Syllabus
Each session will examine specific issues by examining a key works by comparativists such as Barrington Moore or Theda Skocopol and/or a real-world issues to which comparative analysis can applied,. such as, for example, democratization, state collapse or the outbreak of revolution.
The goal of the course is to develop both a broad understanding of how comparative analysis is used social and political research and practical abilities to apply it. As well as examining classic comparative analyses students will therefore be asked to design and carry out an appropriate-scale comparative analysis of their own on a topic of interest to them.
The course is suitable for Masters and PhD students working in political science, political economy, sociology, historical sociology or related areas.
Annotation
The course aims to give thorough grounding in techniques of comparative analysis in the social and political sciences and how to use them. Sessions will cover: the relationship of comparative methods to area studies; how we can gain general understandings of social and political processes by comparing;; how to pick cases and apply ‘logics of comparison’; how (and how not) to apply concepts ; the use of case studies; problems of identifying cause and effect; large scale ‘variable-oriented’ comparison versus small scale
‘case-oriented’ comparisons; ‘configurative comparison’ including an introduction to
Charles Ragin’s Comparative Qualitative Analysis (QCA) approach.