ideas for new research project

i'm getting all sorts of ideas this semester, it makes me feel very productive even though I haven't produced a single thing. One particular idea would be potentially applicable for my final thesis. It seems feasible, though challenging, and a nice and tidy idea. I'm not as thrilled by it as I was by the idea for my project paper, but this is probably a good thing.
T H E I D E A is to look at the theory and reality of direct democracy, especially democratic structures based on consensus rather than majority vote. I haven't really started looking at literature on the subject, but I can imagine that various philosophers discussed with enthusiasm various conceptions of direct democracy, and it would be interesting to look at that.
In a second step, I would then look at a handful of self-chosen communities, such as a large political commune, a smaller political commune and an eco-village (which I expect to have a less radical political self-understanding than a political commune). I would use qualitative research methods focusing on individuals' practices and their construction of structures, in part through discourse, and spend a while living there as a participating observer. And then - hm. I still need to find the point of the whole study.
But that can come. This whole project is built upside down anyway: I'd chosen the method (participating observation in communes) before I'd even decided what I wanted to write about (for now it seems to be alternative democratic structures), so the actual research question can come last.

I'm also considering organising a student-seminar on the utopian potential of political communities. Students in higher semesters can organise and give near-official seminars for students in lower semesters, as long as they find a professor willing to lend his name to the project and who will officially sign the credits and grade the papers. It takes a while to organise such seminars and it's most probably too late for the summer semester - but there's still next winter semester. Perhaps M. would be interested in organising it with me.
I find the idea of giving political seminars nearly exciting and it's something I can imagine occasionally doing after my studies. It all depends where I end up, of course. My institute is happy to accept seminar suggestions by outsiders, but I don't know if this is the case with other similar places. Not that there are any places like the Otto Suhr Institute...

Boss asked me as we were taking the lift downstairs at the end of a working day what I was up to. This came right after him saying we should make an official appointment to discuss my Personal Development. Implying the questions - when are you done with your studies and will you start working with us straight away?
I shudder just at the thought of such an appointment. He looks at me and sees a neat and tidy trilingual political scientist who can wear a suit and feels comfortable chitchatting at conferences and is interested in environmental issues. Resizing his image of me to include the fact that I do not value technocratic conferences, am interested in communes and show no sign of wanting to get an office job working for German and European government institutions is going to disturb my boss profoundly.
But whatever. It's good to confront people with other conceptions of what life can and could be.