Comparative-Historical Methods

A new and important contribution to the re-emergent field of comparative anthropology, this book argues that comparative ethnographic methods are essential for more contextually sophisticated accounts of a number of pressing human concerns today. The book includes expert accounts from an international team of scholars, showing how these methods can be used to illuminate important theoretical and practical projects. Illustrated with examples of successful inter-disciplinary projects, it highlights the challenges, benefits, and innovative strategies involved in working collaboratively across disciplines. Through its focus on practical methodological and logistical accounts, it will be of value to both seasoned researchers who seek practical models for conducting their own cutting-edge comparative research, and to teachers and students who are looking for first-person accounts of comparative ethnographic research.

A new and important contribution to the re-emergent field of comparative anthropology, this book argues that comparative ethnographic methods are essential for more contextually sophisticated accounts of a number of pressing human concerns today. The book includes expert accounts from an international team of scholars, showing how these methods can be used to illuminate important theoretical and practical projects. Illustrated with examples of successful inter-disciplinary projects, it highlights the challenges, benefits, and innovative strategies involved in working collaboratively across disciplines. Through its focus on practical methodological and logistical accounts, it will be of value to both seasoned researchers who seek practical models for conducting their own cutting-edge comparative research, and to teachers and students who are looking for first-person accounts of comparative ethnographic research.

Democratization and Research Methods is a coherent survey and critique of both democratization research and the methodology of comparative politics. The two themes enhance each other: the democratization literature illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of various methodological approaches, and the critique of methods makes sense of the vast and bewildering democratization field. Michael Coppedge argues that each of the three main approaches in comparative politics - case studies and comparative histories, formal modeling and large-sample statistical analysis - accomplishes one fundamental research goal relatively well: 'thickness', integration and generalization, respectively. Throughout the book, comprehensive surveys of democratization research demonstrate that each approach accomplishes one of these goals well but the other two poorly. Chapters cover conceptualization and measurement, case studies and comparative histories, formal models and theories, political culture and su

Democratization and Research Methods is a coherent survey and critique of both democratization research and the methodology of comparative politics. The two themes enhance each other: the democratization literature illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of various methodological approaches, and the critique of methods makes sense of the vast and bewildering democratization field. Michael Coppedge argues that each of the three main approaches in comparative politics - case studies and comparative histories, formal modeling and large-sample statistical analysis - accomplishes one fundamental research goal relatively well: 'thickness', integration and generalization, respectively. Throughout the book, comprehensive surveys of democratization research demonstrate that each approach accomplishes one of these goals well but the other two poorly. Chapters cover conceptualization and measurement, case studies and comparative histories, formal models and theories, political culture and su

The focus of this 1991 book is on the decentralization reforms legislated by the Socialist government in France from 1982 to 1986. These reforms redefined the role of the central state in the periphery and gave extensive new powers to territorial governments. Vivien Schmidt examines these reforms and their impact in comparative historical perspective. Tracing the history of decentralization from the French Revolution to the present, the book highlights the significant reforms at the beginning of the Third Republic in the 1870s. It then analyses the actual impact of the reforms of both the 1870s and the 1980s on local government institutions and processes. Professor Schmidt uses an innovative mix of methods borrowed from political sociology and cultural anthropology, combined with historical analysis and extensive interviews with national and local politicians and civil servants. She provides important theoretical insights into the changing nature of the French state in addition to reve

This book follows the social, economic and demographic transformations of the Alpine area from the late Middle Ages. Its aim is to reassess the image of the upland community which emerges from the work of historians, geographers and social anthropologists. The book therefore deals at length with such problems as the causes and consequences of emigration and patterns of marriage and inheritance in favouring or hampering the adjustments of local populations to changing economic or ecological circumstances, and tackles the vexed question of the relative importance of cultural and environmental factors in shaping family forms and community structures. Although its foundation lies in a long period of anthropological fieldwork conducted in an Alpine community, Upland Communities relies on the methods and conceptual tools of historical demography. Combined with a long-term historical perspective, its broad comparative approach unveils an unexpected diversity in regional and spatial demographi

This book develops new, original methods of welfare comparison and comparative dynamics between distinct and discretely positioned (rather than continuously related) socioeconomic situations. These me

Csapo (classics, U. of Toronto) introduces the major schools of mythological interpretation along with their theories, methods, insights, and shortcoming: comparative approaches, psychology, ritual th

Presenting innovative, promising and unconventional techniques, Post-modern Electromagnetics outlines the essential tools for the creation of numerical methods. Hafner offers a comparative analysis of

Lone Star Tarnished approaches public policy in the nation’s most populous 'red state' from historical, comparative, and critical perspectives.

Lone Star Tarnished approaches public policy in the nation’s most populous 'red state' from historical, comparative, and critical perspectives.

Tracing almost 200 years of history, Explaining Tort and Crime explains the development of tort law and criminal law in England compared with other legal systems. Referencing legal systems from around the globe, it uses innovative comparative and historical methods to identify patterns of legal development, to investigate the English law of fault doctrine across tort and crime, and to chart and explain three procedural interfaces: criminal powers to compensate, timing rules to control parallel actions, and convictions as evidence in later civil cases. Matthew Dyson draws on decades of research to offer an analysis of the field, examining patterns of legal development, visible as motifs in the law of many legal systems.

