How long did it take you to actually understand your project and its methodological approach

For context I am HUMANITIES. Criminology PhDer 6 months in UK.

I think only now I am beginning to understand my methodological approach.

I am undertaking a very contemporary / untraditional multi-sited ethnographic approach I think. I was really struggling to understand my approach because I don’t exactly have a field site as per traditional ethnography I.e I am spending 7 months among gang members.

I have what I believe is a prominent criminal justice system ethnographer (in the UK/EU anyway) on my supervisory team and he has been praising this approach for the last 6 months and I just smile and agree…BUT now, finally I am GETTING IT.

I just discovered Desmond 2014 Relational Ethnography & I could have cried reading it.

The goal is to embed myself among a relational field where numerous dark & bright networks converge. I am using several case studies (real world criminal cases) as an entry point to this field, in theory they should provide entry points relational field where this dark network is observable (raab & milward 2003:2006 if anyone is interested).

My cases provide me with opportunities to visit territories where these dark networks may become visible. but also employing an investigative ethnographic approach (Ballve 2020), these cases yield hundreds of open source PDFs of data each that function another means of access to a field that is closed off to a researcher or a field that is relational.

Is this a common thing for people using unconventional research approaches or do I just suck at PhD??