Comparative Methods Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The significant developments in Sri Lankan public law in the last three decades have been due to the explicit or implicit influence of Indian jurisprudence. This influence can be seen in Sri Lanka’s jurisprudence on the right to equality, the habeas corpus writ, the “basic structure” doctrine, the interpretation of the rules of standing, and in the fundamental rights jurisprudence. Since the establishment of British colonial rule, English common law has been the foundation and source for the development of Sri Lanka’s public law. Three methods characterize a recent turn to Indian jurisprudence in the development of public law. One method is of direct judicial borrowing. The second method is reinforcement of judicial reasoning by reliance on Indian jurisprudence. The third is the creeping influence of Indian jurisprudence. I argue that these developments unsettle, if not replace, the historical reliance on English law. These developments are arguably an indication of a nascent Sri Lankan common law that draws its inspiration, at least in part, from a jurisprudence that bears constitutional proximity to India. Consequently, the place of English common law as the “main source of law” in Sri Lankan public law has now been weakened.

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- Comparative Public Law, Comparative Methods, Sri Lankan Law, Indian Constitutional Law

This course focuses on how to design and conduct small-n case study and comparative research. Thinking outside of students' areas of interest and specialisms and topics, students will be encouraged to develop the concepts and comparative frameworks that underpin these phenomena. In other words, students will begin to develop their research topics as cases of something. The course covers questions of design and methods of case study research, from single-n to small-n case studies including discussions of process tracing and Mill's methods. The course addresses both the theoretical and methodological discussions that underpin research design as well as the practical questions of how to conduct case study research, including gathering, assessing and using evidence. Examples from the fields of comparative politics, IR, development studies, sociology and European studies will be used throughout the lectures and seminars.

- by Eleanor Knott
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- Case Study Research, Comparative Methods, Case Study

Based on indirect approach, the reference method for the determination of polyphosphates (PPs) in food is characterized by high variability and possible errors in the final measurement. This method was validated in this work, and then compared to the ion chromatography-based method, in terms of validation parameters, applicability to food analysis and management. Regarding validation parameters, the trueness (recovery percentage) and measurement uncertainty of two methods resulted comparable, while the precision of ion chromatography approach was higher. The applicability of two methods was also investigated by analyzing commercials samples, comparing the results to the PPs indicated on the label and then obtaining results in terms of “false positive” and “false negative” responses. No “false positive” responses were obtained using the ion chromatography method, while indirect photometry gave “false positive” responses in 5% of analyzed samples. Relating to “false negative” results, this possibility was verified for all food types tested (meats, dairy products and seafood) when using indirect photometry, and only for seafood when using ion chromatography. In this regard, the percentage of “false negative” responses was equal to 23.3% and 10.0% for indirect photometry and ion chromatography, respectively.
The comparison allowed concluding that indirect photometry is useful as “screening technique”, while ion chromatography should be preferred as confirmatory technique.

- by Marco Iammarino
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- Food Safety, Comparative Methods, Ion Chromatography, Food Additives

Comparison is a valuable and widely touted analytical technique in social research, but different disciplines and fields have markedly different notions of comparison. There are at least two important logics for comparison. The first, the logic of juxtaposition, is guided by a neopositivist orientation. It uses a regularity theory of causation; it structures the study by defining cases, variables, and units of analysis a priori; and it decontextualizes knowledge. The second, the logic of tracing, engages a realist theory of causation and examines how processes unfold, influenced by actors and the meanings they make, over time, in different locations, and at different scales. These two logics of comparison lead to distinct methodological techniques. However, with either logic of comparison, three dangers merit attention: decontextualization, commensurability, and ethnocentrism. One promising research heuristic that attends to different logics of comparison while avoiding these dangers is the comparative case study (CCS) approach. CCS entails three axes of comparison. The horizontal axis encourages comparison of how similar policies and practices unfold across sites at roughly the same level or scale, for example across a set of schools or across home, school, religious institution, and community organization. The vertical axis urges comparison across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels or scales. For example, a study of bilingual education in the United States should attend not only to homes, communities, classroom, and school dynamics (the micro-level), but also to meso-level district, state, and federal policies, as well as to factors influencing international mobility at the macro-level. Finally, the transversal axis, which emphasizes change over time, urges scholars to situate historically the processes or relations under consideration.

