Rethinking comparison: innovative methods for qualitative political inquiry

"Qualitative comparative methods – and specifically controlled qualitative comparisons – are central to the study of politics. They are not the only kind of comparison, though, that can help us better understand political processes and outcomes. Yet there are few guides for how to conduct non-controlled comparative research. This volume brings together chapters from more than a dozen leading methods scholars from across the discipline of political science, including positivist and interpretivist scholars, qualitative methodologists, mixed-methods researchers, ethnographers, historians, and statisticians. Their work revolutionizes qualitative research design by diversifying the repertoire of comparative methods available to students of politics, offering readers clear suggestions for what kinds of comparisons might be possible, why they are useful, and how to execute them. By systematically thinking through how we engage in qualitative comparisons and the kinds of insights those comparisons produce, these collected essays create new possibilities to advance what we know about politics." --

Rethinking comparison : an introduction / Erica S. Simmons and Nicholas Rush Smith -- Beyond mill : why cross-case qualitative causal inference is weak, and why we should still compare / Jason Seawright -- Two ways to compare / Frederic Charles Schaffer -- Unbound comparison / Nick Cheesman -- On casing a study versus studying a case / Joe Soss -- From cases to sites : studying global processes in comparative politics / Thea Riofrancos -- Comparing complex cases using archival research / Jonathan Obert -- Composing comparisons : studying configurations of relations in social network research / Sarah E. Parkinson -- Against methodological nationalism : seeing comparisons as encompassing through the Arab uprisings / Jillian Schwedler -- Comparative analysis for theory development / Mala Htun and Francesca R. Jensenius -- Problems and possibilities of comparison across regime types : examples involving China / Benjamin L. Read -- Comparisons with an ethnographic sensibility : studies of protest and vigilantism / Erica S. Simmons and Nicholas Rush Smith -- Theory and imagination in comparative politics : an interview with Lisa Wedeen / Erica S. Simmons and Nicholas Rush Smith with Lis…