Comparative research is a research methodology in the social sciences exemplified in cross-cultural or comparative studies that aims to make comparisons across different countries or cultures. A major problem in comparative research is that the data sets in different countries may define categories differently (for example by using different definitions of poverty) or may not use the same categories.
Definition
Comparative research, simply put, is the act of comparing two or more things with a view to discovering something about one or all of the things being compared. This technique often utilizes multiple disciplines in one study. When it comes to method, the majority agreement is that there is no methodology peculiar to comparative research. The multidisciplinary approach is good for the flexibility it offers, yet comparative programs do have a case to answer against the call that their research lacks a "seamless whole."
There are certainly methods that are far more common than others in comparative studies, however. Quantitative analysis is much more frequently pursued than qualitative, and this is seen by the majority of comparative studies which use quantitative data.
Secondary analysis of quantitative data is relatively widespread in comparative research, undoubtedly in part because of the cost of obtaining primary data for such large things as a country's policy environment. This study is generally aggregate data analysis. Comparing large quantities of data (especially government sourced) is prevalent. The classic case of this is Esping-Andersen's research on social welfare systems. He noticed there was a difference in types of social welfare systems, and compared them based on their level of decommodification of social welfare goods. He found that he was able to class welfare states into three types, based on their level of decommodification. He further theorized from this that decommodification was based on a combination of class coalitions and mobilization, and regime legacy.
Moreover, behind the Greek comparative gaze also was the philosophical and political questioning which characterised the life of the democratic polis. Philosophical inquiry, from the Milesians down to the Sophists, questioned the representations and the cognitive traditions of their own people; the inquiry of the traditions of other peoples was, as Herodotus’ Histories demonstrate, an activity associated with the ethos of philosophical critique that characterised democratic life in Greece. Similarly, questioning of the Greek laws and institutions and its related values and practices (e.g. isegoria and parrhesia), as part of Greek politics, is associated with the effort of the first historians to reflect on home institutions through researching those of others.
According also to Karl Deutsch, we have been using this form of investigation for over 2,000 years. Comparing things is essential to basic scientific and philosophic inquiry, which has been done for a long time. Most authors are more conservative in their estimate of how long comparative research has been with us. It is largely an empty debate over the definition of the tradition with those questioning whether comparing things counts as comparative research.
Textbooks on this form of study were beginning to appear by the 1880s, but its rise to extreme popularity began after World War II. There are numerous reasons that comparative research has come to take a place of honour in the toolbox of the social scientist. Globalization has been a major factor, increasing the desire and possibility for educational exchanges and intellectual curiosity about other cultures. Information technology has enabled greater production of quantitative data for comparison, and international communications technology has facilitated this information to be easily spread.
See also
- Analytic frame
- Comparative cultural studies
- Comparative history
- Comparative method
- Comparative mythology
- Comparative sociology
- List of comparative surveys
- Social research
- Sociological imagination