This study was conducted to present a comprehensive model for designing e-learning in Medical education. This qualitative study was performed in three stages. First, we used the "critical review" approach proposed by CarnWell to synthesize a conceptual model from studies that employ e-learning in Medical education. In the second stage, using Bereday's comparative method, 30 renowned virtual universities were evaluated. Finally, after aggregating and summarizing the results of the previous stages, the model was presented. The results of the study showed that designing e-learning in medical education requires making plans on national and international levels. Moreover, for qualitative and quantitative improvement of e-learning, global progress, achievements, and standards should be monitored continuously, and strategic, tactical, and executive aspects should be rigorously addressed. This comprehensive model for the design and development of e-learning in medical education is identified as an area requiring further research.

- by Nahid zarifsanaiey
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- Design, E-learning, Qualitative methodology, Comparative Methods

This essay exposes the ideological biases characterizing recent research into the origin of "Christian baptism" as scholars variously root its origin in their preferred religion (Greco-Roman, Jewish, or sui generis Christianity). This is made possible in part through the constructed categories of various types of “baptisms” and a preference for "Christian baptism," which controls comparison. To remedy the distortion of sources, I propose that a robust implementation of comparative method is necessary, including clarification on what, why, and how we compare. This will shed clearer light on the origin of the religious ritual of baptism in, of, and around the Bible.

- by Benjamin Snyder
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- Comparative Religion, Early Christianity, Comparative Methods, Baptism

The juxtaposition of style or historical epochs (Gothic against Greek, past
against present) is a common attribute of nineteenth century architectural
criticism. While Pugin's Contrasts; Or, A Parallel Between the Noble Edifices Of
The Fourteenth And Fifteenth Centuries, And Similar Buildings of the Present
Day (1836) provides an explicit example of this methodology a similar reliance
on stylistic and/or temporal binaries is also evident in the later writings of John
Ruskin and Oscar Wilde. The aim of this paper is to compare Pugin's Contrasts
with those of Ruskin and Wilde. Initially adhering to the romantic proposition
that all objects are dependent on the development of an ‘opposite’ for their
representation and being, the treatment of this ‘other’ by each critic reveals
divergent stylistic motives ranging from the hierarchical (asserting the authority
of one by the denigration of the other), appropriation (where opposites combine
to generate a third and superior category) and analogical (the simultaneous
acknowledgement and autonomy of similarity and difference). Acknowledging a
third conceptualisation of the ‘other’ (analogy) that fails to conform with
postcolonial models of appropriation and denigration, the paper will also
demonstrate the methodological importance of ‘difference,’ and the varying
tolerances to it, within internal critiques of English architectural practice
throughout the nineteenth century..

- by Deborah van der Plaat
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- Intellectual History, Comparative Methods, Art Criticism, Oscar Wilde

In this comprehensive introduction to causal case study methods, Derek Beach, Rasmus Brun Pedersen, and their coauthors delineate the ontological and epistemological differences among these methods, offer suggestions for determining the appropriate methods for a given research project, and explain the step-by-step application of selected methods.
The authors begin with the cohesive, logical foundations for small-n comparative methods, congruence methods, and process-tracing, and they delineate the distinctive types of causal relationships for which each method is appropriate. Next, the authors provide practical instruction for deploying each of the methods individually and in combination. They walk the researcher through each stage of the research process, starting with issues of concept formation and the formulation of causal claims in ways that are compatible with case-based research. They then develop guidelines for making causal inferences using Bayesian logic in an informal, nontechnical fashion as a set of practical questions for translating empirical data into evidence that may or may not confirm causal relationships.
Widely acclaimed instructors, the authors draw upon their extensive experience at the graduate level in university classrooms, summer and winter school courses, and professional workshops, literally all over the globe.

- by Jana Rosker
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- Philosophy, Chinese Philosophy, Comparative Philosophy, Chinese Studies

This article introduces the intellectual motivations behind the establishment of
the Decolonial Comparative Law research project. Beginning with an overview of the discipline of comparative law, we identify several methodological impasses that have not been resolved by previous critical approaches. We then introduce decolonial theory, generally, and decolonial legal studies, specifically, and argue for a decolonial approach to comparative law. We explain that decoloniality’s emphasis on delinking from coloniality and on recognizing pluriversality can improve on some problematic and embedded assumptions in mainstream comparative law. We also provide an outline of a conceptual beginning for decolonial approaches to comparative law.

