kind of selecting one, and you can always put the others on a shelf to pursue at a later date.
So, for me, I think, choosing one, the one that I had chosen was largely due to the level of comfort that I had with pursuing that topic and doing research about it. And secondly the level of feasibility. But that was definitely a challenging time deciding which one to do.
These research topics came about through both past experiences and how they were influenced by [00:08:00] Term One courses.
The first topic actually was probably more influenced by my past experiences. That's FDI in Africa. And the second topic regarding collective action was both influenced by my past experiences with financial institutions and also the concepts regarding Ostrom that we learned in Term One. So she asked the lessons about Ostrom's really influenced my thinking and also influenced how I perceive topics that I had thought I knew before.
In particular, I think some of the things that really inspired me was not within academic, academics. So it's taking time to step aside and watch a movie or listen to podcasts. And actually a lot of my inspirations and ideas came from entertainment. So, and I think it's good to kind of broaden your, yeah, broaden your purview.
My literature review at the time of narrowing down my topic was mainly looking for where the literature gap [00:09:00] was, so I wasn't quite focused on theory as much as ensuring that there was a, there was a space and a need for the topic that I was So I spoke to the few supervisors that I did and they provided me with some related literature at the time and also confirmed my suspicions that there was a literature gap. And I think that was the most important thing for me at that point, just to ensure that there was a space for this topic.
Let's move on to finding out who your supervisor is and the first meeting in Term Two.
Students are usually informed by early March who their allocated supervisor is. And the department asks students to meet their supervisor by the end of Term Two.
So I was informed by early March who my supervisor was. How did I prepare for my first meeting? Well, I think it's different for every student and supervisor relationship, but [00:10:00] my first meeting was largely guided in terms of structure by my supervisor herself, who kind of gave us a broad overview of what she expected from us in the first meeting, which I found helpful considering I was kind of stepping into an area that I hadn't known before.
It was helpful to have some structure around it and know what was expected of me. So I think that first meeting for me was challenging because there were a lot of questions regarding my research question, my, the theory behind it as well, and the approach that I was taking, which were all at that point in time, still very murky and unclear.
So yes, my research research plans changed very much after that meeting and the meeting after that, and they continue to evolve to date. What prompted the changes were that my supervisor challenged the theory [00:11:00] behind it and the approach that I was taking, and also challenged me to kind of narrow it down and make it more specific and more feasible in a sense
Because that meeting was so challenging for my theory and because it was something that I was very interested and passionate about I definitely felt worried after the meeting, in terms of being uncertain as to whether what I was doing was valid and whether it made sense.
But on hindsight, I think having that back and forth, doubting your theory, and then coming back to becoming confident about it and doubting it again is a really useful part of the research process because it makes you approach your question from different angles, and it makes you think about it in different ways.
And it also makes your research question stronger. So I think it's better in the beginning, if you can find someone to challenge your ideas, And to point out any loopholes in it, it's better to get that sorted in the beginning [00:12:00] rather than later towards your research process. In terms of my research topic, I had in mind that I was going to do some fieldwork.
But while this would have been very useful to think of in the beginning, I was very much focused on my theory at the time, and I didn't spend as much time thinking about fieldwork, thinking that I could sort it out later. So I think looking back on that, I would have preferred if I had thought of all these more practical questions at an earlier date.
So I think especially for those thinking of doing field work, it's helpful to think of it in conjunction with your theory and refining your research question as well, because they all go hand in hand. And so rather than thinking of it as kind of a chronological process, it is helpful at the beginning to think about it.
Think of them as a package because they all influence each other and on hindsight. I would have preferred to have thought of My fieldwork [00:13:00] practicals a lot ahead of time and I think Term two would have been a good time to think about it But as usual I was delayed by my Term One delay so during Easter break and Term two was It was also the period when there were multiple exams and essay deadlines.
