Ideal-type Approach Research Articles

Whose side are you on? Balancing impartiality and proximity in the study of civil wars

ABSTRACT When conducting research and fieldwork on civil war, it is not only challenging to remain impartial or get physically and emotionally close to conflict participants, but it is especially difficult to do both, given that more of one often requires – or leads to – less of the other. We present the theoretical and practical tensions between impartiality and proximity and introduce three ideal-type approaches that scholars utilise in response: avoiding proximity, shunning impartiality, or eschewing both. Each of these approaches to mitigate the tension between impartiality and proximity possesses different – and often complementary – strengths and weaknesses. Despite the challenges it brings, we use our own experiences studying civil wars in Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa to demonstrate the plausibility and benefits of a fourth approach – proximate impartiality – which navigates this tension head on. We then spell out how proximate, impartial research can be successfully executed across different phases of the research process. We conclude by offering a blueprint for a methodologically pluralistic community to generate a more comprehensive understanding of political outcomes than any homogenising approach could yield.

Phenomenology of Somatization in Immigrants: An Idealtypical Approach

Introduction: Somatization in immigrants is frequent but standard studies do not differentiate between various forms of somatization. In this qualitative study, we used an idealtypical approach with the aim of phenomenologically differentiating between different forms of somatization in immigrants. Methods: The clinical description of the ideal types was based on seven levels: medical examination; description of somatization symptoms; the patients’ own interpretation of their somatic experience; concomitant psychopathological phenomena; genetic understanding; clinician’s interpretation; and course and treatment. Results: Five different ideal typologies of patients emerged: anxious hypochondriasis, somatization with cultural features playing a pathogenetic role, culturally shaped somatization (through pathoplastic effects), somatization as part of adjustment reactions due to migratory living difficulties, and somatization as post-traumatic reaction. Conclusion: These differences are useful to highlight the complex interrelationship between socioeconomic, migratory, cultural, and value factors in the construction of somatization among immigrants. Implications for research methodology, nosology, clinical management, and organization of medical facilities are also discussed.

Ideal Type and Essential Type — They Need Each Other

In light of the ongoing validity crisis in psychiatric classification, phenomenologically oriented psychiatric study has gained traction. This paper assesses two modes of investigation proposed by phenomenologists in studying mental disorders: the ideal type approach and the essential type approach. Despite the recent suggestion that they are antithetical approaches, I argue that they should constantly constrain and inform each other. In short, I advance a mutual complementarity thesis. Having established this thesis, I conclude by demonstrating how this proposal can function as an heuristic strategy for effectively facilitating the recently proposed psychiatric research initiative, i.e. the ontological project of phenomenological psychopathology.

Experimentation in Qualitative Organization Research: Determinacy and Indeterminacy Through Walking Ethnography

The current article explores walking ethnography as a mode of qualitative experimentation in organizational scholarship. Walking ethnographies allow researchers to experience the field in embodied ways that reflect the fluidity and unpredictability of contemporary organizational spaces. We identify and compare two ideal-typical approaches to open, ethnographic experimentation, involving a generative tension between determinacy and indeterminacy: pragmatist (inquiry-oriented) and phenocritical (drift-oriented) experimentation. These experimental forms replace the logic of confirmation of quantitative experimentation with a logic of consequences or critique. We examine how each mode of qualitative experimentation offers a unique relation to knowledge and experience. From our field work, relying on 30 discrete walking ethnographies of entrepreneurship and innovation spaces conducted between 2016 and 2020, we develop a taxonomy of eight modalities of inquiry-dérive encounters to better understand the experiential aspects appearing in moments of experimentation. By doing so, we show how qualitative research can rediscover the potentials of qualitative experimentation as a methodological impulse, particularly in the context of contemporary modes of organizing. We discuss methodological implications for the renewal of qualitative research on the basis of public experimentation and “radical openness” in research practices.

