Comparative Area Studies
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, Incorporated |
| ISBN-13 | 9780190846374 |
| Open Library | OL25055257W |
| Total publications | 8 |
| Coverage period | 2018 - 2018 |
| Language | EN |
| Impact factor | 1.125 |
Area studies have undergone significant changes over the last two decades. They have been transformed from mostly descriptive accounts in the international context of the Cold War to theory-oriented and methodological analytical approaches. More recent comparative methods such as “Qualitative Comparative Analysis” (QCA) and related approaches, which are particularly suitable for medium N studies, have significantly contributed to this development. This essay discusses the epistemological background of this approach as well as recent developments. It provides two examples of current “cross area studies,” one concerned with successful democratic transformations across four regions (Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and East Asia), the other with political participation in marginalized settlements in four countries (Brazil, Chile, Ivory Coast, Kenya) in a multilevel analysis. The conclusion points to the theoretical promises of this approach and its practical-political relevance
Comparative Area Studies
Area studies scholarship has been indispensable for the development of social scientific knowledge. However, it risks becoming marginalized without more concerted efforts to demonstrate its relevance for contemporary social science. This volume showcases comparative area studies (CAS). CAS incorporates familiar elements from past comparative research but draws them together into a strategy for balancing context-sensitive understandings of diverse…
Comparative Area Studies
Two convictions lie at the heart of this volume. First, area studies scholarship remains indispensable for the social sciences, both as a means to expand our fount of observations and as a source of theoretical ideas. Second, this scholarship risks becoming marginalized without more efforts to demonstrate its broader relevance and utility. Comparative Area Studies (CAS) is one such effort, seeking to balance attention to regional and local contex…
Organizing Production across Regions
Wenzhou, once a neglected locale on China’s southeastern seaboard, has in the post-Mao era experienced tremendous economic growth and produced some of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs. With the acceleration of Chinese out-migration in the post–Cold War era, key features of the “Wenzhou model”—extensive use of social capital, self-reliance, and risk-taking—have appeared among Chinese businesses across Europe. This chapter examines this …
Triangulating Area Studies, Not Just Methods
This chapter revisits trade-offs that qualitative researchers face when balancing the different expectations of area studies and disciplinary audiences. One putative solution to such trade-offs, mixed-method research, emphasizes the triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods. CAS, as defined above, essentially encourages a different form of triangulation—the pooling of observations and interpretations across a wider array of cases span…
Comparisons across World Regions
Scholars often pay insufficient attention to bridging the research divide between different world regions. The authors argue that structured qualitative comparisons across world regions offer a sound middle ground for the integration of universal approaches and context knowledge. The chapter puts forward suggestions about how to deal with challenges in cross-area comparisons at the conceptual, methodological, and practical level. First, scholars …
Context, Concepts, and Comparison in Southeast Asian Studies
This chapter argues that the value of comparative area studies (CAS) depends on some original frame of reference, here the field of Southeast Asian studies. We trace the evolution of this field in view of research on other world regions and general methodological debates. The chapter also highlights the role of CAS in overcoming increasingly rigid methodological divides over such core issues as context-sensitivity and the challenges of comparativ…
Comparative Area Studies and the Study of Middle East Politics after the Arab Uprisings
The Arab uprisings of 2011 led to the fall of several heads of state, triggered wars in three countries, and threatened the survival of all eight monarchies in the Middle East. In the field of Middle East studies, these processes have led to a fundamental questioning of preexisting theoretical assumptions and methodological approaches. A more self-critical and self-aware research program now exists that seeks to trace the different political traj…
Comparative Area Studies
Area studies have undergone significant changes over the last two decades. They have been transformed from mostly descriptive accounts in the international context of the Cold War to theory-oriented and methodological analytical approaches. More recent comparative methods such as “Qualitative Comparative Analysis” (QCA) and related approaches, which are particularly suitable for medium N studies, have significantly contributed to this development…
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Comparative Area Studies
Area studies scholarship has been indispensable for the development of social scientific knowledge. However, it risks becoming marginalized without more concerted efforts to demonstrate its relevance for contemporary social science. This volume showcases comparative area studies (CAS). CAS incorporates familiar elements from past comparative research but draws them together into a strategy for balancing context-sensitive understandings of diverse…
Comparative Area Studies
Two convictions lie at the heart of this volume. First, area studies scholarship remains indispensable for the social sciences, both as a means to expand our fount of observations and as a source of theoretical ideas. Second, this scholarship risks becoming marginalized without more efforts to demonstrate its broader relevance and utility. Comparative Area Studies (CAS) is one such effort, seeking to balance attention to regional and local contex…
Organizing Production across Regions
Wenzhou, once a neglected locale on China’s southeastern seaboard, has in the post-Mao era experienced tremendous economic growth and produced some of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs. With the acceleration of Chinese out-migration in the post–Cold War era, key features of the “Wenzhou model”—extensive use of social capital, self-reliance, and risk-taking—have appeared among Chinese businesses across Europe. This chapter examines this …
Triangulating Area Studies, Not Just Methods
This chapter revisits trade-offs that qualitative researchers face when balancing the different expectations of area studies and disciplinary audiences. One putative solution to such trade-offs, mixed-method research, emphasizes the triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods. CAS, as defined above, essentially encourages a different form of triangulation—the pooling of observations and interpretations across a wider array of cases span…
Comparisons across World Regions
Scholars often pay insufficient attention to bridging the research divide between different world regions. The authors argue that structured qualitative comparisons across world regions offer a sound middle ground for the integration of universal approaches and context knowledge. The chapter puts forward suggestions about how to deal with challenges in cross-area comparisons at the conceptual, methodological, and practical level. First, scholars …
Context, Concepts, and Comparison in Southeast Asian Studies
This chapter argues that the value of comparative area studies (CAS) depends on some original frame of reference, here the field of Southeast Asian studies. We trace the evolution of this field in view of research on other world regions and general methodological debates. The chapter also highlights the role of CAS in overcoming increasingly rigid methodological divides over such core issues as context-sensitivity and the challenges of comparativ…
Comparative Area Studies and the Study of Middle East Politics after the Arab Uprisings
The Arab uprisings of 2011 led to the fall of several heads of state, triggered wars in three countries, and threatened the survival of all eight monarchies in the Middle East. In the field of Middle East studies, these processes have led to a fundamental questioning of preexisting theoretical assumptions and methodological approaches. A more self-critical and self-aware research program now exists that seeks to trace the different political traj…
Comparative Area Studies
Area studies have undergone significant changes over the last two decades. They have been transformed from mostly descriptive accounts in the international context of the Cold War to theory-oriented and methodological analytical approaches. More recent comparative methods such as “Qualitative Comparative Analysis” (QCA) and related approaches, which are particularly suitable for medium N studies, have significantly contributed to this development…