- by Lena Salaymeh and +1
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- Comparative Law, Research Methodology, International Law, Legal Theory

Compilación, edición, traducción e introducción de F. Bossert, P. Sendón y D. Villar a diecinueve ensayos sobre parentesco de Edward Burnett Tylor, Émile Durkheim, Alfred Kroeber, Willam H. Rivers, Edward E. Evans-Pritchard, Alfred R. Radcliffe-Brown, Fred Eggan, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Louis Dumont, Jack Goody, Floyd Lounsbury, David Schneider y Rodney Needham. La selección de los trabajos no sólo procura abarcar un siglo de investigaciones sistemáticas sobre la materia sino también, mediante su introducción crítica, ponderar su relevancia para el estudio antropológico de las sociedades indígenas latinoamericanas (Andes, Chaco, Amazonía). No intenta prescribir de forma dogmática la utilización indiscriminada de los modelos clásicos, sino más bien demostrar la imposibilidad de alcanzar soluciones satisfactorias si se descartan las propuestas de un número considerable de estudiosos de valía que dedicaron tiempo y esfuerzo a la labor antropológica. Lo que este volumen cuestiona, en definitiva, es la noción misma de que haya modelos de parentesco clásicos: simplemente hay buenos y malos modelos.

- by Pablo F Sendón and +1
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- Cultural Studies, Social Theory, Ethnic Studies, Anthropology

This course introduces students to the basics of comparative politics, which is the study of political phenomena in a comparative manner. Put differently, comparative politics refers to the methods of comparative analysis, rather than particular subjects of study. Accordingly, the course discusses applications of comparative methods to a wide range of topics, including but not limited to regime types, political institutions, electoral systems, political parties, and economic development. The course content covers developed and underdeveloped countries, as well as democracies and dictatorships. After completing the requirements of this course, you should be familiar with (1) the most commonly used methods of comparative inquiry, (2) complexities of concepts such as democracy, representation, and their measurements, and (3) major theoretical perspectives in Comparative Politics, and the empirical evidence that offers support to them.

- by Serdar Kaya
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- Comparative Politics, Political Science, Comparative Methods, Comparative Methodology
- by Silvia Biselli
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- Comparative Methods, Indoeuropean Studies

В книге на основе переосмысления известных и введения в научный оборот многих
неизвестных источников впервые комплексно рассмотрены предпосылки, контекст
появления и генезис теоретических оснований сравнительно-правовых исследований, а
также их ранней институционализации. Среди предпосылок становления теоретических
оснований сравнительно-правовых исследований автор выделил формирование предмета
и объектов юридических наук. То, что из предмета правоведения к началу XIX в. исчезло
естественное право как собственно право, а позитивное право стало рассматриваться
как самодостаточное, впервые придало смысл сравнительно-правовым исследованиям, а
определение национальных правопорядков как единицы правового развития дало этим
исследованиям цель – познание и совершенствование национального права. Предпосылкой
становления теоретических оснований сравнительно-правовых исследований стало и
развитие сравнительного подхода в науках о человеке, но в контексте данного исследования
оно взято в «снятом» виде: двойная идентичность сравнительного знания как основы
развития наук и одновременно основания формирования в их пределах сравнительных
дисциплин, а также накопление критической массы синкретического политико-экономико-
историко-правового знания в рамках всеобщей истории, камералистики и сравнительного
государствоведения (сравнительной статистики).
Автор доказывает, что в связи с выделением и одновременно интеграцией юридической
науки во второй половине XVIII – начале XIX в. произошли дифференциация упомянутого
синкретического знания и формирование учения о сравнении в праве, его целях, роли как
основы общего учения о праве и возможности выделения сравнительно-правовых научных
дисциплин. Результатом осмысления сравнительно-правового знания стало формирование
в указанный период компаративистской научной картины мира – учения о национальном
праве, его своеобразных и всеобщих элементах, взаимодействии национальных правопорядков,
имманентности и процессуальности всеобщего, характеристиках особенного в правовом
развитии. Такая картина мира, в свою очередь, стала основанием для классификации
правопорядков и формирования правовой карты мира.
Для научных работников, преподавателей юридических факультетов, аспирантов, всех,
кто интересуется историей юридических наук. Книга представляет собой перевод украинского
издания 2017 г.

- by Олексій Кресін
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- Comparative Law, History of Science, Legal History, Legal Theory

What is a case study and what is it good for? In this article, we argue for a new approach—the comparative case study approach—that attends simultaneously to macro, meso, and micro dimensions of case-based research. The approach engages two logics of comparison: first, the more common compare and contrast; and second, a 'tracing across' sites or scales. As we explicate our approach, we also contrast it to traditional case study research. We contend that new approaches are necessitated by conceptual shifts in the social sciences, specifically in relation to culture, context, space, place, and comparison itself. We propose that comparative case studies should attend to three axes: horizontal, vertical, and transversal comparison. We conclude by arguing that this revision has the potential to strengthen and enhance case study research in Comparative and International Education, clarifying the unique contributions of qualitative research.

