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    Comparative Method in Sociology

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    Aashana Agarwal
    This document discusses comparative methods in sociology. Comparative research tests hypotheses about relationships between variables defined on units of observation within a causal framework of space and time. Comparative sociology deals with hypotheses involving comparisons across nations or through history. The purpose is to compare "something" such as societies or characteristics through space and/or time using similar methodology for cross-national and historical studies. Some founders of comparative sociology include Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. There is debate around whether comparative sociology constitutes a distinct paradigm within the field.

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    Comparative Method in Sociology

    Uploaded by

    Aashana Agarwal
    157 views8 pages
    This document discusses comparative methods in sociology. Comparative research tests hypotheses about relationships between variables defined on units of observation within a causal framework of space and time. Comparative sociology deals with hypotheses involving comparisons across nations or through history. The purpose is to compare "something" such as societies or characteristics through space and/or time using similar methodology for cross-national and historical studies. Some founders of comparative sociology include Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. There is debate around whether comparative sociology constitutes a distinct paradigm within the field.

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    This document discusses comparative methods in sociology. Comparative research tests hypotheses about relationships between variables defined on units of observation within a causal framework of space and time. Comparative sociology deals with hypotheses involving comparisons across nations or through history. The purpose is to compare "something" such as societies or characteristics through space and/or time using similar methodology for cross-national and historical studies. Some founders of comparative sociology include Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. There is debate around whether comparative sociology constitutes a distinct paradigm within the field.

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    157 views8 pages

    Comparative Method in Sociology

    Uploaded by

    Aashana Agarwal
    This document discusses comparative methods in sociology. Comparative research tests hypotheses about relationships between variables defined on units of observation within a causal framework of space and time. Comparative sociology deals with hypotheses involving comparisons across nations or through history. The purpose is to compare "something" such as societies or characteristics through space and/or time using similar methodology for cross-national and historical studies. Some founders of comparative sociology include Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. There is debate around whether comparative sociology constitutes a distinct paradigm within the field.

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    Comparative Methods in Sociology

     
    Comparative methods – purpose

    The purpose of comparative research is, as in the case of all


    scientific research, to test hypotheses.

    Hypothesis is a statement, stipulated within a given theory, about


    the relationship between variables (constructs) defined on
    some objects (units of observation) within a causal framework
    (time and sequencing).

    In comparative sociology hypotheses deal with space and/or time.


    Space and time

    Space:
    Cross-national studies involve, explicitly or implicitly, nations
    (states, countries, societies) as units of observation and at
    least one variable is defined on the national (country, society)
    level.

    Time:
    In historical studies the same units of observations are compared
    through time
    Comparative methods

    Comparative methods refer specifically to the methodology of


    comparing “something” through space and/or time.

    Generally, comparative methods for cross-national research and


    historical research do not differ very much.
    Comparative methods and comparative sociology

    Clarification:
    Most sociology is within-country, present-time sociology.

    Comparative methods are specific in that they address


    problems inherent in cross-national and/or historical studies.

    Cross-national and/or historical studies constitute comparative


    sociology. As it will be argued comparative sociology is a sub-
    discipline of sociology as such.
    Traditions of comparative sociology

    Karl Marx (1818-1883) and his work (Capital, 1883) on


    evolutionary processes of economic systems (cross-national
    and historical).
    Max Weber (1864-1920) and his work on The Protestant Ethics
    and Spirit of Capitalism, 1905, (historical and cross-national).
    Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) and his Suicide, 1897, as an example
    of quantitative studies on nations' characteristics.

    In his Rules of Sociological Methods, 1885, Durkheim insists that


    comparative sociology is not a particular branch of sociology; it
    is sociology itself.
    Does comparative sociology constitute a paradigm ?
    “A paradigm is a fundamental image of the subject matter within
    a science. It serves to define what should be studied, what
    questions should be asked, how they should be asked, and
    what rules should be followed in interpreting the answers
    obtained.” (Ritzer, Sociology: A Multiple Paradigm Science,
    1980: 7)

    Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolution (1962)


    Comparative sociology

    Questions:
    -- what should be studied?
    -- what questions should be asked?
    -- how they should be asked?
    -- what rules should be followed?

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