Historical and Comparative Methods

Abstract

Historical and comparative methods comprise a diverse set of perspectives on and methodologies for examining temporality, including comparison, narrative, interpretive methods, and quantitative analysis. While many early sociologists used comparison implicitly, a more explicit comparative paradigm based on the work of Mill became influential in the late twentieth century for explaining historical causality. Critiques of these approaches led to a rise in narrative analyses, including process tracing and negative case analysis, which tend to emphasize process in explaining social change. Interpretive methods, including historical ethnography and oral history, provide tools for examining subjective meanings in historical context, including how they change over time. Finally, conventional quantitative methods, network methods, and content analysis can be used for formal analyses of history and structured comparison. Each methodology must be chosen to suit available data and specified carefully to avoid reification of the historical and causal dynamics under examination.