- by Lesley Bartlett and +1
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- Qualitative methodology, Comparative & International Education, Comparative Methods, Qualitative Research Methods

In conversation with Andre Beteille:
Surendra Munshi

El libro presenta una selección de trabajos de especialistas brasileños, franceses y argentinos que promueve el debate sobre las formas relacionales de construcción de la alteridad en la etnología sudamericana, tanto en distintos momentos históricos como en diversos ámbitos geográficos (Amazonía, Chaco, Andes, Guyanas). Los trabajos procuran trascender lo que generalmente se entiende por ‘relaciones de alteridad’ o ‘relaciones interétnicas’ sin hacer tanto hincapié en los vínculos entre los diferentes grupos indígenas y los representantes externos del contacto (el Estado, misioneros, militares, exploradores, antropólogos, ONG’s), sino más bien, y fundamentalmente, analizando la trama de relaciones, conexiones y transformaciones recíprocas entre los distintos grupos indígenas y asimismo en el etnoconocimiento antropológico derivado de tales interacciones. En este sentido, el libro busca romper la clásica imagen de grandes bloques estáticos (‘indios’ y ‘blancos’) centrándose en cambio en los procesos concretos de construcción de relaciones entre los distintos grupos étnicos.

- by Edilene Coffaci de Lima and +1
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- Cultural History, Ethnohistory, Cultural Studies, Social Theory

Considering his bad reputation in the medieval sources, the fact that the Frisian king Redbad (d. 719) is currently celebrated as a national hero in Frisian and Dutch novels, movies and metal music should be considered extraordinary. How can we explain this miraculous transformation from ‘God’s enemy’ to national icon? In this contribution, the consecutive ideological reinterpretations of the king – or his turbulent Nachleben – will be assessed in broad lines. Special attention will be paid to the pagan character of Redbad, and to the complex reception history of his ‘failed baptism’. I will argue that the major shift in the modern image of Redbad was caused by the advent of secular national discourses in the nineteenth century, in which pre-Christian heathenism became equated with national authenticity. This development is subsequently further clarified through comparison with other ‘pagan heroes’, from the troublesome saga hero Tróndur on the Faroe Islands to the chieftain Hatuey in Cuba. Taken together, the many faces of Redbad provide us with a good impression of the refined ways in which the past is ‘recycled’ in the present.

- by Simon Halink
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- Medievalism, Nationalism, Heroes, Cultural Nationalism

Undertaking a broadscale experiment in theory and praxis, this book demonstrates grounds for insisting on a more integrational approach to dialectology while simultaneously demonstrating grounds for defining the hidden Phula languages of the Sino-Vietnam borderlands. The modern languages and their ancestral lineage are defined dialectically, through dynamic syntheses of correlative perspectives. [pdf includes Preface, TOC and Chapter 1]

- by Jamin Pelkey
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- Philology, Languages, Anthropological Linguistics, Indigenous Studies

This article reviews the historical and present prospects of ethnohistorical and ethnographic work in the South American Gran Chaco. Geographically the Chaco is a semi-arid central South American plain, some one million square kilometers in size, encompassing portions of northern Argentina, eastern Bolivia, and western Paraguay. Average rainfall oscillates around 800 mm/yr, with the peripheries being wetter and the central Chaco drier. Some 250,000 indigenous people belonging to more than twenty ethnic groups live in the Chaco. Traditional ethno-linguistic categorization classifies them into six main linguistic groups: Mataco-maká (Wichí-Mataco, Chorote, Nivaclé-Chulupí, Maká), Guaycurú (Toba, Toba-Pilagá, Pilagá, Mocoví, Mbayá-Caduveo), Lule-Vilela (Chunupí), Lengua-Maskoi (Lengua, Sanapaná, Angaité, Enenlhet), Zamuco (Chamacoco-Ishir, Ayoreo) and Tupí-Guaraní (Ava-Chiriguano, Chané, Tapiete, Isoseño-Guaraní, and Guaraní Occidental). The last group is the largest, including nearly 100,000 people, of whom the majority live in Bolivia. Unlike their Amazonian and Andean counterparts, Chaco indigenous peoples have yet to establish transnational, pan-indigenous representative bodies of their own. The present position of Chaco scholars is in many ways isomorphic to that of Chaco indigenous peoples, as Chaco anthropology has not established itself as an internationally recognized field of endeavor. Nevertheless, recent scholarship in the region is currently producing an original synthesis of many of the long-standing concerns of Andeanist and Amazonianist scholarship, respectively. A case can also be made for a new direction for research, based upon intriguing anthropological and historical parallels between the North American Great Plains and the South American Gran Chaco. The very indefinition of Chaco scholarship may also be its principal strength, and the past and present directions of Chaco research both draw upon and make a persuasive case for returning to comparative and area studies approaches in anthropology.

