1 Research Methods:

Historical and Comparative Research

Prof. Kathrin Zippel
2 Problems with Previous Methods
z Focus on one group only
z Thus we ignore ..
- Other continents/countries/ or groups
- Potentially useful information
z Limits the questions we can answer

3 Goal of Historical & Comparative Methods

z Using Unobstrusive methods to understand the social world by making comparisons to
other times and/or other places

4 Main Difference
z Historical:
comparison over time
z Comparative: comparison across populations/countries at the same time

5 Example Democratization
Research Questions:
z Do countries with democratic forms of government have more/less inequality?

6 a) Comparative Project
Select
a) Democratic countries and
b) Undemocratic countries (for example, authoritarian, military regimes, etc.)

Measure level of social inequality

Compare inequality of both groups

7 b) Historical Project
z Choose some (recent) democratic countries
z Measure their level of inequality
z Compare: level of inequality before and after becoming democratic regimes

8 1. Historical Social Science

z Events Research
context specific but also more general phenomenon ex. Lynching
z Process Research
societal/political changes not individual, ex. environmental activity

9 2. Comparative Social Science

z Cross-sectional Comparative Research, structural not individual characteristics:
ex. Voter turnout

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 z Comparative Historical Research
ex. Democratization in Latin America

10 Examples
z Weber, Marx, Durkheim
z Barrington Moore. 1966. Origins of Democracy
z Theda Skocpol. 1985. Revolutions

11 Disciplines in Sociology
z Demography
z Stratification/Poverty
z Political
sociology
z Criminology

12 Differences to other Social Science Methods?

z Processes, long-term changes, context of events
z Examples: Democratization, religion, world trade, migration

13 What kind of Research?

z Quantitative and/or qualitative data
z Deductive and/or inductive reasoning

14 Data:
z Historicalaccounts
z Records from official archives, governments
z Records from organizations, parties, groups, associations
z Interviews: Oral histories

15 Example: Police Behavior

z Study of policy behavior in a small city.
z Who would you choose as informants?
z What information will we get from these informants?
z What would the informants know about police behavior?

16 Issues of Getting Data

z Digging out documents (archival research)
z Other languages
z Comparability of data across time/countries

17 Problem of Secondary Data Analysis

z What was it collect for?
z What are the meanings of concepts and words?

18 Secondary Data Sources

=> Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
z U.S. Bureau of the Census

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 z Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
z Other U.S. Government Sources
z International Data Sources
z Survey Datasets

19 Methods
20 1. Demography
z Populationtrends over time
z Changes in population
z migration

21 2. Content Analysis
z Use documents and texts
z For example, official publications, reports, but also newspapers from the media

22 3. Oral History
z Interviews with witnesses of a particular event or time
z Example: Documentary on Ellis Island, New York

23 Pros
z Addresses important questions that other methods can’t
z Can sometimes address causality
z Good for understanding context
z Can sometimes find causal mechanisms
z Minimal Ethical Problems

24 Cons
z Not useful for many research questions
z Difficult to test spuriousness
z Data Collection

25 Ethical Issues Historical Studies

z Avoiding embarrassment for living and/or descendents
z Disclosure of sensitive information

26 Ethical Issues for Cross-national Research

z Sensitivity to local norms, values, and ways of doing things

=> Collaboration research:

For example: Local advisory groups