Rethinking comparison : innovative methods for qualitative political inquiry / edited by Erica S. Simmons, Nicholas Rush Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Simmons, Erica S., author.

Smith, Nicholas Rush, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comparative government.

Qualitative research.

Political science--Research--Methodology.

Political science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 284 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Summary:

Qualitative comparative methods - and specifically controlled qualitative comparisons - are central to the study of politics. They are not the only kind of comparison, though, that can help us better understand political processes and outcomes. Yet there are few guides for how to conduct non-controlled comparative research. This volume brings together chapters from more than a dozen leading methods scholars from across the discipline of political science, including positivist and interpretivist scholars, qualitative methodologists, mixed-methods researchers, ethnographers, historians, and statisticians. Their work revolutionizes qualitative research design by diversifying the repertoire of comparative methods available to students of politics, offering readers clear suggestions for what kinds of comparisons might be possible, why they are useful, and how to execute them. By systematically thinking through how we engage in qualitative comparisons and the kinds of insights those comparisons produce, these collected essays create new possibilities to advance what we know about politics.

Contents:

Rethinking comparison : an introduction / Erica S. Simmons and Nicholas Rush Smith

Beyond mill : why cross-case qualitative causal inference is weak, and why we should still compare / Jason Seawright

Two ways to compare / Frederic Charles Schaffer

Unbound comparison / Nick Cheesman

On casing a study versus studying a case / Joe Soss

From cases to sites : studying global processes in comparative politics / Thea Riofrancos

Comparing complex cases using archival research / Jonathan Obert

Composing comparisons : studying configurations of relations in social network research / Sarah E. Parkinson

Against methodological nationalism : seeing comparisons as encompassing through the Arab uprisings / Jillian Schwedler

Comparative analysis for theory development / Mala Htun and Francesca R. Jensenius

Problems and possibilities of comparison across regime types : examples involving China / Benjamin L. Read

Comparisons with an ethnographic sensibility : studies of protest and vigilantism / Erica S. Simmons and Nicholas Rush Smith

Theory and imagination in comparative politics : an interview with Lisa Wedeen / Erica S. Simmons and Nicholas Rush Smith with Lisa Wedeen.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 27 Sep 2021).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-108-96729-9

1-108-96708-6

1-108-96600-4

OCLC:

1285780039