An Inquiry into Comparative Sociology as a Science and Teaching Discipline: Comparative Analysis of Six Cases:

USA, Germany, France, Britain, China, and Russia

Andrey V. Rezaev

Professor and Chair, Comparative Sociology,

St. Petersburg State University, Russia

anrezaev@yandex.ru

85th Annual Meeting Eastern Sociological SocietyNew York, USA, February 28, 2015

Concise Encyclopedia of Comparative Sociology. (2014) Masamichi Sasaki, Jack Goldstone, Ekkart Zimmermann(Eds.), Brill: Leiden&Boston, p.xi

http://comparsociology.com/en/

Web-site designed by the PhD students and young scholars at the Comparative Sociology Chair, St. Petersburg State University

Overview

1. Objectives and Goals

2. Basic definitions and understanding of Comparative Sociology

3. Six cases

• “Sociology's founding fathers were all comparative researchers” (Concise Encyclopedia of Comparative Sociology. (2014) Masamichi Sasaki, Jack Goldstone, Ekkart Zimmermann(Eds.), Brill: Leiden&Boston, p.xi).

• “To some scholars, the term “comparative sociological

research” is strictly limited to comparisons of social indicators and institutions across nations (also known as “cross-national research”), but other scholars prefer to widen the scope to include comparison of many different types of social and/or cultural entities, while yet others use the term to encompass comparisons of subcultures or other social substrata either within or across nation-states or other cultural and social entities and their boundaries” (Ibid., p.xii).

• “The ultimate aim of comparative sociological research is to develop concepts and generalizations based upon identified similarities and differences among the social entities being compared” (Ibid., p. xii).

Compare:

“It is generally recognized that Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emil Durkheim are the patriarchs of sociology; the same thinkers are considered to be the founding fathers of comparative sociology” (p. 13). “Comparative sociological research is about developing approach to find out similarities and differences among the social structures, institutions, and processes” (p. 2).

(2014) Rezaev Andrey (Ed.) Comparative Sociology. St. Petersburg State University Press,

Approaches to Comparative Sociology:

•Comparative Sociology as a branch / subfield of Sociology.

•Comparative Sociology as a method.

A third way of understanding Comparative Sociology :

•Comparative Sociology is an Ideal Type of Sociology

•Comparative Sociology is a Process

•Comparative Sociology is a Critique

Sociology as such is potentially comparative. But this potential is realized quite differently.

“Method-centric” approach: Comparative Sociology is a subfield of sociology / synonym of Comparative Method.

Our position emphasizes the central place of the research question.

It is the research-questions-centric position

Comparative sociological research as a process of comparisons on every level and stage of the sociological research.

“Research-questions-centric” approach: an answer to the research question is nothing but material for a new set of research questions.

“Comparative sociology is not a field, but a critique of whatever seems narrow and reductionist in sociology” (I. Wallerstein).

The problems of teaching•Research implies continuous and permanent comparisons WHILE the teaching courses dissolve them into separate problems and operations.

•Comparative sociologist is critical towards preconditions and results WHILE education presupposes above all learning of these preconditions.

•Comparative sociology is an ideal type of sociology WHILE contemporary differentiation of knowledge and ‘departamentalization’ substitutes it with multiple sociological branches and subfields.

• Hypothesis: CS is acknowledged by sociologists and social scientists in general but the reality of teaching sociology doesn’t follow this acknowledgment.

• Hypothesis: Presence / absence and the character of the gap between CS as an inquiry and teaching discipline depend on national specifics in organization of sociological education.

OR• Hypothesis: The gap is universal and transcends

national features of institutionalization of sociology.

Comparative sociology as an inquiry

Content analysis of national sociological journals Databases:•Jstor.org•elibrary.ru•oversea.cnki.net•zfs-online.org Search conditions: •time of publication — 2000-2012/3/4 (depending on access); •words: “comparison” / “comparative” and their equivalents; •location: title or abstract.

Case Journal Words

USA American Journal of Sociology; American Sociological Review

Comparison, comparative

Britain The British Journal of Sociology

Comparison, comparative

France Revue française de sociologie (French Review of Soiology)

Comparaison, comparatif, comparative; comparison, comparative (for English

articles)

Germany Zeitschrift fur Soziologie (Journal of Sociology)

Vergleigh, vergleichend; Komparation, komparativ, comparison, comparative

(for English articles)

China Shèhuì xué yánjiū (Sociological Studies)

Bǐjiào

Russia Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya (Sociological Research)

Sravneniye, sravnitel'nyy

American Journal of Sociology

American Sociological Review

The British Journal of Sociology

Revue française de sociologie

Zeitschrift fur Soziologie

Shèhuì xué yánjiū

Sotsiologicheskiye issledovaniya

Number of articles published in 2013/12/10

37 articles130 reviews

44 articles 34 articles25 reviews

22 articles (18 in French, 4 – English translations of articles already published)47 reviews

24 article 62 articles

231 articles22 reviews

Average number of `pages of article published in 2013/12/10

39,4 for article2,6 for review

24,9 for article

20,2 for article2,6 for article for review

30,1 for article3,1 for review

23,7 for article

21,6 for article

7,4 for article3,4 for article

Average number of thousands of symbols in the article in 2013/12/10

105 for article7 for review

104 for article

59 for article10 for review

96 for article13 for review

85 for article ___ 16 for article9 for review

Number of articles that meet the search conditions

22 articles24 reviews

62 articles 21 article8 reviews

34 articles (29 in French, 5 – English translations of articles already published)4 reviews

31 article (30 in Deutsch, 1 in English)

62 article 69 article3 reviews

USA

The most popular specification of comparison is cross-national / cross-country.Distinctive subfields of comparative social science based on comparison are comparative history, comparative law, comparative social policy. For comparative mobility research; race, class and gender studies comparative perspective is determined by the topicThe notion Comparative sociology is mentioned several times.

