Advancing Comparative Area Studies
Analytical Heterogeneity and Organizational Challenges
Published on 30. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
376 pages
978-0-19-780937-2 (ISBN)
Description
The book Comparative Area Studies (2018) laid out the distinctive features and value-added of "comparative area studies" (CAS) against the backdrop of ongoing methodological debates in the social sciences. Since that time, the editors of the first volume and other scholars doing comparative research have been exploring the scope and usefulness of the CAS framework in relation to their own work. Others have raised important questions about the epistemological flexibility of CAS and about the institutional pressures that could limit further extensions of CAS, especially given current trends in the academy.
This new volume tackles these questions and showcases how CAS can accommodate a wider range of scholarship predicated on more varied methodological and epistemological principles. This includes not only contextualized comparisons of countries from different regions but also interpretive work, comparisons of sub-national units, as well as inter-regional comparisons addressing topics such as global human rights and the rise of regional powers that go beyond comparative politics (the focus of the first volume). This book also offers practical, realistic discussions of how our current institutional architecture can be adapted to support cross-regional comparative research and to better connect different area studies communities--while acknowledging the long-standing value of deep area expertise.
This new volume tackles these questions and showcases how CAS can accommodate a wider range of scholarship predicated on more varied methodological and epistemological principles. This includes not only contextualized comparisons of countries from different regions but also interpretive work, comparisons of sub-national units, as well as inter-regional comparisons addressing topics such as global human rights and the rise of regional powers that go beyond comparative politics (the focus of the first volume). This book also offers practical, realistic discussions of how our current institutional architecture can be adapted to support cross-regional comparative research and to better connect different area studies communities--while acknowledging the long-standing value of deep area expertise.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
482 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-780937-2 (9780197809372)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Ariel I. Ahram | Patrick Koellner | Rudra Sil
Advancing Comparative Area Studies
Analytical Heterogeneity and Organizational Challenges
Book
07/2025
Oxford University Press Inc
€79.23
Shipment within 15-20 days
Ariel I. Ahram | Patrick Köllner | Rudra Sil
Advancing Comparative Area Studies
Analytical Heterogeneity and Organizational Challenges
E-Book
06/2025
OUP eBook
€28.49
Available for download
Ariel I. Ahram | Patrick Köllner | Rudra Sil
Advancing Comparative Area Studies
Analytical Heterogeneity and Organizational Challenges
E-Book
06/2025
OUP eBook
€28.49
Available for download
Persons
Ariel I. Ahram is Professor at the Virginia Tech School of Public & International Affairs in Arlington. He is an Associate of the Institute of Middle East Studies of the GIGA, the German Institute for Global and Area Studies. He earned his PhD in government and MA in Arab studies at Georgetown University and BA at Brandeis University.
Patrick Koellner is Vice President of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Director of the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies, and a professor of political science at the University of Hamburg. He studied politics and management as well as modern Japan studies at the universities of Konstanz and Essex and holds a doctorate and a habilitation in political science from Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Trier, respectively.
Rudra Sil is Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught since obtaining his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. His scholarly interests
encompass Russian/post-communist studies, Asian studies, labor politics, international development, qualitative methodology, and philosophy of social science.
Patrick Koellner is Vice President of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Director of the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies, and a professor of political science at the University of Hamburg. He studied politics and management as well as modern Japan studies at the universities of Konstanz and Essex and holds a doctorate and a habilitation in political science from Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Trier, respectively.
Rudra Sil is Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught since obtaining his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. His scholarly interests
encompass Russian/post-communist studies, Asian studies, labor politics, international development, qualitative methodology, and philosophy of social science.
