We took part in LSE GROUPS from October 2017 to February 2018. As the theme for our year was the Beveridge Report, each group formulated their research question around one of the ‘giants’ identified in the report: Poverty, Squalor, Idleness, Ignorance or Disease. On our first meeting, we decided on Squalor. That took us down many unexpected twists in the brainstorming process: from public housing to gentrification, and from urban planning to the housing asset bubble, we leapt from one potential research topic to another, but could never decide what to study, because everything was interesting and very much worth thinking about, analyzing and debating.
Eventually, with the help of our research mentor, we settled on the impact of the sharing economy on the hospitality industry. Specifically, we wanted to learn whether Airbnb is a substitute for the hotel industry. To do so, we studied the profile of Airbnb hosts - are they truly “regular people” as Airbnb claims? Or is the market monopolised by professional agencies? And do guests expect Airbnb services to be as professional as those of hotels? We adopted both quantitative and qualitative methods in our study, and received very helpful advice from the staff team in carrying out our research. They offered us workshops on basic data visualisation and analysis, as well as guidance in wording our survey questions.
Our results showed that the biggest winners on Airbnb, in terms of revenue and number of listings, are professional housing agencies. We presented our project at the LSE Research Festival and received constructive feedback from the judges and our peers.
Wu
LSE GROUPS is a very beginner-friendly programme. It’s for anyone who is interested in research, even if one had no prior experience and no idea where to start. I say so for 3 main reasons. One, the staff at LSE GROUPS are very supportive and nurturing. They didn’t assume that we had any research background (which we didn’t) so the whole journey was a very gentle introduction to the social science research process. It was especially helpful to have a mentor who offered advice when we were stuck and provided timely feedback on our work. Two, there’s a lot to learn from people of different backgrounds in the group. Even if you didn’t have an articulated research question (none of us did either), meeting new friends with varied interests and approaches to the same topic will surely inspire new ideas! That was probably why we had so much fun (and also a very tough time) pinning down our research question. Third, you have full autonomy over your project. What you choose to study and how you conduct the research is entirely up to you – so long as it’s ethical. Taking charge of the entire process from start to finish is probably the best way to see if research is for you. Even if it isn’t, you’ll walk away with immense pride in your independent work, as well as valuable skills and experience.
Minsuk
LSE GROUPS is particularly interesting because it is usually the first research project you carry out. You have little knowledge of what should be done, or even what you’re interested in but you are immediately exposed to an introduction to research. The difficulty was in pinning down what we wanted to ask and looking for claims that follow from the evidence. This was unexpectedly time consuming and I was somewhat surprised by the difficulty in settling on the exact question. Ultimately, It wasn’t expected that you use the most challenging methodology nor you answer the toughest questions. Rather, LSE GROUPS touches upon an aspect of research we often neglect; it is the intellectual curiosity that you explore in depth. So in fact, it cultivated the purest sense of LSE spirit, to know the causes of things.
Ani
LSE GROUPS is a great way to gain research experience as an undergraduate and form new friendships along the way. Initially, it was difficult to narrow down our topic and decide on the methodology but we learned a lot about the iterative process of research. Doing original research seemed confusing at times but the LSE GROUPS staff were very supportive in navigating us through the challenges. They gave advice on whether our ideas and proposed methodology were feasible and helped us use previously unfamiliar statistical packages to analyse data. After we gathered more information about our topic, we were able to filter through the available research literature and focus on the relevant papers. It was rewarding to see how the bits and pieces came together on a research poster in the end.
In sum, LSE GROUPS has been a challenging yet fulfilling journey for all of us and we certainly recommend it to anyone who wants to have a shot at social science research!