Comparative sociology is a marginal notion but it has a wide range of meaning.

UK

The general usage of the term “comparative” is very similar to those in American journals.

Cross-national and historical comparative analyses are almost equally represented.

Comparison of theories is mentioned more often, but anyway episodically.

Germany

The most popular specification is cross-national comparison (internationalen Vergleigh ) or country comparison (Landervergleigh). Comparison of groups is widespread, especially during statistical analysis, and also comparison of indicators and coefficients. Comparison is often in relation to concepts of theories, based both on conceptual analysis and on empirical testing. Comparative sociology is not mentioned.

China

The most popular term is equivalent to comparative study / research, often as comparative study of several cases or comparative case study.

The terms comparative history and comparative policy studies are used.

Comparative sociology is not mentioned.

Russia

Russian publications are significantly less voluminous because research is described in a less strict and developed manner in all aspects: literature review, research design, methods, discussion, references

The articles provide reflections of several topic illustrated the theoretical or / and empirical data, not the sociological research in a strict sense.

• comparative sociology is not a subfield

• comparative sociology is not a method

• comparative sociology could be regarded as an ideal type of sociology

• comparative sociology is a process

• comparative sociology is critical

Comparative sociology as a teaching discipline

Analysis of Comparative Sociology as a teaching discipline is based on characteristics of 1.courses taught2.research interests of lecturers/instructors3.research centers of sociology / social science departments of ten universities for each case. The search for each university is limited by corresponding department / faculty. There were selected universities that are on the top in the national rankings (social sciences).

Case UniversitiesUSA Harvard; Stanford; Berkeley; Upenn; Uchicago; UCLA; Princeton; MIT; Duke; Yale

Britain University of Cambridge; Warwick University; The University of Manchester; University of Essex; University of Edinburgh; University of Bristol; University of Oxford; University of Sheffield; Cardiff University; London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

France HEC Paris; Sciences Po Paris; Paris-Sorbonne University; Jean Moulin University Lyon (1 and 3); Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis; Université de Strasbourg; University of Paris 4 - Sorbonne; University of Lille 1; University of Lille 3; Paris West University Nanterre La Défense

Germany Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Universität Bielefeld; Universität zu Köln; Universität Hamburg; Universität Bremen; Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main; Universität Tübingen; Freie Universität Berlin; University of Mannheim

Russia MSU; SPbSU; NSU; TSU; SFU; KSU; RUDN; HSE; RGSU; UrFU

China Peking University; Tsinghua University; Fudan University; Xiamen University; Zhejiang University; Beijing Normal University; Renmin (People’s) University of China; Nanjing University; Sun Yat-sen University; Wuhan University

The majority of courses is taught for students enrolled to the graduate. The dominant formulations are comparative methods and comparative perspectives.

Contradiction with instructor’s research interests that are posed more generally.

•USA case is the most indicative. American universities provide 115 courses / seminars in total connected with a field of comparative sociology. •British case is close to American one but is smaller in numbers.•French case demonstrates the gap between comparative sociology as an inquiry and as a teaching discipline in a most vivid way.•German case demonstrates similar characteristics through national specifics.•In China no one of ten universities has comparative sociology as separate course•For Russian case division between levels of education is less important; however, general typology of comparative method – comparative perspective courses is in evidence.

Hypothesis: CS is acknowledged by sociologists and social scientists in general but the reality of teaching sociology doesn’t follow this acknowledgment.

Hypothesis: Presence / absence and the character of the gap between CS as an inquiry and teaching discipline depend on national specifics of institutional framework.

ORHypothesis: The gap is universal and

transcends national features of institutionalization of sociology.

Some proposals1. Foster research in teams and teamwork in

audience in BA and MA programs.2. Focus on teaching mixed methods research as

approaching comparative sociology.3. Increase quality and quantity of courses of

research methodology.4. Develop research comparative sociology centers

affiliated and interaction with sociology / social science departments.

5. Develop cross- and trans-university, -regional and -national interactions.

6. Continue discussion of the issues on comparative sociology at the International Forums.

“Comparative sociology has thus always represented a number of vectors simultaneously: anti-ethnocentriesm (see also world-system), interest in the macro levels, and interest in complex structures, hence interest in historical detail. Comparative sociology is not a field, but a critique of whateve seems narrow and reductionist in sociology. The disappearance of the term will mean either the great success or the great failure of this critique”.

(I. Wallerstein).

www.comparsociology.com