- by Diego Villar and +1
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- History, Cultural History, Ethnohistory, Cultural Studies

This article addresses some basic methodological problems in the field of transcultural post-comparative studies of ancient logic by comparing the famous flying arrow paradox of Hui Shi (370-c. 310 BCE) with an apparently similar paradox attributed to Zeno of Elea (495-430 BCE). The article proceeds from a general introduction to the basic framework of semantically determined classical Chinese logic, to an illumination of Hui Shi's specific contributions to the field, and finally to a preliminary explanation that emerges from a contrastive analysis of Zeno's and Hui Shi's respective views on the problem of motion and stasis as manifested in their corresponding paradoxes. The contrastive analysis, based on an exposition of some basic problems in the field of transcultural methodology and a description of the so-called sublation method, points to the importance of considering different paradigms and frames of reference in identifying differences between apparently similar theses.

- by Jana Rosker
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- Logic, Chinese Philosophy, Comparative Philosophy, Research Methods and Methodology

The comparative method depends crucially on the phylogenetic tree of the languages under comparison, but in many linguistic families, including Indo-European, the true tree is unknown. To circumvent this issue, frequency heuristics have been devised to enable comparative reconstruction over consensus trees. These heuristics come in different forms, but they are all based on the same methodological principle: if the number of homologous elements (e.g., lexical cognates) in the daughter languages meets a minimum threshold (canonically three), their ancestor is reconstructed to the root of the tree. In this paper, I demonstrate that frequency heuristics are not only unreliable but fundamentally misguided. As an alternative, I present a Bayesian method for inferring ancestral states that accounts for phylogenetic uncertainty by estimating the probability of a character state over a set of resolved phylogenetic trees.

- by David Frankfurter
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- Comparative Methods, Jonathan Z. Smith, Comparison

The paper reports on both methodological and substantive findings. It presents a method for generating simplified representations for regional urban populations, their geographical sub-populations and communities. the method generates greatly simplified high-resolution socio-economic profiles of populated geographical areas from complex large census data sets.

- by Trevor Wren BSc MA MPhil PhD MBA
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- Information Systems, Management, Marketing, Sociology

This chapter, published in Comparative Area Studies: Methodological Rationales and Cross-Regional Applications (Oxford University Press, 2018), defines cross-regional contextualized comparison and distinguishes it from other, more typical modes of small-N qualitative analysis, namely area-bound comparative inquiry (where cases are chosen on the basis of one's primary area of expertise) and macro-comparative inquiry (which follows the quasi-experimental logic of Mills' methods as a basis for case selection and inferring causal generalizations). The trade-offs between these approaches are not purely methodological (between building on one's accumulated area expertise and leveraging the comparative method). They have a practical dimension as well, since one strategy is more likely to result in sustained engagement with one's primary area studies community while the other is more likely to result in hypotheses dealing with big questions of interest to social science disciplines. While these trade-offs can never be overcome, the strategy of contextualized comparison of cases drawn from different regions offers a distinctive means for triangulating insights. This approach still depends on first acquiring area expertise, but it permits extrapolating from one's experience in doing research in one's primary area to navigate the complexities and contending historical records and sources when delving into other cases that hold promise in terms of facilitating some analytic leverage. This type of context-sensitive approach cannot produce elegant law-like generalizations, but it can produce middle-range theoretical arguments whereby causal mechanisms and linkages can be identified as relevant across some population of cases, but with the actual causal stories of each case requiring careful attention to context conditions followed by the adjustment of concepts, measures, and observations (in the manner anticipated in Locke and Thelen's classic 1995 argument about contextualized comparison in the study of labor politics). This approach is thus at once more expansive than area-bound small-N studies (e.g. a study of three countries in the Middle East or in Eastern Europe), and more context-sensitive than traditional Millean macro-comparative approaches (e.g. Skocpol's 1979 classic study of social revolutions, which explicitly deploys Mills' methods). The value of cross-regional contextualized comparison can be understood in both analytic and dialogical terms: (i) there is the expanded probability of hitting upon theoretical insights and equivalences based on expanding one's familiarity to new cases with their own complexities; and (ii) given the requirement of deep engagement with the relevant area studies communities for each of the case studies, there is the possibility of providing bridges between separate area studies researchers tackling similar problems as well as between area studies communities and social science disciplines writ large.

