Comparative Sociology as an

Inquiry and as a Teaching

Discipline: An Attempt of

Comparative Analysis

Andrey V. Rezaev

Professor and Chair, Comparative Sociology,

St. Petersburg State University, Russia

anrezaev@yandex.ru

XVIII ISA World Congress, Research Committee on Sociology of Migration, RC 31

Yokohama, Japan, July 17, 2014

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 allcomparative researchers” (Concise Encyclopedia of Comparative Sociology. (2014) Masamichi Sasaki, Jack Goldstone, EkkartZimmermann(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

inquiryContent 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

Sotsiologich

eskiye

issledovaniy

a

Number of

articles

published in

2013/12/10

37 articles

130 reviews

44 articles 34 articles

25 reviews

22 articles (18

in French, 4 –

English

translations of

articles

already

published)

47 reviews

24 article 62 articles 231 articles

22 reviews

Average number

of `pages of

article published

in 2013/12/10

39,4 for article

2,6 for review

24,9 for article 20,2 for article

2,6 for article

for review

30,1 for article

3,1 for review

23,7 for article 21,6 for article 7,4 for article

3,4 for article

Average number

of thousands of

symbols in the

article in

2013/12/10

105 for article

7 for review

104 for article 59 for article

10 for review

96 for article

13 for review

85 for article ___ 16 for article

9 for review

Number of

articles that meet

the search

conditions

22 articles

24 reviews

62 articles 21 article

8 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 article

3 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.

France

Comparative sociology is not mentioned.

Comparative historical sociology is mentioned once with reference to Max Weber.

The most popular specification of comparisons is cross-national / country.

Comparison is regularly used in relations to terms and categories, in particular to their comparability.

In generally, comparison is more peripheral then, for example, in Germany and China.

Germany

The most popular specification is cross-national comparison (internationalenVergleigh ) 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 taught

2. research interests of lecturers/instructors

3. 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 Universities

USA 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; UniversitätBielefeld; 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.

OR

Hypothesis: 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.

“The disappearance of the

term will mean either the

great success or the great

failure of this critique”. (I. Wallerstein).

Thank you for your

attention!