Comparative area studies : methodological rationales and cross-regional applications / edited by Ariel I. Ahram, Patrick Köllner, Rudra Sil.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ahram, Ariel I. (Ariel Ira), 1979- editor.

Köllner, Patrick, 1968- editor.

Sil, Rudra, 1967- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Area studies--Comparative method.

Area studies.

Physical Description:

xx, 300 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY, United States of America : Oxford University Press, [2018]

Summary:

In the post-World War II era, the emergence of "area studies" marked a signal development in the social sciences. As the social sciences evolved methodologically, however, many dismissed area studies as favoring narrow description over general theory. Still, area studies continues to plays a key, if unacknowledged, role in bringing new data, new theories, and valuable policy-relevant insights to social sciences. In Comparative Area Studies, three leading figures in the field have gathered an international group of scholars in a volume that promises to be a landmark in a resurgent subdiscipline. The book upholds two basic convictions: that intensive regional research remains indispensable to the social sciences and that this research needs to employ comparative referents from other regions to demonstrate its broader relevance. Comparative Area Studies (CAS) combines the context-specific insights from traditional area studies and the logic of cross- and inter-regional empirical research. This first book devoted to CAS explores methodological rationales and illustrative applications to demonstrate how area-based expertise can be fruitfully integrated with cutting-edge comparative analytical frameworks. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Introduction

1 Comparative Area Studies: What It Is, What It Can Do 3

Part II What Comparative Area Studies Brings to the Table

2 Comparative Area Studies: The Golden Mean between Area Studies and Universalist Approaches? 29

3 Depth Perception: Improving Analytic Focus through Cross-and Interregional Comparisons 45

4 Comparisons across World Regions: Managing Conceptual, Methodological, and Practical Challenges 66

5 Context, Concepts, and Comparison in Southeast Asian Studies 85

6 American Political Development in the Mirror of Europe: Democracy Expansion and the Evolution of Electoral Systems in the 19th Century 103

7 Comparative Area Studies and the Study of Middle East Politics after the Arab Uprisings 119

Part III CAS in Action: Leveraging Cross-Regional Comparison

8 Comparing Post-communist Authoritarianism in Russia and China: The Case of Anti-corruption Campaigns 133

9 Comparative Area Studies and the Analytical Challenge of Diffusion: Explaining Outcomes in the Arab Spring and Beyond 152

10 Comparing Separatism across Regions: Rebellious Legacies in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East 168

11 Gaining by Shedding Case Selection Strictures: Natural Resource Booms and Institution Building in Latin America and Africa 185

12 Organizing Production across Regions: The Wenzhou Model in China and Italy 204

Part IV Conclusion

13 Triangulating Area Studies, Not Just Methods: How Cross-Regional Comparison Aids Qualitative and Mixed-Method Research 225.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Comparative area studies.

ISBN:

9780190846374

0190846372

9780190846381

0190846380

OCLC:

1019835944