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Challenges for Comparative Social Research

The Academy of Finland

The comparative study of nations and countries has been built on the notion that causal inferences in the field should approximate the design of natural science expenments. It seems fair to say, however, that there is not a single social science comparative study which has succeeded many strict manner in complyingwith the rulesof scientific experiments and the canons of John Stuart Mill. The attempts to base comparative sociology on a quantitative tradition with roots in the rules forscientific expenments have nevertheless been fruitful in the sense that they have helped to raise and formulate many core problems of comparative research. Yet, the time is ripe for realizing that most comparative studies would greatly profit from a combined quantitative and qualitative approach It is generally assumed that the qualitative study is best at the explorative stage of a project and that it ought to be followed by a more strict quantitative study In the light of expenence from many comparative studies it is reasonable to argue that it is the other way around and that quantitative analysis usually is at its best at the explorative stage whereas a qualitative- oriented analysis provides the final insight and understandmg The need for a reversal of the order of the two kinds of approach is not a purely methodological issue. The call for quantitative, comparative research proliferated at a time when internationalization and the integration of single countnes into bigger units appeared to be not only politically salient but also humane goals. Today the preservation of the nationally and ethnically unique in the midst of hom ogenizing and uniformizing international tendencies has at least in small coun tries become not only politically but also humanely important.

Acta Sociologica, Vol. 33, No. 3, 183-193 (1990)
DOI: 10.1177/000169939003300302


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