urban planning, econ, poli sci.

[monkeydluffy]

I've done my ba in polisci, doing ma in gis, and thinking of long term options.
I found out my passion is in studying ethnic minorities in the modern political context, geopolitics, as well as energy and transportation (in the context of tourism). I obviously can't combine all of them into one discipline and am trying to narrow them down.

what i'm interested in is the flexibility of a ph.d in these programs (and hopefully getting an MA in the process). flexibility as in job hunting, locations, etc. I'd like to stick to the Asia-Pacific region as thats where my area focus is, and I can speak Japanese (aiming for 2plt certificate).

poli sci will probably cover my interests in minorities (particularly how they interact with the state) as well as political economics.

urban planning is a professional degree, and can cover energy, tourism and transportation

econ seems to be the most flexibile as its related to all of them yet I will have to build my math background! (havent even taken calculus yet).

please advise

[monkeydluffy]

anyone here?

[notacolour]

First, I don't think you really know what an econ phd is about. You would need lots more math (at least three semesters of calculus, ideally also linear algebra and real analysis), and then you would spend years learning formal mathematical theory that probably wouldn't really interest you.

After all of that, you could start doing applied work. So no, I don't really think econ is what you'd want here.

I also don't see how an urban planning degree is really applicable. I guess it could work if your idea is just to obtain another degree for its own sake, but it's not all that relevant to what you want to do.

It seems like the possibilities you could think about would be poli sci, geography, and public policy. The latter two would probably be more flexible in terms of the questions you could examine and the jobs you could get with a PhD, but poli sci could work better as an extension of what you already know--assuming you can fit the work you'd like to do into that framework.

[monkeydluffy]

really? so you don't think economics ph.d would be useful in being an analyst or researcher on energy trends or tourism development in a region?

[notacolour]

really? so you don't think economics ph.d would be useful in being an analyst or researcher on energy trends or tourism development in a region?

Well, those are very vague questions, so I'm sure there could be aspects of them for which an econ phd would be useful.

That said, you'd have to make a huge investment in math coursework--at least three semesters. And with an econ phd, you'd be spending a ton of time gaining lots of tools that wouldn't be very useful for looking at those issues.

On the other hand, public policy would allow you to gain relevant tools of economic analysis while not getting bogged down in the methods you wouldn't use. In geography as well, there is a whole body of research in economic geography that has probably looked at some of these issues as well, focusing on their spatial dimensions.