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Trajectories ________________________________________________________________________ __ Trajectories Fall 2010 Newsletter of the ASA Comparative and Historical Sociology Section Volume 22, No. 1 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS SECTION OFFICERS From the Chair…………………………………..1 2010- 2011 Symposium: Methodological Pluralism in Compar- ative-Historical Research Katherine Stoval on Sequences……………5 Chair Paul McLean on Networks………………...10 James Mahoney Scott Boorman on Mathematical Models…14 Northwestern University Theda Skocpol Dissertation Award Winner……21 Section Award Winners………………………....22 Chair-Elect Call for Submissions, Section Awards 2011……23 Neil Fligstein Call for Submissions, Section Sessions 2011…..25 University of California -Berkeley Letter to CHS about ASA 2012 (E.O. Wright)…26 Member Publications…………………………....30 Past Chair Call for Member Information……………………33 Elisabeth Clemens University of Chicago From the Chair Secretary-Treasurer Victoria Johnson On the Virtues of Analyzing the University of Michigan Particular Council Members Greta Krippner, U Michigan (2013) James Mahoney Nina Bandelj, UC Irvine (2013) Northwestern University Isaac Martin, UC San Diego (2012) Ivan Ermakoff, U Wisconsin (2012) Question: What do nearly all of the best Ming-Cheng Lo, UC Davis (2011) works in the field of comparative and historical Jeff Haydu, UC San Diego (2011) sociology have in common (other than their high Elizabeth Onasch (Student, 2011) quality)? Answer: the analysis of particular times and places. If one goes down the list of Newsletter Editors prize-winning articles and books in the section, Emily Erikson, Yale University one finds again and again works that seek to un- Isaac Reed, University of Colorado derstand, interpret, and explain specific cases. To take just three recent and quite different exam- Webmaster ples: In her remarkable work Economists and CONTENTSRobert Jansen, University of Michigan Societies (2009), Marion Fourcade explores the CONTENTS reasons why the profession of economics turned out so differently in the United States, Britain, Trajectories Vol. 22, No.1 Fall 2010 and France. Karen Barkey‘s stunning book Em- cifically the Ottoman Empire managed to persist pire of Difference (2008) analyzes center- so long (and why it evolved in the ways that it periphery dynamics to explain the evolution and did). The book succeeds in part because of what longevity of the Ottoman Empire. And Michael it teaches us about a historically particular case. Mann‘s disturbingly illuminating study The Dark Virtue #2: The analysis of particulars gene- Side of Democracy (2005) looks at ethnic clean- rates new theory. The close engagement with sing on a case-by-case basis around the world. case material that characterizes comparative and The concern with understanding specific historical research is invaluable for concept for- places and times makes the field of comparative mation and generating new theory. While me- and historical sociology a ―case-oriented‖ enter- thods can structure an analysis, they cannot pro- prise (Ragin 1987). Unfortunately, one conse- vide concepts, orienting ideas, and hypotheses. quence of this case-oriented approach is that work These must come in part from the scholarly im- in this field is subject to the charge of generating agination, which in turn is stimulated by specific ―merely historical‖ contributions. Over the years, case knowledge and the effort to make sense of there have been many times when I have found particulars. For example, while Fourcade‘s work myself having to explain the value of research is focused on the history of the economics profes- aimed at analyzing ―particulars‖ (i.e., specific sion, it tells us something quite important about times and places). In this short essay, I summar- how American, French, and British society and ize five different responses concerning the value culture work in general. Likewise, while focused of interpreting and ex- on the Ottoman case, Barkey‘s plaining specific histori- work ends up providing a kind cal cases (the list is hard- Just as detectives and ju- of general recipe for starting ly exhaustive). These an empire and sustaining it.* answers call attention to ries can arrive at reliable It is important, also, to be the virtues of analyzing clear about the value of theory the particular—virtues inferences about particu- generation—which is some- that may not characterize lar events, so too can times assigned a secondary research that seeks to status next to theory testing. generalize broadly about comparative and histori- From the standpoint of com- trends for large popula- parative and historical re- tions of cases. cal researchers. search, the ―problem‖ of anal- Virtue #1: Know- ysis is often precisely one of ledge about particulars is valuable for its own theory generation. That is, at the onset, we lack sake. Here it is important to recognize a basic fully adequate concepts and hypotheses for inter- difference between work that grows out of the preting and explaining our cases. We therefore experimental template (including