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Comparative Methods in the Social Sciences
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Comparative Methods in the Social Sciences

Four Volume Set
Edited by:
  • Alan Sica - Pennsylvania State University, USA


January 2006 | 1 688 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
Comparative research methods are central to sociology and its associated disciplines. This four-volume set brings together 77 articles and book chapters from key sources, spanning the history of comparative analysis in the social sciences, from ancient to modern works. The selections cover not only explanations of how to carry out comparative analysis in a reliable and creative way, but also exhaustively explore the fields of sociology, political science, anthropology and education.
 
Volume One: Foundations and Early Exemplars
Aristotle
The Politics
Polybius
Histories
The Rise of the Roman Empire

 
Ibn Khaldun
The Muqaddimah
Jean Bodin
Method for the Easy Comprehension of History
Melvin Richter
Comparative Political Analysis in Montesquieu and Tocqueville
Auguste Comte
The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte
John Stuart Mill
System of Logic
Edward B Tylor
On the Method of Investigating the Development of Institutions
Applied to Laws of Marriage and Descent

 
Franz Boas
The Limitations of the Comparative Method in Anthropology
L T Hobhouse, G C Wheeler and M Ginsberg
Material Culture and Social Institutions of the Simpler Peoples
An Essay in Correlation

 
Daniel Lerner, I Pool and H D Lasswell
Comparative Analysis of Political Ideologies
A Preliminary Statement

 
A R Radcliffe-Brown
The Comparative Method in Anthropology
 
Volume Two: The Logic of Comparative Methods
Kenneth A Bollen, Barbara Entwisle and Arthur S Anderson
Macrocomparative Research Methods
York Bradshaw and Michael Wallace
Informing Generality and Explaining Uniqueness
The Place of Case Studies in Comparative Research

 
A A van den Braembussche
Historical Explanation and Comparative Method
Towards a Theory of the History of Society

 
E Gene DeFelice
Causal Inference and Comparative Methods
Mattei Dogan
Strategies in Comparative Sociology
Joseph W Elder
Comparative Cross-National Methodology
N Frijda and G Jahoda
On the Scope and Methods of Cross-Cultural Research
J H Goldthorpe
Current Issues in Comparative Macrosociology
A Debate on Methodological Issues

 
Bradford B Hudson, Mohamed K Barakat and Rolfe LaForge
Introduction
Problems and Methods of Cross-Cultural Research

 
Roger Jowell
How Comparative Is Comparative Research?
Robert M Marsh
Making Comparative Research Cumulative
Raoull Naroll
Galton's Problem
The Logic of Cross-Cultural Research

 
Charles Ragin and David Zaret
Theory and Method in Comparative Research
Two Strategies

 
Fritz Redlich
Toward Comparative Historiography
Stein Rokkan
The Development of Cross-National Comparative Research
A Review of Current Problems and Possibilities

 
E A Suchman
The Comparative Method in Social Research
Henry Teune
Measurement in Comparative Research
J W M Whiting
The Cross-Cultural Method
 
Volume Three: Data (Sources and Problems) and Contemporary Exemplars
 
PART ONE: DATA SOURCES AND PROBLEMS
Emma Carmel
Concepts, Context and Discourse in a Comparative Case Study
M Coppedge
Thickening Thin Concepts and Theories
Combining Large and Small in Comparative Politics

 
D Dion
Evidence and Inference in the Comparative Case Study
Bernhard Ebbinghaus
Europe through the Looking-Glass
Comparative and Multi-Level Perspectives

 
Carol R Ember
The Quality and Quantity of Data for Cross-Cultural Studies
Michael C Hudson
Data Problems in Quantitative Comparative Analysis
E S Lieberman
Causal Inference in Historical Institutional Analysis
A Specification of Periodization Strategies

 
Robert L Munroe and Ruth H Munroe
Comparative Field Studies
Methodological Issues and Future Possibilities

 
Kati Rentala and Eeva Hellstrom
Qualitative Comparative Analysis and a Hermeneutic Approach to Interview Data
H Teune
Comparative Research, Experimental Design and the Comparative Method
 