- by Rudra Sil
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- Area Studies, Comparative Politics, Qualitative methodology, Qualitative Methods

Des années 1820 au début du XXIe siècle, les propositions d’intitulés comparatistes ont jalonné l’histoire du Collège de France. Cette constance et la variété des domaines scientifiques dont ils relèvent les distinguent déjà au sein de l’ensemble des intitulés proposés au cours de la même période. Mais les intitulés comparatistes se singularisent surtout par le fait qu’ils spécifient non seulement l’objet mais aussi la méthode de la chaire projetée : au « quoi ? », ils adjoignent le « comment ? ». Au vu du lien souvent revendiqué entre comparatisme et modernité scientifique, ils se prêtent donc particulièrement bien à une enquête sur le moteur de la création des chaires au Collège de France et sur le poids de la méthode dans ce processus. Réciproquement, un recensement systématique des propositions d’intitulés comparatistes, acceptées comme rejetées, permet de préciser la pénétration de la méthode comparative au Collège de France ainsi que les domaines où elle apparaît ou non comme légitime. Loin de postuler l’existence d’une pratique comparative homogène et spécifique au Collège de France, ce chapitre envisage l’institution comme un creuset permettant d’appréhender les formulations et propositions comparatistes dans leur diversité et leurs incessantes recompositions. L’approche à la fois quantitative (statistique) et qualitative (fondée sur l’étude des argumentaires et débats entourant ces intitulés) de ce corpus pluridisciplinaire offre des perspectives inédites sur le développement du comparatisme en France.

- by Pascale Rabault-Feuerhahn
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- Epistemology, History of Ideas, Comparative History, History of Science

Area‐focused scholarship of all varieties – ranging from case studies intended to explore general hypotheses to context‐bound narratives generated through ethnography or discourse analysis – have long contributed to the richness and vibrancy of the field of comparative politics, sometimes generating enduring concepts, sometimes reinforcing or challenging prevailing general theories. The question for comparativists is not whether area studies ought to have a place in the field of comparative politics but rather how to generate productive conversations between area studies and scholars working on general theories and models. Such conversations are not going to be jump‐started by simply noting the value of area‐focused scholarship. This is precisely why I have focused on the mediating role of cross‐regional comparative research in highlighting the connections between different clusters of area‐focused scholarship and general theoretical and methodological debates in the field. Unfortunately, the dynamics of methodological debates are such that those partial to small‐N comparison have typically preferred to go closer to the ground, seeking the cover of area‐specific expertise rather than reaffirming the analytic leverage small‐N analysis is designed to provide. In light of this state of affairs, it is worth applauding the handful of studies that have boldly embarked on cross‐regional comparison, recognizing the limitations of this approach but standing fast in highlighting its distinctive payoffs. But, the broader argument for reviving cross‐ regional small‐N comparison has to do with its distinctive dialogical benefits – that is, the role it can play in "horizontally" connecting diverse area-studies research communities and "vertically" bridging the gulf that continues to separate area‐studies communities from generalists in comparative politics. If this latter gulf is not reduced, area specialists could find themselves further misunderstood and marginalized, and the field of comparative politics will be impoverished as a result.

As tourism service standards become more homogeneous, travel destinations worldwide are conforming yet still trying to maintain, or even increase, their distinctiveness. Based on more than two years of fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and Arusha, Tanzania, this book offers an in-depth investigation of the local-to-global dynamics of contemporary tourism. Each destination offers examples that illustrate how tour guide narratives and practices are informed by widely circulating imaginaries of the past as well as personal fantasies of the future. The author reveals how local guides in Yogyakarta and Arusha insure the continued reproduction and localization of tourism fantasies, but they also use the privileged contact with foreigners to foment their own imaginations of "paradise on earth." The book focuses on the human mechanics of globalization, cosmopolitan mobility, and the role of the imaginary in giving people’s lives meaning, demonstrating essential ways in which ethnographies of tourism and travel contribute to ongoing theoretical and methodological debates about the local–global nexus.