most large-N cannot work under the illusion that good theories statistical research) versus much comparative and already exist and can be mechanically applied or historical sociology. Under the experimental tested. We must, instead, reformulate existing template, the goal of the analysis is to estimate theories and create new concepts in order to make the average effect of a given treatment or variable sense of the cases under study. across a large population of cases. One attempts Virtue #3: The study of particulars in the to say something about causal effects within a past provides important lessons for the present population, not within specific cases. By con- and future. Real-life concerns and choices often trast, with comparative and historical research, the goal of the analysis is often precisely to ex- * How to start and sustain an empire: (1) begin at the plain the occurrence of specific outcomes in par- boundary of multiple subsystems, (2) use your network po- sition to establish new cultural forms at this center position, ticular cases (or to interpret the meanings of spe- (3) redistribute resources in exchange for allegiance, (4) cific events and processes in particular cases). create institutions that allow adaptability, (5) permit mul- The findings thereby generated are intrinsically tiple cultures and kinds of rule in periphery zones, (6) elim- valuable. For example, we read Barkey‘s book in inate peripheral elites that resist change and slowly incorpo- part because we want to know why and how spe- rate sympathetic elites into the center, and (7) don‘t allow periphery elites to work together. 2 Trajectories Vol. 22, No.1 Fall 2010 involve assessments about processes whose out- Virtue #5: We may be able to do a better job comes are driven by the complex intersection of of explaining outcomes in particular cases than multiple events and actors. Empirical studies that generalizing about average causal effects for focus on the net effects of single variables may large populations of cases. Although well- not be useful for choosing wisely when con- designed experiments can do an excellent job of fronted with such processes. Comparative and estimating the average effect of a treatment with- historical studies that examine past trajectories in a large population of cases, studies that must involving this complex intermeshing of separately rely on observational data are fraught with prob- determined processes may provide more insight. lems related to correctly specifying the causal For example, although Mann‘s book is focused model. Comparative and historical studies avoid on explaining specific cases, he provides much certain obstacles by focusing the research goal on useful advice for thinking about how past explaining or interpreting particular cases (rather processes of genocide will (and will not) continue than generalizing about average causal effects). into the future. He ends up concluding that near- Just as detectives and juries can arrive at reliable ly all future genocides will occur in the Global inferences about particular events, so too can South. Consequently, policy needs to be directed comparative and historical researchers. In fact, at poorer parts of the world, not at the societies in many of the methods used by comparative and the Global North that have historically been the historical researchers have more in common with location of genocides. Mann‘s account also gene- detective work than laboratory experiments. Here rates some specific policy recommendations to is not the place to spell out these methods. But avoid the murderous history of the North. At the the point remains that inferences about patterns in top of his list is the creation of a World Criminal particulars are often more reliable than inferences Court with full U.S. backing, which, while per- about average effects in populations using obser- haps unlikely, would go along way toward pre- vation data. venting the most atrocious violence. *********** Virtue #4: The study of particulars in the Finally, a few notes about the section: Our past provides normative lessons for the present. financial status is quite good, due to the excellent As legal scholars are well aware, general norma- management of our secretary-treasurer, Victoria tive principles about what is right and wrong are Johnson, and to the judicious use of funds by our often derived from the analysis of specific in- past-chair, Elisabeth Clemens. We hope to use stances—i.e., new cases generate new principles. some of the existing money for a special recep- Comparative and historical researchers routinely tion at ASA 2011 in Chicago. Our section mem- develop arguments from past cases that are rele- bership is slightly down (668 members by last vant to political and normative evaluation in the count), but so is membership for nearly all sec- present. For example, Fourcade‘s analysis of tions. Nina Bandelj and Isaac Martin are heading economists leads to a more profound normative up a committee to boost our numbers (my thanks conclusion than the familiar critique that econom- to both of them).
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