Governing the COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia: Shifting Capacity under a Fragmented Political Leadership

Drawing on a variety of material—mass and social media texts, government reports, and everyday observations—this article examines two interrelated dynamics in Malaysia in 2020–2021: the COVID-19 pandemic's unfolding local trajectory and the short-lived Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition's governance capacity. Despite political instability resulting from this government's rise to power following internal political manouevrings, it managed to e ectively control a major wave of cases with the help of a centralized healthcare system manned by permanent professional sta and the imposition of coercive measures. Thus, Malaysia's success in "governing" the early phase of the pandemic is arguably attributable to its strong state infrastructure, notwithstanding the untimely unfolding of this political coup. However, an ideal type approach—that is, concern with state capacity—is inadequate in making sense of subsequent failures to control the pandemic after a state election took place several months later. Using Migdal's "state-in-society" approach, this article focuses on the political process of pandemic governance to shed light on Malaysia's shifting state capabilities. Arguably, the resulting shifting responses were mainly shaped by: (1) continuous partisanship; (2) PN's internal fragmentation; (3) PN's complacency in initially "flattening the curve"; and (4) poor governance during the state election.

Riding the Eurosceptic tiger vs taming it by technocracy: the UK and France as two ideal types of how to manage hard Euroscepticism

ABSTRACT This article provides a Weberian ideal-type framework to capture elite strategies for managing hard Euroscepticism and their consequences for EU disintegration. It does so by drawing on policy evolution theory to conceptualise two ideal types representing contrasting strategies: taming Euroscepticism by technocratic adaptation or embracing it. This framework is used to analyse empirical examples that match these two ideal-type approaches respectively: France and the UK between 2004 and 17. The use of this framework is a novel way of explaining the evolution and differences between elite French and UK responses to hard Euroscepticism by showing how and why French EU policy remained intra-paradigmatic as compared to the paradigm shift of Brexit. This approach allows for a better understanding of the process and probability of EU disintegration by linking the latter to strategic policy choices. In a UK context, it also offers a way to anticipate the signals leading to a reversal of disintegration.

Beyond the Partnership Paradigm: Toward an Extended Typology of Government/Nonprofit Relationship Patterns

This article takes a fresh look at nonprofit/government relations in the context of both the partnership literature on collaboration and the closing space literature on repression. Following the Weberian ideal-type approach, we develop a heuristic tool for nuanced analyses of relations between the sectors in comparative research that is applicable in diverse political regime settings. We integrate foundational conceptions of Salamon, Young, and Najam to develop our framework, which we then illustrate with the cases of Russia and China. While repression is not necessarily the predominant characteristic of nonprofit–government relations in authoritarian regime settings, the reduction of intersectoral relations to collaboration strategies common in Western contexts also falls short of capturing the full complexity of the relationship. Rather than trying to establish national patterns, researchers need to remain sensitive to the coexistence of multiple government/nonprofit relationship types, affecting various parts of the nonprofit sector differently.

Servant leadership behavior

This research is based on the reality of the high leadership achievements of the participants of the Supervisory Leadership Training (PKP) of the Human Resources Development Agency (BPSDM) of DKI Jakarta Province in 2020 and the length of change in one's leadership. This study aims to describe the servant leadership behavior of the alumni of Supervisory Leadership Training. This research departs from the perspective that leadership behavior is formed through social processes. The theory used as an analytical tool and to explain the leadership behavior of PKP alumni is the theory of social practice from Pierre Bourdieu. According to this theory, leadership behavior depends on the habitus, capital and arena of leaders. This qualitative research categorized as a case study was conducted on 19 purposively selected PKP alumni informants of the 2nd generation. Data were collected by written interview and analyzed by ideal type approach. Field findings show that the leadership behavior of alumni varies depending on the habitus formed, the capital they have and the arena that surrounds them. In conclusion, the informants have behaviors that are in accordance with the characteristics of servant leadership. Informants have a new leadership habitus and a confirmed habitus of the existing leadership practice. The informants also have a variety of capital in the form of social, cultural, economic and symbolic capital. Finally, there are two kinds of arenas owned by the informants, namely the arena of the Official Responsible for Technical Activities (PPTK) and the arena of the Budget User Authority (KPA). As a recommendation, this research is continued with a phenomenological approach to dig deeper into leadership serving the informants.

Competing Ontologies: A Redux Primer for Public Administration

Over the last decade, a growing number of public administration theorists have taken up the question of how ontology—assumptions about the nature of existence—shapes our understanding of governance. This substantially updated primer, originally published in Public Administration Review, introduces the essay, provides a basic explanation of ontology, describes the fundamental debates in philosophies of ontology, and discusses why ontology is important to social and political theory and therefore public administration theory and practice. Using an ideal-type approach grounded in differing ontological assumptions, a Governance Typology is provided to support analysis of differing public administration theories. An integrative approach to governance is offered that is grounded in relational process ontology—a foundation that may support a viable synthesis of the other four primary ideal-types. The essay concludes with a call for personal reflection on the part of scholars and practitioners regarding their own ontological commitments and an invitation to collaborative inquiry.