To be honest, I don't think I was the only one when I say that dissertation planning probably took a backseat to all of these deadlines and essays do. But what I did was to have a few days. It's spread out and set aside just for dissertation planning and even though it might feel painful and it might feel that it's something that you can post one to a later date I think it's something that will really make a difference in terms of starting your actual dissertation work in Term Three and getting the ball rolling ahead of time.
So it doesn't feel pleasant [00:14:00] or necessary at the time, but obviously, I think the sooner and the earlier that you can think of these issues and decisions that you have to make ahead of time. the less stress you will feel in Term Three. If your dissertation topic has any relevance at all to what you're studying over the term, a lot of what you're studying for your exams and what you're writing for your essays will actually have some relevance to your dissertation topic.
So you're not quite wasting time by setting aside a few days while studying for your exams and doing essays to do. study for your dissertation and prepare for your dissertation as well. For me in particular a lot of my exam topics were around collective action. So preparing for my dissertation about collective action was actually a complimentary rather than going against my work.
Term Three, after your exams, students receive four half hour supervision meetings. And right after your exams, I think there are [00:15:00] three meetings to go. And two months and three meetings to go. So thinking about the month of May in particular, that's right after exams. I think I gave myself a bit of a break after exams and essay deadlines before I picked up my dissertation work.
So that was definitely necessary. Definitely recommend taking a break after your exams and essay deadlines before you pick up your dissertation work. And not just because you need rest or anything, but I think it's helpful to step away from topics that you are so deeply involved in and to return to it again because it also gives you a fresher perspective.
And it also re energizes you about your dissertation work. So coming into it being tired and exhausted is not the best way to start. So the kinds of research choices I was making at the time were mainly, in the beginning was mainly still regarding my research question and my approach. And in terms of [00:16:00] making these choices, I was, really driven mainly by my interest and passion about the topic and their feasibility rather than future career and job prospects.
Although I don't see anything against considering your future and career, future career and job prospects as you come up with your research choices. But I do think it's important to pick something that you're interested in and that you're willing to spend three months writing and researching about. So, if you can find something that matches all of these, then that would be great.
Around the time of my second supervision meeting, I was still grappling with theoretical decisions and still refining my research question. So I think, at the same time, I was having to face deadlines regarding ethics approvals and making decisions about whether I wanted to do fieldwork or not, because then I would have to go through the ethics approval [00:17:00] process, and that would change my timeline and bring it forward by quite a bit.
So I think the most challenging thing at the time of my second supervision meeting was making the right decisions about my research question, because that would influence as well my data collection and analysis process. One of the positive things during this process was getting the opportunity to dig deep into an idea that you're interested about.
and receive feedback about it. I think most of us kind of going through life, we have a lot of ideas and questions in our mind and things that we think we can pursue, but we don't often get to have the chance to receive feedback and also to spend time just researching and getting insight about it. So I think one of the most enjoyable things about this process in Term three was Challenging a lot of my viewpoints and also having the time not going to [00:18:00] classes or preparing for essays and exams but actually devoting it purely to one area of interest.
So I mean, I think that's rare in life. So it was to some extent, partially enjoyable. We are now in June, and there are just a couple weeks left for formal supervision. And for me, I have one supervision meeting left. So between Term three and the stage I am currently at, a lot of my time was focused on finalizing my methodology as well as my data analysis and collection because I had decided to do fieldwork.
So one of the first Things I did was to finalize my case study methodology. So I had taken up two workshops that the department had scheduled. One of it was a case study workshop and, well actually, both of them were case study workshops. Because this is something I hadn't [00:19:00] really had the chance to delve into much during the Term, and it was something that was new to me.
So I definitely found those workshops extremely helpful in terms of guiding my methodology. My case study methodology, I had decided to collect secondary data in the form of reports and primary data in the form of interviews. The problem that I was facing was that my case study units were extremely extensive.
