Description
The book Comparative Area Studies (2018) laid out the distinctive features and value-added of "comparative area studies" (CAS) against the backdrop of ongoing methodological debates in the social sciences. Since that time, the editors of the first volume and other scholars doing comparative research have been exploring the scope and usefulness of the CAS framework in relation to their own work. Others have raised important questions about the epistemological flexibility of CAS and about the institutional pressures that could limit further extensions of CAS, especially given current trends in the academy.This new volume tackles these questions and showcases how CAS can accommodate a wider range of scholarship predicated on more varied methodological and epistemological principles. This includes not only contextualized comparisons of countries from different regions but also interpretive work, comparisons of sub-national units, as well as inter-regional comparisons addressing topics such as global human rights and the rise of regional powers that go beyond comparative politics (the focus of the first volume). This book also offers practical, realistic discussions of how our current institutional architecture can be adapted to support cross-regional comparative research and to better connect different area studies communities--while acknowledging the long-standing value of deep area expertise.
Table of Contents
List of ContributorsPrologue Comparative Area Studies: Implications for Institutional ArchitectureTimothy J. PowerChapter 1. Introduction Extending the Horizons of Comparative Area Studies (CAS): Analytical Heterogeneity and Organizational ChallengesPatrick Köllner, Rudra Sil, and Ariel I. AhramPart I. CAS and the Prospects for Interpretation across ContextsChapter 2. Communicating Across Contexts: How Translation Can Benefit Comparative Area StudiesErica S. Simmons and Nicholas Rush SmithChapter 3. Comparative Area Studies and Interpretivism: Towards an Interpretive-Comparative Research ApproachAnna FünfgeldPart II. How CAS Benefits, and Benefits from, Varied Strategies of Causal AnalysisChapter 4. Causal Explanation with Ideal Types: Opportunities for Comparative Area Studies Ryan SaylorChapter 5. Advancing Theory Development in Comparative Area Studies: Practical Recommendations for Evaluating the Equifinality of Causal MechanismsMarissa Brookes and Jesse Dillon SavageChapter 6. The Best of Two Worlds? Generalizing and Individualizing through Multi-Method Research in Comparative Area StudiesMatthias Basedau and David KuehnPart III. Rethinking the Sites and Spaces of ComparisonChapter 7. Crossing the Boundaries of Comparison: Comparative Area Studies and Comparative Historical AnalysisAmel AhmedChapter 8. Comparison as Ontology, Region as Concept: On the Synergies of Comparative Area StudiesErik Martinez KuhontaChapter 9. The Contextualized Comparative Sector Approach: Comparative Area Studies at the Sectoral Level of AnalysisRoselyn HsuehPart IV . CAS and the Promise of Global IRChapter 10. The Promise of Comparative Area Studies for the Study of Human RightsEileen Doherty-SilChapter 11. Revisionist (Eurasian) Powers and the West: A Comparative Area Studies Bridge between International Relations Theory and Area ExpertiseNora Fisher-OnarPart V. Organizational Challenges and Institutional Frameworks for CASChapter 12. Comparative Area Studies: Programs, Departments, Constraints, OpportunitiesSara Wallace Goodman and Thomas PepinskyChapter 13. Comparative Area Studies in the Great Brain Race: Institutional Legacies and Programmatic Innovation in the Global AgeAriel I. Ahram and Connie StovallEpilogueAmrita Narlikar