Content
List of Contributors
Prologue
Comparative Area Studies: Implications for Institutional Architecture
Timothy J. Power
Chapter 1. Introduction
Extending the Horizons of Comparative Area Studies (CAS): Analytical Heterogeneity and Organizational Challenges
Patrick Koellner, Rudra Sil, and Ariel I. Ahram
Part I. CAS and the Prospects for Interpretation across Contexts
Chapter 2. Communicating Across Contexts: How Translation Can Benefit Comparative Area Studies
Erica S. Simmons and Nicholas Rush Smith
Chapter 3. Comparative Area Studies and Interpretivism: Towards an Interpretive-Comparative Research Approach
Anna Fuenfgeld
Part II. How CAS Benefits, and Benefits from, Varied Strategies of Causal Analysis
Chapter 4. Causal Explanation with Ideal Types: Opportunities for Comparative Area Studies
Ryan Saylor
Chapter 5. Advancing Theory Development in Comparative Area Studies: Practical Recommendations for Evaluating the Equifinality of Causal Mechanisms
Marissa Brookes and Jesse Dillon Savage
Chapter 6. The Best of Two Worlds? Generalizing and Individualizing through Multi-Method Research in Comparative Area Studies
Matthias Basedau and David Kuehn
Part III. Rethinking the Sites and Spaces of Comparison
Chapter 7. Crossing the Boundaries of Comparison: Comparative Area Studies and Comparative Historical Analysis
Amel Ahmed
Chapter 8. Comparison as Ontology, Region as Concept: On the Synergies of Comparative Area Studies
Erik Martinez Kuhonta
Chapter 9. The Contextualized Comparative Sector Approach: Comparative Area Studies at the Sectoral Level of Analysis
Roselyn Hsueh
Part IV . CAS and the Promise of Global IR
Chapter 10. The Promise of Comparative Area Studies for the Study of Human Rights
Eileen Doherty-Sil
Chapter 11. Revisionist (Eurasian) Powers and the West: A Comparative Area Studies Bridge
between International Relations Theory and Area Expertise
Nora Fisher-Onar
Part V. Organizational Challenges and Institutional Frameworks for CAS
Chapter 12. Comparative Area Studies: Programs, Departments, Constraints, Opportunities
Sara Wallace Goodman and Thomas Pepinsky
Chapter 13. Comparative Area Studies in the Great Brain Race: Institutional Legacies and
Programmatic Innovation in the Global Age
Ariel I. Ahram and Connie Stovall
Epilogue
Amrita Narlikar
Prologue
Comparative Area Studies: Implications for Institutional Architecture
Timothy J. Power
Chapter 1. Introduction
Extending the Horizons of Comparative Area Studies (CAS): Analytical Heterogeneity and Organizational Challenges
Patrick Koellner, Rudra Sil, and Ariel I. Ahram
Part I. CAS and the Prospects for Interpretation across Contexts
Chapter 2. Communicating Across Contexts: How Translation Can Benefit Comparative Area Studies
Erica S. Simmons and Nicholas Rush Smith
Chapter 3. Comparative Area Studies and Interpretivism: Towards an Interpretive-Comparative Research Approach
Anna Fuenfgeld
Part II. How CAS Benefits, and Benefits from, Varied Strategies of Causal Analysis
Chapter 4. Causal Explanation with Ideal Types: Opportunities for Comparative Area Studies
Ryan Saylor
Chapter 5. Advancing Theory Development in Comparative Area Studies: Practical Recommendations for Evaluating the Equifinality of Causal Mechanisms
Marissa Brookes and Jesse Dillon Savage
Chapter 6. The Best of Two Worlds? Generalizing and Individualizing through Multi-Method Research in Comparative Area Studies
Matthias Basedau and David Kuehn
Part III. Rethinking the Sites and Spaces of Comparison
Chapter 7. Crossing the Boundaries of Comparison: Comparative Area Studies and Comparative Historical Analysis
Amel Ahmed
Chapter 8. Comparison as Ontology, Region as Concept: On the Synergies of Comparative Area Studies
Erik Martinez Kuhonta
Chapter 9. The Contextualized Comparative Sector Approach: Comparative Area Studies at the Sectoral Level of Analysis
Roselyn Hsueh
Part IV . CAS and the Promise of Global IR
Chapter 10. The Promise of Comparative Area Studies for the Study of Human Rights
Eileen Doherty-Sil
Chapter 11. Revisionist (Eurasian) Powers and the West: A Comparative Area Studies Bridge
between International Relations Theory and Area Expertise
Nora Fisher-Onar
Part V. Organizational Challenges and Institutional Frameworks for CAS
Chapter 12. Comparative Area Studies: Programs, Departments, Constraints, Opportunities
Sara Wallace Goodman and Thomas Pepinsky
Chapter 13. Comparative Area Studies in the Great Brain Race: Institutional Legacies and
Programmatic Innovation in the Global Age
Ariel I. Ahram and Connie Stovall
Epilogue
Amrita Narlikar