Collaborative Research: Robust and Reliable Research Workshop Proposal: Rethinking Comparison in the Social Sciences

合作研究：稳健可靠的研究研讨会提案：重新思考社会科学中的比较

• 批准号: 1713769
• 负责人: Nicholas Smith
• 金额: $ 0.83万
• 依托单位: CUNY City College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-06-01 至 2018-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1713769&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Robust; Reliable; Workshop

General AbstractComparison is an important research tool in the social sciences. Scholars make comparisons across time and place to better understand a wide range of political and social phenomena. One of the central techniques that social scientists often use is the controlled comparison, whereby scholars hold potential explanatory factors constant across different cases to help them assess their contribution to particular outcomes. This approach has been central to some of the most influential works of social science. It has helped scholars explain everything from why some countries are rich and some are poor to why some countries are democratic and some are authoritarian. Yet even as controlled comparisons have produced lasting insights, they are not the only form of comparison that scholars utilize to answer important questions about social and political life. There is little guidance, however, on how to develop and execute comparisons that do not rely on the controlled case model, and what types of insights alternative comparison models can offer. The goal of this project is to lay out just such guidelines. To do so, this project will explore two of the most fundamental questions in the study of politics: (1) how and why scholars decide on what they compare, and (2) how the methodological assumptions scholars make about why and how they compare shape the knowledge they produce. By answering these questions, the project will create new resources for future students and researchers to draw upon in their efforts to advance knowledge.Technical AbstractThis project aims to reimagine three central components of the comparative method in order to develop new logics for comparative research designs that move beyond traditional controlled comparison designs. First, it will encourage political scientists to think critically about what a case is by challenging dominant norms and encouraging scholars to think of processes, practices, meanings, and concepts as cases to be compared. Second, the project will expand the notion of what it means to compare. It aims to push scholars to conceptualize comparison as a method that includes approaches beyond controlled comparison, including greater attention to the experiences of subjects being studied and the ways those experiences re-order social worlds. Finally, the project proposes to expand the explanatory goals of comparative research by de-emphasizing variations in outcomes and opening up variations in political processes, meanings, and concepts as similarities or differences to be explained. To achieve these goals, this project will convene a workshop on comparative methods, and produce an edited volume based on contributions emerging from the workshop that will serve as a resource for scholars looking to conduct non-controlled comparisons to guide future scholars in new research directions.

一般摘要比较是社会科学中的重要研究工具。学者在时间和地点进行比较，以更好地了解广泛的政治和社会现象。社会科学家经常使用的中心技术之一是受控的比较，学者们在不同情况下保持潜在的解释因素，以帮助他们评估他们对特定结果的贡献。 这种方法对于一些最有影响力的社会科学作品至关重要。它帮助学者解释了一切，从某些国家富裕而有些国家为何到某些国家是民主而有些国家而有些是专制的一切。然而，即使受控的比较产生了持久的见解，它们并不是学者用来回答有关社会和政治生活的重要问题的唯一比较形式。但是，关于如何开发和执行不依赖受控案例模型的比较以及哪些类型的见解替代比较模型可以提供的比较几乎没有指导。该项目的目的是仅制定此类准则。为此，该项目将探讨政治研究研究中最根本的两个问题：（1）学者们如何以及为什么决定他们比较的内容，以及（2）学者如何对为什么以及如何比较形状来做出方法论假设他们产生的知识。通过回答这些问题，该项目将为未来的学生和研究人员创造新的资源，以促进知识的努力。技术抽象项目的旨在重新想象比较方法的三个中心组成部分，以开发新的逻辑，以进行比较研究设计，以便对比较研究设计设计，这些逻辑设计为这些逻辑设计，这些逻辑设计是超越传统受控比较设计。首先，它将鼓励政治科学家通过挑战主导规范，并鼓励学者将过程，实践，含义和概念视为要比较的案例，从而批判性地思考案件。其次，该项目将扩大比较含义的概念。它旨在促使学者将比较概念化为一种方法，其中包括无法受控比较的方法，包括更加关注所研究的受试者的经历以及这些经历的重新订购社会世界的方式。最后，该项目建议通过取消强调结果的变化并开放政治过程，含义和概念的变化，以扩大比较研究的解释目标，以此作为要解释的相似性或差异。为了实现这些目标，该项目将召集有关比较方法的研讨会，并根据研讨会的贡献制作了编辑卷，该卷将成为希望进行非控制比较的学者的资源，以指导未来的学者在新的研究方向上指导未来的学者。