Cross-national Comparative Research


Book Description

Cross-National Comparative Research is concerned with observing social phenomena across countries, and with developing explanations for their similarities and differences. This Special Issue focuses on the use of Cross-National Comparative Research to study the effects of national and sub-national contexts on behaviors and attitudes of individual actors. Moreover, it is of interest how behaviors and attitudes at the individual level lead to national and sub-national outcomes at the meso and macro levels. How do immigration policies affect migrants’ well-being? Does the number of divorcees in a country influence individual divorce risks? Are human values universal, or do they vary from one country to another? Under which conditions is political protest triggered, and when does it lead to revolutionary changes within society? These and other questions are typical of cross-national comparative analyses that seek to ascertain how upper-level (macro, meso) contexts influence micro-level phenomena, and how outcomes at the individual level are once more reflected at the meso and macro levels. Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Andreß, Prof. Dr. Detlef Fetchenhauer and Prof. Dr. Heiner Meulemann teach sociology and social psychology at the University in Cologne, Germany.




Cross National Research in Sociology


Book Description

The development of cross-national research attempts to a much-needed global perspective on sociological research. Its adherents overcome national, cultural, logistic and linguistic barriers in the attempt to provide truly comparative information on the human condition. This volume, stemming from the plenary sessions of the 1987 American Sociological Association annual meeting and edited by past president Melvin Kohn, presents the cutting edge of cross-national research. Its distinguished contributors from nine countries describe the theoretical possibilities and limits of this kind of endeavour, consider the difficulties of its implementation, and present a range of studies ranging from two-nation comparisons to truly global ones, that are




Comparative Methodology


Book Description

Addresses the methodological problems raised by international comparative social science research. This volume has been specially prepared for the 1990 World Congress of Sociology and is aimed at professionals and students in the areas of comparative sociology and cross-cultural studies.




New Directions in Quantitative Comparative Sociology


Book Description

The comparative method is at the core of sociological inquiry and gained new importance, emphasis and practitioners particularly after the second world war as a consequence of a large variety of international and global scale developments. The contributions to this book regard nations or countries as contextual units of analysis and treat them as variables. Theoretical explanations are presented of how social phenomena are systematically related to characteristics of the nation states and these explanations are tested empirically using the qualitative tools of mainstream sociology. The chapters in this book can be useful to a broad audience and a range of social scientists who are interested in the understanding of contemporary social phenomena that are no longer limited to national borders but that are transnational or of a global order. Contributors are Toril Aalberg, Wil Arts, Carole B. Burgoyne, Loek Halman, Piet Hermkens, Guillermina Jasso, Mebs Kanji, James R. Kluegel, Ola Listhaug, David S. Mason, Petr Matěju, Neil Nevitte, Thorleif Pettersson, David A. Routh, Svetlana Sidorenko-Stephenson, Johan Verweij, Bernd Wegener, and Peter Van Wijck.




Cross-National Research Methodology and Practice


Book Description

Cross-National Research Methodology and Practice offers practical guidance for relative newcomers to cross-national research by analysing and evaluating the research process by focusing strongly on best practice in terms of methods and management. It raises a number of important issues for cross-national research which have been given insufficient attention in discussions of methods and practice. The volume contains reflexive and theoretically based pieces on the development of contextualization as an approach to cross-national comparative research, on qualitative and quantitative methods, extending to the integration of different methodological approaches. The volume includes practical examples of cross-national research projects which illustrate different methods ranging from: biographical and documentary approaches the collection and analysis of socio-demographic and attitudinal survey data either carried out by lone researchers or teams of researchers the exploration of internet sources and application of computer analysis to quantitative and qualitative data. This collection provides a firm emphasis on methodological issues relating to context, values and discourse.




Cross National Research Methods


Book Description

This is a resource book for social scientists engaged in cross-national comparative research. It critically examines the methodological and managerial issues which arise from such work, with a particular focus on the economic and social policy agenda of the European Union. Experts from across Europe and from different disciplinary backgrounds draw upon their own experience of conducting cross-national comparisons to offer well-informed guidance on how to overcome the pitfalls and problems they have encountered.