This book is a comparative macrosociological study of the interaction between religious virtuosi and society in two civilizations: traditional Theravada Buddhism and Medieval Catholicism. Merging Weberian sociology with the Maussian tradition of gift-analysis, and criticizing the neglect of meaning in current comparative historical sociology, the author also argues the need for a multidimensional approach capable of addressing the part played by religious orientations in shaping the institutional strength and ideological power of religious elites in the historical framework of the Great Traditions.

This book is a comparative macrosociological study of the interaction between religious virtuosi and society in two civilizations: traditional Theravada Buddhism and Medieval Catholicism. Merging Weberian sociology with the Maussian tradition of gift-analysis, and criticizing the neglect of meaning in current comparative historical sociology, the author also argues the need for a multidimensional approach capable of addressing the part played by religious orientations in shaping the institutional strength and ideological power of religious elites in the historical framework of the Great Traditions.

Taking an approach different from (hat of earlier biographers, A. Owen Aldridge examines Voltaire's literary and intellectual career chronologically, using the methods both of comparative literature a

Taking an approach different from (hat of earlier biographers, A. Owen Aldridge examines Voltaire's literary and intellectual career chronologically, using the methods both of comparative literature a

Through an integrated and comparative approach, Bayesian Likelihood Methods in Ecology and Biology provides a clear guide to the development, application, and interpretation of Bayesian statistical me

Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and related methods are used within management research as a means to discover combinations of conditions (or management practices) that sufficiently

This monograph presents methods for full comparative distributional analysis based on the relative distribution. This provides a general integrated framework for analysis, a graphical component that s

Among Latin-American nations, Colombia offers a unique opportunity for a study in comparative governmental methods and institutions. In 1958 Colombia initiated an extraordinary political experiment in

Inequality in Education Comparative and International Perspectives is a compilation of conceptual chapters and national case studies that includes a series of methods for measuring education inequalit

Too few investigations have attempted to shore up critical knowledge gaps about post-Soviet states by conducting comparative analyses of political institutions and developing rigorous methods suitable

A growing interest in households is found among many archaeologists and cultural anthropologists, but these disciplines require improved methods, theories, and comparative knowledge to advance the aim

This book presents a comprehensive and systematic study of the narrative history and narrative methods of Chinese and Western popular fiction from the perspectives of narratology, comparative literatu

The monograph presents a comparative analysis of different thermodynamic models of the equations of state. The basic ideological premises of the theoretical methods and the experiment are considered.

In this inaugural lecture, delivered at the Erasmus University Rotterdam on 21 November 2014, Elaine Mak outlines how legal research, integrating comparative and empirical methods, can provide insight

"This volume addresses the challenges that political communication is facing today from a comparative perspective, using principles and methods of comparison both across space (cross-national) and acr

A comparative examination of the political, historical, legal, and religious antecedents of penalties and discrimination against sexual minority groups around the world.

Based on extensive data collection, Big Worlds provides a historical-comparative analysis of politics and elections in the Canadian provinces and territories.

With financial identity theft a growing problem around the world, this book provides an understanding of methods and context through an in-depth comparative analysis illustrating how society’s structu

Human Killing Machines offers a comparative analysis of the indoctrination methods used to produce violence in the famous Milgram and Zimbardo psychological experiments, as well as Iran, Nazi Germany,

Human Killing Machines offers a comparative analysis of the indoctrination methods used to produce violence in the famous Milgram and Zimbardo psychological experiments, as well as Iran, Nazi Germany,

Written for students and researchers in the fields of behavioral sciences, history and logic, this textbook on comparative methods with Boolean algebra explains how these mathematical theories are use

Offering innovative approaches to thinking about orchestras, Global Perspectives on Orchestras: Collective Creativity and Social Agency adopts ethnographic, historical and comparative perspectives on

In this novel and unorthodox historical analysis of modern comparative law, Daniel Bonilla Maldonado explores the connections between modern comparative law and the identity of the modern legal subject. Narratives created by modern comparative law shed light on the role played by law in the construction of modern individual and collective identities. This study first examines the relationship between identity, law, and narrative. Second, it explores the moments of emergence and transformation of this area of law: instrumental comparative studies, comparative legislative studies, and comparative law as an autonomous discipline. Finally, it analyzes the theoretical perspectives that question the narrative created by modern comparative law: Third World Approaches to International Law, postcolonial studies of law, and critical comparative law. For lawyers and legal scholars, this study brings a nuanced understanding of the connections between the theory of modern comparative law and contem

Urban Latin America explores the relationship between images, words and the built environment using an engaging variety of methods and sources, with a timely emphasis on comparative studies. The book

Urban Latin America explores the relationship between images, words and the built environment using an engaging variety of methods and sources, with a timely emphasis on comparative studies. The book

Comparative Causal Mapping: The CMAP3 Method, by Mauri Laukkanen and Mingde Wang, is an introduction to the conceptual backgrounds of causal (cognitive) mapping and to the typical methods in comparati

PRACTICAL METHODOLOGIES FOR CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCHSince all research is in a sense comparative, it is sometimes argued that methods and requirements remain the same, no matter what country or nationa

This book examines the subject of constitutional unamendability from comparative, doctrinal, empirical, historical, political and theoretical perspectives. It explores and evaluates the legitimacy of