- by Noel B. Salazar
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- Critical Theory, History, European History, Geography

Based on materials collected during recent field trips, this paper presents a detailed description of the variety spoken in Huangkeng Town, Jianyang County, Fujian Province, China. Although the synchronic phonology of Huangkeng is quite different from other Northern Min varieties, this study shows that the genetic position of Huangkeng belongs to Northern Min. After a thorough comparison between Huangkeng and Proto-Northern-Min and a careful distinction between innovations and retentions, this study argues that Huangkeng is the earliest descendant of Northern Min, and bears a sister relationship with Proto-Northern-Min (PNM), ancestor of all other known Northern Min
varieties. Then, the reconstruction of Early-Northern-Min (ENM), which is the ancestor of both Huangkeng and PNM, and a comparison between the phonological structure of ENM with that of PNM are presented. After a brief discussion on the nature of Huangkeng vocabulary, this paper concludes with a discussion on how the case study of Huangkeng shed some new lights on the methodological issue in Chinese dialectology.

- by Ruiqing Shen
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- Comparative Methods, Min Dialects

An expanded set of sites, a more differentiated set of references and linguistic diversification have been discussed as needed changes in urban studies. The critiques of the limitations of urban studies, in terms of both the scholarship and the scholars, offer important and concrete responses to expanding the scope of the field. Yet this tremendous special issue on 'Comparative Methods for Global Urban Studies' with 10 papers cutting across a range of sites and topics is decidedly not only about empirical variation; this is an important distinction worth drawing more attention to. The creativity expressed in these papers comes at an auspicious time in urban studies where new routes for doing urban theory are needed to move past debates about singular versus plural epistemologies of the urban. As a kind of research that demands more translation, exchange and collaboration, perhaps comparative urban research as a mode of theory-building can help to humble the chest-pounding, posturing, privilege of thinking and speaking the language of theory. The theoretical ambitions of these very different papers show how urban theory need not only be about better understanding urbanisation within the epistemological confines of late capitalism. Rather than reifying a shared grammar of urbanisation as a necessity to understand each other, they may entice scholars everywhere to develop a broader vocabulary and perhaps even learn another language.

- by Julie Ren
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- Comparative Urbanism, Global Studies, Urban Studies, Comparative Methods

Formalization of comparative case methodology has given the appearance of growing consensus and cross-disciplinary acceptance around a set of best practices. Yet how researchers actually use a method may differ widely from what methodologists believe, which is the crux of institutionalization of a method. This study examines whether comparative methodology has, in fact, institutionalized within the social sciences using evidence from the entire corpus of comparative studies of revolution published from 1970 to 2009. Content analysis of methods of case selection within the revolution subfield reveals a wide diversity of strategies with only modest methodological awareness by practitioners, a lack of consensus among which case selection strategies to use, and little convergence over time. Thus, the comparative method has not yet institutionalized in its practice. Methodological practice has implications for the coverage of cases of revolution and what is substantively known about the phenomenon.

- by Colin J Beck
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- Comparative Politics, Historical Sociology, Revolutions, Comparative Methods

The paper intervenes in the burgeoning field of comparative constitutionalism. Adopting comparative constitutional research on gay rights as a case study, it addresses the scholarship that comparative constitutionalists are producing, including the methodology and underlying assumptions about constitutions. It criticizes the mainstream comparative work on gay rights for its methodological thinness. Such research views constitutions as rule-based, privileging the judgments of constitutional courts over the practice of constitutionalism in other sites of governance. Foreign examples are pressed into service to bring about change in a designated place. From the vantage of an activist or advocate, the comparative constitutional work on gay rights that is prevalent now may prove misleading. Undue emphasis on courts as the site of constitutional change directs efforts to litigation away from other forms of activism. The literature also exaggerates the transferability of constitutional precedents by abstracting them from their discursive and cultural context. Moreover, the consistent selection of a handful of success stories from pioneering jurisdictions distracts from the potential lessons waiting in the failures, where reform efforts have foundered. From a scholar's perspective, the work is also unsatisfactory. Comparative constitutionalists, by accepting the current framing of debates, are failing to imagine transformations beyond same-sex marriage litigation and, consequently, falling short of their distinctive power as scholars. The paper argues for thick instrumentalism as a mode of comparative constitutional scholarship. Thick instrumentalism combines commitment to a justice project for gay rights with a richer, more discursive and culturally sensitive understanding of the multiple sites in which constitutional rights are respected - and infringed.