So they weren't countries, but savings groups, and they're located all across the world. So deciding where exactly, which ones to study, how to select them, and where to base my fieldwork was a struggle. And I had originally planned just kind of flippantly to do my fieldwork in Malawi. But due to [00:20:00] practicality and feasibility issues, I decided to do it in the Philippines instead.
And that was because I had both worked and lived in both countries, and I was familiar with their context and with the people on the ground. So there was a lot of practical decision making there that went into my decision in Terms of identifying where to do my fieldwork. And secondly, I was working with a partner organization, so a lot of where the fieldwork was going to be based was also structured around their decisions and around, working around their schedule and their comfort levels.
As I had decided to do fieldwork, I had to go through research registration and put in a low risk ethics application. I think initially I was trying to avoid having to do either of these things just because I had thought it was going to be very procedural and onerous and take up quite a lot of time.[00:21:00]
But in terms of making a strong case and really supporting your research, I think it's it was an important process to go through. The one thing that I hadn't realized because I hadn't looked at these ahead of time was that it was. It's going to, it went into depth about the methodology and about very specific things, such as interview questions, interview participants where your fieldwork was going to be based, how you're going to recruit participants.
And these are things that I hadn't thought of ahead of time, and I had thought that I would, Decide at a later date, but deciding to do fieldwork and put in an ethics application makes you think about all these things a lot more ahead of time. So in terms of deciding practical issues such as how to recruit participants and how to interview them and transcribe their data and code their data.
My supervisor was [00:22:00] really helpful in pointing out that all of these things were necessary. It just wasn't something that I would have thought of on my own, especially not having gone through this process myself. So I think one piece of advice that I would give would be, even in Term One or while you're coming out with your topic, just to give a look through, just glance through a research registration or an ethics application form just to see what exactly they're looking for and what you would have, what they would require for you to submit one in.
Because I think that can also inform your research question and the topic that you decide on. So it's, I think it's helpful in the beginning to kind of look through that and see what, you see what you're required, see what's required of you. I think some of these issues have, you might hear of in the dissertation lecture, but I think a lot of the smaller details that you don't think of are not quite covered.
In terms of [00:23:00] just, how much planning ahead of time is actually needed to fill in an ethics application. Because you have to think ahead of time about really how exactly you want to go through your research. In my mind, as I was going through the ethics application, I thought it was mainly procedural. At that point, I was just going to pop up on a field and ask a few questions. But ethics application makes you really think through a lot of these smaller details that you might not realize. So I think it is good to do it ahead of time and to think about these questions way ahead of time as well. So for my data, I am planning to do a content analysis and that requires transcribing my interviews and translating them if they, if they will be in a different language, and then coding them. So again, these are things that [00:24:00] at least for me, weren't taught in a qualitative methods class. So it was helpful for my supervisor to provide some research articles and some theoretical articles about how to do these methods.
I definitely think it's helpful to plan the analysis ahead of time because planning, doing my code book, for example, or it helps me to refine my interview questions and helps me to rethink some of the themes and concepts that I was looking at. So, it's an iterative process. I think that planning everything ahead of time for me helps you to realize a bigger picture of your research and also helps you to refine your theory.
I think if you've actually listened to me for this time, the main takeaway for Term three would really be to plan ahead of time and not to push everything back to a later date, especially if you're thinking of doing [00:25:00] fieldwork. And I do think that if you're listening to this in Term One, that you should give the ethics application just a glance just to see what might be required of you if you do decide to do fieldwork.
Supervision meetings. So I am lucky to have had a good experience with my supervision meetings and with my supervisor, although I know that everybody has kind of different relationships and experiences there. In my opinion, I think that the supervision meetings have been the most productive because first, well, there are several reasons.
I think firstly, because if you've had an, if you've had experience doing a dissertation before, then this may not be so new to you. But for students who have never had that experience before, it's difficult to anticipate what is needed and what you need to do. And it's difficult to anticipate [00:26:00] your timeline as well.