PART TWO: CONTEMPORARY EXEMPLARS IN SOCIOLOGY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Gabriel A Almond
Comparative Political Systems
David E Apter
A Comparative Method for the Study of Politics
Peter Blau
The Comparative Study of Organizations
David Collier and S Levitsky
Democracy with Adjectives
Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research

 
Jack A Goldstone
The Comparative and Historical Study of Revolutions
Terry K Hopkins and Immanuel Wallerstein
The Comparative Study of National Societies
E Kiser and Michael Hechter
The Role of General Theory in Comparative-Historical Sociology
Arend Lijphart
Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method
Leslie Lipson
The Comparative Method in Political Studies
Judah Matras
Comparative Social Mobility
Sigmund Neumann
Comparative Politics
A Half-Century Appraisal

 
Charles C Ragin
Comparative Sociology and the Comparative Method
Dietrich Rueschemeyer and J D Stephens
Comparing Historical Sequences - A Powerful Tool for Causal Analysis
Theda Skocpol and Margaret Somers
The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial Inquiry
David A Smith
Method and Theory in Comparative Urban Studies
Charles Tilly
Means and Ends of Comparison in Macrosociology
 
PART THREE: CONTEMPORARY EXEMPLARS IN ANTHROPOLOGY AND EDUCATION
Kenneth E Bock
The Comparative Method of Anthropology
Michael Braun and Walter Muller
Measurement of Education in Comparative Research
Michael Crossley and Graham Vulliamy
Case Study Research Methods and Comparative Education
Fred Eggan
Social Anthropology and the Method of Controlled Comparison
E A Hammel
The Comparative Method in Anthropological Perspective
Gerald LeTendre
Cross-National Studies and the Analysis of Comparative Qualitative Research
Francisco O Ramirez and John W Meyer
Comparative Education
The Social Construction of the Modern World System

 
V D Rust et al
Research Strategies in Comparative Education
Gopala Sarana
On Comparative Methods in Social-Cultural Anthropology and in Linguistics
 
Volume Four: Qualitative and Quantitative Research: Problems and Prospects
 
PART ONE: QUALITATIVE METHODS
Edwin Amenta and J D Poulsen
Where to Begin? A Survey of Five Approaches to Selecting Independent Variables for Qualitative Comparative Analysis
David Collier and James Mahoney
Insights and Pitfalls
Selection Bias in Qualitative Research

 
Roberto Franzosi
Narrative as Data
Linguistic and Statistical Tools for the Qualitative Study of Historical Events

 
A M Hicks
Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Analytical Induction
James Mahoney
Nominal, Ordinal and Narrative Appraisal in Macrocausal Analysis
Gerardo L Munck
Canons of Research Design in Qualitative Analysis
Charles C Ragin
The Logic of Qualitative Comparative Analysis
George Steinmetz
Odious Comparisons
Incommensurability, the Case Study and 'Small N's' in Sociology

 
 
PART TWO: QUANTITATIVE METHODS
Wil Arts and Loek Halman
New Directions in Quantitative Comparative Sociology
D Berg-Schlosser and G De Meur
Reduction of Complexity for a Small-N Analysis
Bear F Braumoeller and Gary Goertz
The Methodology of Necessary Conditions
Hayashi Chicko
The Quantitative Study of National Character
Interchronological and International Perspectives

 
Jos Dessens, Wim Jansen and Kristen Ringdal
Log-Linear Models in Comparative Research
A Paradigm Lost?

 
Douglas Dion
Evidence and Inference in the Comparative Case Study
Mark Herkenrath
Quantitative Cross-National Analysis as a Research Tool in the Sociology of Developing Countries
A Critical Examination

 
Stanley Lieberson
Small N's and Big Conclusions
An Examination of the Reasoning in Comparative Studies Based on a Small Number of Cases

 
James Mahoney
Strategies of Causal Inference in a Small-N Analysis

Alan Sica