Older workers imagining retirement: the collapse of agency, or freedom at last?

AbstractImages of what retirement is and ought to be are changing. Older workers are being encouraged to work for longer, at the same time, older adults increasingly voice expectations of a ‘third age’ of active engagement and new life prospects. In this article, we draw on the literature on older workers’ work patterns and retirement transitions (noting push/pull/stay/stuck/jump factors), and on scholarship on the changing social meaning of old age, most importantly the notions of a ‘third’ and ‘fourth’ age. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with 28 employees in the private sector in Norway, aged between 55 and 66 years. Based on the interviews, we propose three ideal-typical approaches to the work–retirement transition: ‘the logic of deadline’, ‘the logic of negotiation’ and ‘the logic of averting retirement’. The ideal-types are defined by the degree to which informants assume agency in the workplace, their orientation towards work versus retirement and the degree to which they expect to exercise agency in retirement. We emphasise how retirement decisions are informed by notions of the meaning of ageing, while also embedded in relationships with employers and partners.

Interpreting the Sustainable Development Goals through the Perspectives of Utopia and Governance

The article analyses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the perspective of their self-understanding of political sense expressed in key SDG documents, including both UN documents and reports produced by individual countries. Utopia and governance are presented as ideal-typical approaches and analytical tools for qualitative content analysis. This approach is argued to be particularly illuminating in the case of politics of international development, as international development is simultaneously highly utopian and deeply embedded in rationalities of governance. As this analytical framework is applied to the SDGs, it is shown that their utopian pronouncements are related to the idea of humanity as a single subject, as well as inclusive prosperity. On the other hand, the SDGs are curtailed by adherence to the ideas of contemporary governance, the international order and given ideas of development economics. The findings and the methodology are then further discussed in the broader context of international development.

Improving public policy and administration: exploring the potential of design

In recent years, design approaches to policymaking have gained popularity among policymakers. However, a critical reflection on their added value and on how contemporary ‘design-thinking’ approaches relates to the classical idea of public administration as a design science, is still lacking. This introductory paper reflects upon the use of design approaches in public administration. We delve into the more traditional ideas of design as launched by Simon and policy design, but also into the present-day design wave, stemming from traditional design sciences. Based upon this we distinguish between three ideal-type approaches of design currently characterising the discipline: design as optimisation, design as exploration and design as co-creation. More rigorous empirical analyses of applications of these approaches is necessary to further develop public administration as a design science. We reflect upon the question of how a more designerly way of thinking can help to improve public administration and public policy.

Parents’ ideal type approaches to early education pathways: life stories from Sweden.

In this study, parents told their story about their children; their children’s preschool and preschool class; their children’s educational transitions; and their own cooperation with staff. The views of parents (N=27) were collected by way of life story interviews. The bioecological model for human development was adopted as a theoretical, conceptual and analytical frame. A qualitative bioecological content analysis and a quantitative content analysis were performed. More than half of the children were described as typical in terms of development, while a few were described as being gifted and talented by their parents, and about a third had special educational needs. More preschools than preschool classes were considered to be high in quality, and more preschool-home collaboration than preschool class-home collaboration was felt to be high in quality. The following ideal type approaches of the parents emerged: (1) involved and concerned parents; (2) involved but unconcerned parents; and (3) uninvolved and unconcerned parents. The number of involved and concerned parents increased from preschool to preschool class. This study has relevance for preschool and preschool class teachers, special educators, policy-makers and researchers in inclusive and special education.

Inclusiveness of Parental-Leave Benefits in Twenty-One European Countries: Measuring Social and Gender Inequalities in Leave Eligibility

AbstractThis article analyzes eligibility for parental-leave benefits in twenty-one European countries. It distinguishes four ideal-type approaches to how leave-related benefits are granted (in-)dependent of parents’ labor market position: universal parenthood model, selective parenthood model, universal adult-worker model, and selective adult-worker model. An eligibility index is created to measure the inclusiveness of parental-leave benefits, alongside the degree of (de-)gendered entitlements. The importance of employment-based benefits and gender-sensitive policies increased between 2006 and 2017. Eligibility criteria remained stable, but due to labor market trends, such as increasing precariousness, fewer parents may fulfill the conditions for employment-based benefits.

