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In the post-World War II era, the emergence of ‘area studies’ marked a signal development in the social sciences. As the social sciences evolved methodologically, however, many dismissed area studies as favoring narrow description over general theory. Still, area studies continues to plays a key, if unacknowledged, role in bringing new data, new theories, and valuable policy-relevant insights to social sciences. In Comparative Area Studies, three leading figures in the field have gathered an international group of scholars in a volume that promises to be a landmark in a resurgent field. The book upholds two basic convictions: that intensive regional research remains indispensable to the social sciences and that this research needs to employ comparative referents from other regions to demonstrate its broader relevance. Comparative Area Studies (CAS) combines the context-specific insights from traditional area studies and the logic of cross- and inter-regional empirical research. This first book devoted to CAS explores methodological rationales and illustrative applications showing how area-based expertise can link into cutting-edge comparative analytical frameworks.
- Discusses the methodological and epistemological orientations of Comparative Area Studies
- Bridges the gap between the specificity of area studies scholarship and the social scientific quest for general theory
- Demonstrates how cross-regional comparisons can shed new light on a range of important topics such as protests and rebellions, anti-corruption campaigns, resource booms, institutional change, and the organization of production
- Incoporates past comparative research to build a diverse and cross-regional analysis that appeals to both social scientists and area studies’ communities
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