The Encyclopedia of Research Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2 Volume Set


Book Description

The Encyclopedia of RESEARCH METHODS IN CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE The most comprehensive reference work on research designs and methods in criminology and criminal justice This Encyclopedia of Research Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice offers a comprehensive survey of research methodologies and statistical techniques that are popular in criminology and criminal justice systems across the globe. With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners in the field, it offers a clear insight into the techniques that are currently in use to answer the pressing questions in criminology and criminal justice. The Encyclopedia contains essential information from a diverse pool of authors about research designs grounded in both qualitative and quantitative approaches. It includes information on popular datasets and leading resources of government statistics. In addition, the contributors cover a wide range of topics such as: the most current research on the link between guns and crime, rational choice theory, and the use of technology like geospatial mapping as a crime reduction tool. This invaluable reference work: Offers a comprehensive survey of international research designs, methods, and statistical techniques Includes contributions from leading figures in the field Contains data on criminology and criminal justice from Cambridge to Chicago Presents information on capital punishment, domestic violence, crime science, and much more Helps us to better understand, explain, and prevent crime Written for undergraduate students, graduate students, and researchers, The Encyclopedia of Research Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice is the first reference work of its kind to offer a comprehensive review of this important topic.




Concise Encyclopedia of Comparative Sociology


Book Description

The Concise Encyclopedia of Comparative Sociology presents the current state of knowledge in comparative sociology for students, scholars, and the educated lay public. The major aim of comparative sociological research is to identify similarities and differences among societies, studying variation across both geographical regions and historical periods. This volume is divided into six broad categories: Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Comparing Societies, Comparative Historical Sociology, Comparing Institutions and Social Structures, Comparing Social Processes, Comparing Nation States and World Regions, and Biographies of Exemplary Comparative Sociologists. Nearly 60 essays written by distinguished experts in their fields focus on the first five categories, while the biographical section contains forty biographies of both classical and contemporary sociologists who have made major contributions to comparative sociology. Contributors include: David Baker, Wenda Bauchspies, Hans-Peter Blossfield, Harriet Bradley, Sandra Buchholz, Miguel Centeno, Karen Cerulo, Brett Clark, Amy Corming, William D'Antonio, Mario Diani, Mattei Dogan, Riley Dunlap, Shmuel Eisenstadt, Mike Featherstone, Claude Fischer, Joshua Fishman, William Gamson, Julian Go, Jack Goldstone, Ralph Grillo, John Hall, Steve Hall, Robert Heiner, Joseph Hermanowicz, Margret Hornsteiner, David Johnson, Andrew Jorgenson, Jack Levy, Robert Marsh, Bill McCarthy, David Johnson, James Midgley, Peter Mohler, Linda Molm, Benjamin Moodie, Victor Nee, Anthony Orum, William Outhwaite, Anthony Pogorelc, Harland Prechel, Danielle Resnick, Glenn Robinson, Luis Roniger, Thomas Saalfeld, Stephen Sanderson, Michelle Sandhoff, Masamichi Sasaki, Saskia Sassen, Andrew Savchenko, Harald Schoen, Howard Schuman, David Segal, Michael Siemon, Tom Smith, Joonmo Son, Hendrik Spruyt, Robert Stebbins, George Steinmetz, Piotr Sztompka, Henry Teune, Arland Thornton, Kathleen Tierney, Jonathan Turner, Nicholas van de Walle, Henk Vinken, Veljko Vujačić, Erich Weede, Michel Wieviorka, Ekkart Zimmermann.




Research Design in Social Research


Book Description

The book provides the reader with an understanding of the importance of research design and its place in the research process; describes the main types of research designs in social research; explains the logic and purposes of design to enable students to evaluate particular research strategies; equips students with the design skills to operate in real-world research situations.




Comparative Methods in the Social Sciences


Book Description

Even after teaching generations of social scientists, Neil Smelser's classic book remains the most definitive statement of methodological issues for all comparative scholars and in political science, anthropology, sociology, economics and psychology. Such issues are timeless and therefore Smelser's lucid analysis remains timely and relevant. Smelser posits a methodological continuity between the comparative studies of past masters and the more recent flow of contemporary comparative work. To that end, he takes a pragmatic, critical look at the classic studies of Alexis de Tocqueville, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber. His analyses respect the historical specifics and contexts of their work, but at the same time raise general issues such as cross-unit comparability, empirical representation of theoretical concepts and measures, and historical causality. The book also deals with the ongoing flows of comparative study in the social sciences, which, while methodologically more self-conscious than past work, nevertheless face a common set of issues, including causation and classification. The book's unique clarity makes it particularly useful for working scholars as well as students fighting their way through the methodological thickets of comparative studies.