- by Robert Leckey
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- Law, Constitutional Law, Comparative Constitutional Law, Comparative Methods

Comparative historical studies of the ancient religious rituals and manifestations of the Libyan-Berber populations and those of the first Canary Island populations have been carried out in depth. The studies work from the premise that both the Libyan and the Canarians populations share the same roots. However, the basic framework within which to apply a comparative methdology have barely been outlined with mere hints to the procedures, problems and potential benefits of a better undesranding of the elements to be compared. The aim of this paper is to delve into these issues in order to attempt to clarify the methodological premises for a comparative analysis of the religious manifestations of both population, highlighting the main topics of the scientific debate with respect to he comparative method itself as of the last few years. We offer new conceptual and methdological tools provided by the comparative studies of the History of Religions.

- by Josué Ramos-Martín
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- History of Religions, Comparative Methods, Canary Islands, Libio-bereberes

Programa de curso. Ciclo I-2022.

- by Ronald Sáenz
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- Comparative Politics, Political Science, Comparative Methods
- by Kamil Beneš
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- International Relations, Conflict, Malaysia, Energy Security

This article applies the comparative methodology proposed by Oliver Freiberger to a case study on Christian-Muslim relations at a shared sacred site in Antakya (formerly Antioch), which belongs to Hatay, the southernmost city of Turkey. Specifically, this case study deals with the veneration of the Muslim saint Habib-i Neccar in the center of the old city of Antakya. Besides discussing some general questions pertaining to the methodical procedure used in the case study, this contribution demonstrates that Freiberger's comparative methodology is useful and that its application leads to new insights. In refining the methodical toolkit for comparative research, this article will attempt to enhance the proposed model by introducing a set of analytical concepts. To further illuminate the findings of the case study, 'mimesis' and 'fractal dynamics' will be introduced as analytical concepts suitable for studying the dynamics of interreligious relations and for enhancing the methodical design for future comparative research.

- by Jens Kreinath
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- Comparative Religion, History of Religion, Mimesis, Cult of Saints

This is a very illuminating paper by one of the founders of the application of quantitative method and Statistics in socio-cultural anthropology.In this paper G.P.Murdock expressed his skepticism on the theoretical contributions of Anthropology.He placed his admiration on ethnography which he considered as the hallmark of Anthropology.Although, nothing was said on the application of Statistics it was implied that theories on society and culture is yet to catch up with what really happens on the ground by the acts of real individuals in real time and space.

240 pp. L'Harmattan – Définir, à partir des traces graphiques d'un projet, les actions de conception et les motivations de l'architecte à les entreprendre, voilà l'objectif de l'enquête. Quel est le rôle de la représentation dans le développement de l'idée architecturale ? Comment se transforme-t-elle tout au long du projet ? En fonction de quoi l'architecte décide-t-il d'altérer ou de maintenir une représentation ? Telles sont les questions que ces essais tentent de résoudre en s'appuyant sur les concepts de représentation, d'inférence, de modèle et d'échelle, et en portant une attention particulière au rôle que jouent les schèmes dans la conception architecturale.
Les conclusions sont tirées d'études de cas qui portent sur des projets de l'Atelier Zô, Scarpa, Le Corbusier, Pei.

- by Dominique Raynaud
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- Architecture, Design Research, Architectural History, Comparative Methods

164 pp. Éditions Parenthèses – "Toute forme a été imaginée avant d'être construite". Cette formule classique, qui met en relief l'un des traits essentiels de la pratique architecturale, soulève plusieurs questions. D'où viennent les images-mères du projet? Sont-elles encore identifiables une fois construites? Existe-t-il des procédés réguliers dans l'imagination des formes architecturales? Cette enquête tente de résoudre ces problèmes par la reconnaissance de schèmes dynamiques de l'imagination. Si le processus de conception architecturale altère les images-mères au points que certains ont pu identifier une "non figurativité" de l'architecture, les schèmes dynamiques sont perceptibles de la première esquisse à l'édifice construit. La démonstration, au croisement de l'anthropologie des représentations et de l'architecturologie, adopte le principe d'une analyse comparée. Etayée par une sélection d'édifices couvrant toute l'extension historique et géographique, elle offre tout à la fois une lecture cohérente des premiers moments du projet architectural et une réflexion de portée générale sur l'imagination des formes.

- by Dominique Raynaud
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- Architecture, Design Research, Architectural History, Comparative Methods
- by Paula Gonzalez
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- Paleoanthropology, Biological Anthropology, Human Evolution, Biomechanics