Eating and drinking in Global Brooklyn

ABSTRACTThis essay proposes an analytical framework for studying the emergent cultural formation around eating and drinking that we call Global Brooklyn. It is a recurring, vaguely codified set of material objects, environments, practices, and discourses which materialize in cities throughout the world in coffee places, restaurants, and food halls. Taking an ideal type approach, we describe: (1) the designed materialities of rugged postindustrial settings; (2) a shift in taste judgements; (3) the role of digital and visual communication in creating and sharing experiences and values; (4) a knowledge-intensive aspect of practices and strategies of actors; and (5) appeals to an ethos of authenticity and craft that celebrates manual labor. The essay aims at bridging food studies with food design through a closer engagement with material culture in objects and spaces.

법정협회의 유형에 관한 연구 : 퍼지셋 이상형 분석을 적용하여

법정협회의 유형에 관한 연구 : 퍼지셋 이상형 분석을 적용하여

DEVELOPING AN IDEAL-TYPICAL APPROACH TO SOCIAL WORK AS A PROFESSION

According to the global definition (IFSW, 2014), social work is a profession. Since the second half of the twentieth century, however, the meaning of professionalism has become blurred and its practices have been criticized fiercely. In order to understand, appreciate and strengthen social work as a profession, a sociological equivalent of positive psychology might be needed. Such a positive sociology (Stebbins, 2009) of professionalism would focus unequivocally on its meaningful and valuable potential. In this respect, Freidson’s (2001) ideal-typical approach of professionalism is quite promising. Its outcome does not fully meet Weber’s (1904, 1913, 1922) criteria for an idealtypical construction, though. This article argues that it is impossible to develop a solid scientific ideal type of professionalism based on a power perspective, as tried by Freidson (2001). A value perspective opens up a more promising approach for strengthening social work as a profession.

Du télé-spectateur au télé-visionneur, saison 2 : pour une approche idéaltypique des consommateurs de séries télévisées

Cette contribution analyse les pratiques de consommation des series televisees d’une population de 22 etudiants en audiovisuel afin de mettre a l’epreuve des profils idealtypiques de consommateurs de series televisees tels qu’ils ont ete formalises dans un travail de modelisation des modes de visionnage des contenus televisuels (Perticoz & Dessinges, 2015). Nos resultats, presentes a l’appui d’une methodologie experimentale en trois volets, mettent l’accent sur les modalites de visionnage multi-ecrans, les formes plus ou moins grandes d’affranchissement vis-a-vis des grilles de programmes et la diversite des modes d’appropriation des objets seriels (du visionnage a l’eventuelle creation de contenus originaux). Nos conclusions mettent au jour et nuancent la pluralite de modes de constitution de cultures serielles toujours plus desynchronises/delinearises, cumulatifs et fragmentes.

Adapting or Freezing? Ideological Reactions of Communist Regimes to a Post-Communist World

AbstractThis article studies the ideological reactions of communist regimes to the advent of a post-communist world. It examines two cases of reformed communist regimes (China and Vietnam) with two relatively unreformed cases (North Korea and Cuba) to understand different legitimation strategies employed during and after the downfall of the Soviet Union. Theoretically, the article compares two ideal-type approaches to ideology in autocratic regimes. The first approach emphasizes semantic ‘freezing’ over time. The consistency and coherence of ideology is underlined. The second approach argues that the success of an ideology lies in its ability to be a dynamic, adaptive force that can react with changing circumstances. Four parameters help to distinguish the freeze-frame end from the adaptation pole: (1) the autonomy over semantic changes, (2) the timing, (3) the velocity and (4) the distance that an ideology moves. Using qualitative case-based analysis that is enriched with quantitative text analysis of communist party documents, this article compares these contending conceptions of ideology with each other in the four cases. Sharing similar starting conditions in the 1970s, the article shows how China and Vietnam harnessed a flexible legitimation strategy while North Korea and Cuba adopted a comparatively rigid legitimation approach.

Strange bedfellows: Federal systems and performance management

ABSTRACTThis paper offers the first link between models of the measurement and management of performance and the dimensions of governance arrangements in federal systems. Four ideal type approaches to governance in federal systems are correlated against four ideal types of measuring and managing performance. The paper develops a model that will support empirical research examining reform trajectories where evolving systems of federalism require evolving systems to manage performance in joint arrangements between levels of government.