In the post-World War II era, the emergence of 'area studies' marked a signal development in the social sciences. As the social sciences evolved methodologically, however, many dismissed area studies as favoring narrow description over general theory. Still, area studies continues to plays a key, if unacknowledged, role in bringing new data, new theories, and valuable policy-relevant insights to social sciences. In Comparative Area Studies, three leading figures in the field have gathered an international group of scholars in a volume that promises to be a landmark in a resurgent field. The book upholds two basic convictions: that intensive regional research remains indispensable to the social sciences and that this research needs to employ comparative referents from other regions to demonstrate its broader relevance. Comparative Area Studies (CAS) combines the context-specific insights from traditional area studies and the logic of cross- and inter-regional empirical research. This first book devoted to CAS explores methodological rationales and illustrative applications showing how area-based expertise can link into cutting-edge comparative analytical frameworks.

About the Author
Ariel I. Ahram is associate professor of government and international affairs in Virginia Tech's School of Public and International Affairs. Patrick Koellner is vice president of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), director of the GIGA Institute of Asian Studies, and professor of political science at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Rudra Sil is professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania where he is also SAS Director of the Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business.

Reviews
"This book offers a bold, original, and necessary statement about the dual promise of comparative area studies research: new theoretical insights of broad utility and novel understandings of particular cases from multiple world regions."-James Mahoney, Northwestern University "This volume stakes out a new and provocative position in the old debate between social science and area studies. The contributions are clear-eyed about the challenges of this style of work, but make a compelling case that it belongs in the comparativist's toolkit." - Thomas Pepinsky, Cornell University "Comparative Area Studies poses challenges that future generations of comparative research will need to confront. Researchers in the field may take issue with the balance that various authors strike between contextualization and theory, or even with whether it is possible for an integrated methodological framework to reconcile these often contradictory concerns. But anyone who grapples with the fundamental issues that the contributors address, and everyone who seeks a guide for how to design comparative research, will benefit from a close reading of this instructive collection." - Jefferey M. Sellers, University of Southern California



Book Information
ISBN 9780190846381
Author Ariel I. Ahram
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 386g
Dimensions(mm) 152mm * 231mm * 20mm