Historical and Comparative Methods

Bibliographic Data

ID7077613
AuthorsRebecca Jean Emigh (0000-0002-5978-1249, UCLA Health), Corey S O'Malley (UCLA Health)
Year2021
Pages1-4
Publication date2021-10-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeOTHER
VenueThe Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (JOURNAL)
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosh035.pub2
OpenAlexW4317828069
ISBN9781405165518
LanguageEN
References cited27

Historical and comparative methods comprise a diverse set of perspectives on and methodologies for examining temporality, including comparison, narrative, interpretive methods, and quantitative analysis. While many early sociologists used comparison implicitly, a more explicit comparative paradigm based on the work of Mill became influential in the late twentieth century for explaining historical causality. Critiques of these approaches led to a rise in narrative analyses, including process tracing and negative case analysis, which tend to emphasize process in explaining social change. Interpretive methods, including historical ethnography and oral history, provide tools for examining subjective meanings in historical context, including how they change over time. Finally, conventional quantitative methods, network methods, and content analysis can be used for formal analyses of history and structured comparison. Each methodology must be chosen to suit available data and specified carefully to avoid reification of the historical and causal dynamics under examination

Archaeology · Causal inference · Causality (physics · Comparative historical research · Comparative method · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Historical method · Linguistics · Narrative · Politics · Process (computing · Process tracing · Reification (Marxism · Social science · Sociology · Temporality · Computer Science · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · History · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research · Social and Cultural Dynamics

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