And it's very easy to think that, that you can, you can do everything quickly and faster than you thought. But that's because if you're anything like me, you wouldn't have thought of all the other things that you need to do. So I think what makes for a productive supervision meeting is if your supervisor helps to anticipate what you might need to do and also push you to move on to the next steps. If I hadn't had that, I would probably still be looking at my research question right now. So I think it's helpful to have someone to guide you in terms of your next steps, especially if this is something that you've never done before. And a part of that as well, I think, is that if your supervisor helps you to go through everything you need to do ahead of time, because even if you might not need to do data analysis until later, it's helpful to go through that process with your supervisor who can help you, give you [00:27:00] feedback and advice on it while you still have your supervisor with you. If you're only looking at this at a later date when your supervision meetings are over, then you might not receive the feedback that you need to do those processes well.
How you can get the most out of your supervision meetings, I think, depends on, well, the structure of your supervision meetings, but if your supervisor has given you tasks to do, then while some of them may seem like tasks that you can do later your supervisor probably knows better having had more experience what you need to do at that time.
So I would say, especially if this is something new for you, to base your structure and your timeline around the content of the supervision meetings. So, for example, if your supervision meeting is asking you to look at your methods of data analysis, then I would suggest spending time before the supervision meeting to build on the area of data [00:28:00] analysis and what your supervisor requires, but then also kind of going into it deeper and more comprehensively.
If your supervisor doesn't have any structure for the meetings, then I think it's helpful to ask other students around you who maybe have more structure in their meetings, and then you can structure the meetings and guide that process yourself. And I think it's also helpful to, as between meetings, as you're thinking about the topics, to come up with questions that you might be interested in, that you might want answered. Just because there is very little time with your supervisors, so it's better to get the most value out of it as possible. I, for myself, I found that having my supervisor structure the meetings was help, more helpful, than me providing an agenda for the meetings, just because I wasn't entirely sure what I needed to do.
So it was helpful, especially [00:29:00] in a new area for someone to guide the process rather than for me to guide it myself. But I, I mean, I'm sure that everybody has different methods of going about things.
Written work is definitely one of the things that I feel that was helpful for me to submit to my supervisor. Just because I think writing helps to reveal a lot of gaps in your thinking, and it, and the writing process usually helps you to refine your theory and your research methodology as well. It just makes you think about things that you wouldn't normally do. So, I mean, just for me, it was helpful to do some written drafts ahead of time rather than just writing later.
Supervision meetings are one aspect of the dissertation process, but it is also about developing and applying your independent research skills. So, thinking about what will happen after my last dissertation meeting. So as I mentioned before, I think I've based a lot of my independent [00:30:00] research time between supervision meetings, building on what is required of me for the next supervision meeting.
I use that as kind of a foundational base for where I should be in terms of my research work. And that, yeah, so that really helped in the beginning, especially for the first couple of supervision meetings. But I think once you've found your ground and you've created a structure and a project timeline for yourself, then it's important to be moving forward on your own project timeline as well.
So for me, I've been spending a lot more time on my literature review recently and taking that forward on my own. Especially because, if you're doing fieldwork, there's a lot of uncertainty regarding when your fieldwork is going to happen and if there are any obstacles or unforeseen circumstances that might come up at a later date.
So, I think it's important if you're doing fieldwork to be trying to get most of the work that you can do out of the way ahead of time. [00:31:00] Because a lot of the fieldwork and ethics approval is also based on external circumstances, such as waiting for your ethics approval to be accepted and approved before you can do your fieldwork.
So while that is all up in the air, I think it's important to take forward a large part of your research while you have the time. I think that feeds into how much time you want to spend on your dissertation in this period of time. If you're doing fieldwork later, which I am, I think spending more time in the beginning on your literature review and things that are not required related to fieldwork is important. Although if you're doing regressions or something else, then you might have a different timeline.
