second chapter completed

After much trimming (read: copy-pasting to other chapters where better suited - even the stuff that didn't have a place was pasted elsewhere just in case I decide I want it) I managed to keep this chapter at 19 pages (That's single spaced with size 11 font). Much more realistic than the previous chapter (32 pages).  And, if I were to remove the copious footnotes, it would be shorter yet. But I'm not removing them.  They do constitute an additional 2,200 words or so.  Word count tells me I have 11,369 / 13,579 words. That's not including the associated bibliography (6 more pages).  Imagine the final bibliography! Let's see, what the current total? 9 pages of biblio for the theory chapter plus 6 pages for the current chapter is 15 pages. That should be the bulk of the literature reviewed. Well, except for reviewing all the relevant literature written by Pagans about parenting and other similar primary sources.  And the methodology literature supporting my methodology... okay, quite a few more pages to come.

In case you are wondering what this chapter is about, it is my review of
1) What contemporary Paganism is - its history and presence in North America. I kept it very tightly focused. None of that "what witches do" stuff I see so often.  I don't describe ritual practices or what holidays they celebrate, etc.  I stick to the development of the religious movement, demographics of participants, and a brief discussion of it being a minority religion.  I moved my long discussion of Paganism as adult-centric to another chapter.
2) What research has been published about the Pagan movement and a summary of the type of research done. (brief lit review - and I am just reminded of something I wanted to insert. thanks.)
3) Then I shift my focus to research concerning children in NRMs.
4) Naturally I next focus on relevant research about children and parents in the Pagan movement - a section that may not earn me much love as I provide a strong critique of a particular article [Dear Sian - it's not you :) I reference you very nicely, promise.]

Sections 3 and 4 are the longest because this is at the heart of my research. It's not my intention to give full details about the Pagan movement as a whole or the study of contemporary Paganism.  Others have done that satisfactorily (Chas Clifton's Her Hidden Children, Barby Davy's Introduction to Pagan Studies, Sarah Pike's New Age and NeoPagan Religions in America and Reid and Rabinovitch's review of research in The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements).

Now I get to return to working on the fun stuff! The real meat of my research. Enough of this lit review stuff that positions my work in relation to multiple fields. No more making a statement about the use of the term/concept "socialization" - well, at least not directly or until the conclusion.
Now I can finish my review of Pagan parenting literature and what Pagans say and do.
And finish up my section about adult-centrism in religion.
And tell about what I did for my research - recall all that wonderful fieldwork and interviews that is my favourite part of research.  Much more fun than the sitting and writing part.  Human interaction! *sigh* I miss it.
I've got all that stuff half-finished. Just needs polishing and new research added. Because I have this "terrible" habit of keeping up to date on current research and making sure I didn't miss any older research... And, inevitably, I always find more. And I'm sure if I had money to buy access to more, I'd find more yet.  For example, I wish I had all the issues of the Blessed Bee but I haven't been able to justify spending over $100US on it - it's just one small piece related to this project. I have the first two issues (given to me by a research participant) and I have copies of many many other articles written by parents that would inevitably prove to be much the same as what is contained in this newsletter. And I've not much use for the newsletter after this dissertation is done.  (Thus I can justify buying several book related to my research areas - books on children and religion, etc - things I will continue to use for years.)  On the one hand it would be interesting to read the dialogue these newsletters contain, but let's be honest - I'd get caught up in a textual analysis that is only marginally important to the overall purpose of my dissertation.  I'd spend weeks pouring over them and in the end I've have to reduce it all to a few summary sentences - because my research is not a review of parenting literature.  It's a review of religious socialization.  Not just what parents do or talk about doing, but the whole process.  What kids do, what parents do, what the community is doing, the role of media and other broader social institutions...
 Perhaps I could have justified the expense of the newsletters, but I think what ultimately held me back was knowing it would lead me to invest a lot of time I cannot spare.

Plus, just think of all the yarn I could buy with $100. Or spinning fiber! :P