Transcript CH 11: Looking at the Past and Across Cultures

CH 11: Looking at the
Past and Across
Cultures
pp. 293-312
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WHAT IS HISTORICALCOMPARATIVE RESEARCH (HCR)?
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HCR places historical time and/or crosscultural variation at the center of analysis
HCR looks at how a specific mix of diverse
factors come together in time and place to
produce a specific outcome (e.g., war,
social movement, migration, etc.)
HCR makes “big” comparisons, of units
like nation-states, societies, cultures, to
see how they are similar and different
HCR examines the same social process
across several cultural or historical
settings
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What research questions are
suitable for HCR?
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Research questions that involve change
over time and/or two or more sociocultural
contexts
When the goal is to understand/explain
macro-level events
• e.g., a terrorist attack, a nation going to war,
sources of racism, large-scale immigration,
religious conflict, urban decay, etc.
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Do people who immigrate form
attachments to their new country or stay
connected across international borders?
Others?
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H-C research uses a blend of
research techniques
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traditional history, field research,
interviews, content analysis, existing
statistics
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H-C Research is similar to Field
Research
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They incorporate individual researcher’s
point of view as part of the research
process
They examine a great diversity of data
types (diaries, maps, official statistics,
newspapers, novels)
They focus on processes, time passage,
and sequence
They use grounded theory
They make limited generalizations
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What is Unique about HCR?
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Builds on Limited and Indirect
Evidence
Interprets the Meaning of Events in
Context
Integrates the Micro and Macro
Levels
Uses Specific and Transcultural,
Transhistorical Concepts
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Interpreting meaning of events in
context requires:
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Supracontext awareness
Coherence imposition
Capacity overestimation
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HOW TO DO A HCR RESEARCH
STUDY
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Acquire the necessary background
Conceptualize the issue
Locate and evaluate the evidence
Organize the evidence
Synthesize and develop concepts
Write the report
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RESEARCHING THE PAST
Historians and social researchers study the past in different ways
Historians:
 See collection of
historical evidence as
central goal in itself
 Interpret data in light
of other historical
events
 Are not overly
concerned about
developing theory
Social researchers:
 See collection of
historical evidence as
secondary
 Want to extend or
build theory or apply
social concepts to new
situations
 Use historical
evidence as a means
to an end – to
explain/understand
social relations
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Types of Historical Evidence
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Primary sources
Running records
Recollections
Secondary sources
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Primary sources and their limitations
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primary sources: sources created in the
past and that survived to the present
• presentism: the fallacy of looking at past
events from the point of view of today and
failing to adjust for a very different context
• ethnocentrism: as applied in comparative
research, the fallacy of looking at the
behaviors, customs, and practices of people in
other cultures narrowly from your culture’s
point of view
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Evaluating primary sources
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After locating documents, you must
evaluate them with external and
internal criticism
• external criticism: evaluating the
authenticity of primary source materials
• internal criticism: evaluating the
credibility of information in primary
source materials
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Running records and their limitations
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Running records: ongoing files or
statistical documents that an
organization such as a school,
business, hospital, or government
agency maintains over time
Limitations:
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organizations do not always maintain them
organizations do not record information
consistently over time
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Recollections and their limitations
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recollections: a person’s words or writings
about past experiences created by the
person some time after the experiences
took place
• oral history: interviews with a person about his
or her life and experiences in the past
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Limitation: because memory is imperfect,
recollections and oral histories can be
distorted pictures of the past in ways
primary sources are not
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Secondary sources and their
limitations
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secondary sources: specific studies
conducted by specialist historians who
may have spent many years studying a
narrow topic. Other researchers use these
secondary data as sources.
Limitations:
• Holes or gaps in the historical record and few
studies on your topic
• Inaccurate historical accounts
• Biased interpretations
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RESEARCH THAT COMPARES
ACROSS CULTURES
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Comparative research is as much an
orientation as a separate research
technique
The comparative orientation
improves measurement and
conceptualization
Comparative research is more
difficult, costly, and time consuming
than other research
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Galton’s Problem
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Galton’s problem: a possible mistake
when comparing variables/features
of units of analysis, in which an
association among variables or
features of two units may be due to
them both actually being part of one
large unit.
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Types of Comparative Data
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Comparative field research
Existing qualitative data
Cross-national survey research
Existing cross-national quantitative
data
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