So, yeah, I think everyone has a different schedule. I know people who work while they're doing their dissertation, I know people with part time internships, and I know people who are going traveling, and people who are just spending all their time [00:32:00] doing their dissertation.
I think it's important to, plan your project timeline so that you know how much work needs to be done exactly. And for me, that means, especially as I'm relying a lot on my fieldwork later, I'm trying to get as much done right now. So I spend a couple of nine to five days working on my dissertation. But yeah, that's different for everybody.
Besides doing my dissertation, I'm also juggling a few other non academic projects, but I, and I, but I would say that majority of my time is spent on the dissertation just because of the amount of work I have to do for it. So yeah, again, I think that all depends on your project timeline and and how much what you want to put into it.
But again, I mean, it's, it's impossible to strive for perfection. So I would also say not to focus too much on the work that you have to [00:33:00] do, but recognize the limitations and the times that you have as well and also recognize the progress that you've made so far. Yeah, I mean, if you were to write a perfect dissertation, you would be writing for many, many years.
So I think it's important just to do the best you can with the amount of time that you have. And also remember to have time to enjoy yourself and to yeah, make use of this time to. Pursue your other interests and make sure you still have friends and family.
For me, I was unable to find those people at UCL. But I did find them through the case study workshops. So I was able during the case study workshops to find people who were doing similar case study methodologies as I was. And that was incredibly helpful.
So I would say, If you're having trouble finding, if your friends are all doing kind of very different things, then going to more specific workshops [00:34:00] where you can find kind of kins to your research topic, that has been incredibly helpful.
I'm sure everyone has different experiences here, but for me, I have gone through a lot of emotional roller coasters with my dissertation topic. Periods of doubt and periods of overconfidence and so, and definitely a lot of slums where I feel like I've hit a block where I've hit a block or where I've questioned kind of the topic that I'm going down with. So I think if you take away anything from this podcast at all the most useful thing I've found is to go for a walk. So every time I'm stuck on something or an idea and I can't quite figure it out, I'd go for a 20 minute walk to clear my head and to come back at it with a fresh perspective. And I also use a lot of my travel time, such as being on trains or in buses or just walking to the tube to think about these ideas [00:35:00] and Actually, pretty much all my ideas have come from transportation and time, so I do think that if you're stuck in a rut, one of the most helpful things you can do is to step away from it for a moment and do something to clear your head and come back to it again.
But the most important thing is not to stress about it and, and yeah, just to let your creative juices flow in whatever way you think possible. And that's usually to empty your mind.
Right. So looking ahead from the start of July, you are going to be on your own working on your project and submitting your dissertation by the end of August.
One of the most helpful things is to plan your time out over the summer. And that's especially important so that you don't leave things that you find are important to the last minute. So I think, I mean, even in Term two, perhaps, to start planning your [00:36:00] project timeline and things that you need to do at certain times so that you can be sure to stick to it and, and not leave things to the last minute and not stress yourself out at the last minute.
Especially if you're looking for jobs towards the end of the summer, it might be helpful to give yourself some time for that as well. I think the key challenges for this, especially for people doing fieldwork, is that a lot of your schedule is up for grabs and it's not always in your hands. So I think I've mentioned this before, but one way to deal with that is to get a lot of the things that you can do now that are not relying on fieldwork, Done ahead of time so that you have a little bit more flexibility with field work.
And that will also help with any stress that will arise in your dissertation time. The thing I'm looking forward to most about working on my dissertation over the summer is doing the actual writing just because it feels like you're getting tangible results. Whereas now I'm doing reading most of the time and it feels like nothing is [00:37:00] coming out of it.
But I think writing is an enjoyable process because. It helps you to think through your ideas and it also allows you to be creative. Really, the important thing is to enjoy your time doing your dissertation. It's not something that you might get the chance to do at other times in your life. And it should really be an enjoyable process, focusing on something that you're interested in and getting to find out, to some extent, the answer to it.
So it's definitely something that you should treasure and enjoy and not take for granted.