Comparative Methods 3500-FAKANG-CM
'Thinking without comparison is unthinkable. And, in the absence of comparison, so is all scientific thought and scientific research" (Swanson 1971). Why comparisons? How to compare today? How to think comparatively outside of comparative projects? How to compare consciously beyond academic practice?
Indispensable as a form of often implicit everyday practice, comparison also powers social sciences. Yet comparisons were institutionalized in multiple research communities in various ways. Comparative research faced various challenges ranging from eclipse of positivist scientific models, problems with comparing interconnected events and critique of its Eurocentric ambitions. Globally interconnected world modified social realities and modes of knowing them.
The course addresses comparative strategies in the social sciences and the humanities. It also goes beyond and addresses practices of comparison as an object of study and as a cultural practice beyond academia. It is designed to help You understand the theoretical frameworks and practical applications of comparing events, processes, ideas and contexts, across different fields of social research.
You will be exposed to different research designs such as case studies, cross-national comparisons, and small-n vs. large-n methodologies. An informed comparative design, fit for today’s research landscape requires considering global entanglements and interdependencies, just as one’s own positionality. Special attention will be given to possibilities of comparison of, and from Central and Eastern Europe.
Readings are of two types: (1) texts on comparative thinking and methods and (2) examples of comparative research. The topics (and readings) are divided into 4 blocks: Comparative thinking across disciplines, Comparative methods in the social science, Challenges and advancements, and Comparative studies (examples). Take-away knowledge from these blocks dovetails to enhance your critical skills and help you develop a constructive, theoretically and practically viable approach to your thesis research
Rodzaj przedmiotu
Tryb prowadzenia
Koordynatorzy przedmiotu
Efekty kształcenia
K_W04
K_W05
K_U01
K_U02
K_U06
K_S01
K_S05
Kryteria oceniania
Class Participation (40%): Active participation in class discussions + reading notes (esp. for those who prefer private inquiry or were absent)
Discussion Statements (30%): Short statements initiating the discussion on the readings prepared in advance
Mock Research Project (30%): A comparative research project proposing a research with a comparative design (based on your interests or directly relevant for your MA topic)
Literatura
Bargheer, Stefan. “The Qualitative-Quantitative Divide in Comparative Historical Analysis.” In After Positivism: New Approaches to Comparison in Historical Sociology, edited by Nicholas Hoover Wilson and Damon Mayrl, 54–75. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024.
Berger, Stefan. “Comparative and Transnational History.” In Writing History: Theory and Practice, edited by Stefan Berger, Heiko Feldner, and Kevin Passmore, Third edition. Writing History Series. London New York Oxford New Delhi Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
Boatcă, Manuela, and Anca Parvulescu. “Creolizing Transylvania.” History of the Present 10, no. 1 (2020): 9–27. https://doi.org/10.1215/21599785-8221398.
Bodnár, Judit. “Comparing in Global Times: Between Extension and Incorporation.” Critical Historical Studies 6, no. 1 (2019): 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1086/702546.
Burawoy, Michael. “Two Methods in Search of Science: Skocpol versus Trotsky.” Theory and Society 18, no. 6 (1989): 759–805.
Capoccia, Giovanni, and Daniel Kelemen. “Study of Critical Junctures: Theory, Narrative, and Counterfactuals in Historical Institutionalism.” World Politics 59, no. 3 (2007): 341–69.
Collier, David. “Understanding Process Tracing.” PS: Political Science & Politics 44, no. 4 (October 2011): 823–30. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096511001429.
Go, Julian. “Global Fields and Imperial Forms: Field Theory and the British and American Empires.” Sociological Theory 26, no. 3 (September 2008): 201–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9558.2008.00326.x.
Grzymala-Busse, Anna. “Time Will Tell? Temporality and the Analysis of Causal Mechanisms and Processes.” Comparative Political Studies 44, no. 9 (2011): 1267–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414010390653.
Grzymała-Busse, Anna Maria. Rebuilding Leviathan: Party Competition and State Exploitation in Post-Communist Democracies. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Kocka, Jürgen. “Comparison and Beyond.” History and Theory 42, no. 1 (2003): 39–44.
Kurjanska, Malgorzata. “Disgruntled Elites and Imperial States: The Making of Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Civil Society in Congress Poland and Western Galicia.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 61, no. 3 (2019): 563–94. https://doi.org/10.1017/S001041751900015X.
Lange, Matthew. Comparative-Historical Methods. London; Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage, 2013.
Mahoney, James, and Tulia Faletti. “The Comparative Sequential Method.” In Advances in Comparative-Historical Analysis, edited by James Mahoney and Kathleen Ann Thelen, 211–39. Strategies for Social Inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Mahoney, James, and Kathleen Ann Thelen. “Comparative-Historical Analysis in Contemporary Political Science.” In Advances in Comparative-Historical Analysis, edited by James Mahoney and Kathleen Ann Thelen, 3–38. Strategies for Social Inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Marzec, Wiktor, and Risto Turunen. “Parliament and Revolution: Poland, Finland, and the End of Empire in Early Twentieth Century.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 66, no. 1 (2024): 155–84. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417523000385.
Mayrl, Damon. “Comparison in Action: Immersion and Recursion as Heuristics in Historical Sociology.” In After Positivism: New Approaches to Comparison in Historical Sociology, edited by Nicholas Hoover Wilson and Damon Mayrl, 29–53. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024.
Pelkmans, Mathijs, and Harry Walker, eds. How People Compare. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2023.
Przeworski, Adam, and Henry Teune. The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry. Reprint. Malabar, Flo: Krieger, 1982.
Ragin, Charles C. The Comparative Method : Moving beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
Rihoux, Benoît, and Charles C. Ragin. Configurational Comparative Methods: Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Related Techniques. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2009.
Skocpol, Theda. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Skocpol, Theda, and Margaret Somers. “The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial Inquiry.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 22, no. 2 (1980): 174–97.
Steinmetz, George. “The Colonial State as a Social Field: Ethnographic Capital and Native Policy in the German Overseas Empire before 1914.” American Sociological Review 73, no. 4 (August 2008): 589–612. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240807300404.
Steinmetz, Willibald. “Introduction. Concepts and Practices of Comparison in Modern History.” In The Force of Comparison: A New Perspective on Modern European History and the Contemporary World, edited by Willibald Steinmetz, 1–32. New German Historical Perspectives. New York: Berghahn, 2019.
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