1. Comparative intuition ; 2. Interpretation; 3. Dilemmas; 4. Design; 5. Fieldwork; 6. Analysis; 7. The craft of writing; 8. Retrospective; References; Indices.
A call to arms for researchers to embrace their comparative intuition and combine in-depth stories with general lessons from their research.
John Boswell is Associate Professor in Politics at the University of Southampton. He is the author of The Real War on Obesity (2016). Jack Corbett is Professor of Politics at the University of Southampton. He has authored or edited of five books and more than fifty articles and book chapters. He holds honorary appointments at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, the Australian National University, and the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia. R. A. W. Rhodes is Professor of Government (Research) at the University of Southampton. He has authored or edited forty books and two hundred articles and book chapters, including Network Governance and the Differentiated Polity: Selected Essays, Volume I (2017); and Interpretive Political Science: Selected Essays, Volume II (2017). He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and Britain.
'Against those who would seek to either constrict or
suppress the comparative intuition, Boswell, Corbett, and
Rhodes make a brilliant case for an open and artful use of
comparison in the social sciences. Comparing, they show, can
be a creative act in which discovery, plausible conjecture, and
unlikely juxtaposition figure prominently. A mind-opening
perspective, colorfully presented, from which all social
scientists can learn.' Frederic Schaffer, University of
Massachusetts, Amherst
'… refreshingly honest, pragmatic and easy-to-follow, explaining
how scholars within the broad interpretive tradition can adapt
their research for comparative social science.' Marc Geddes,
European Consortium for Political Research
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