Cross-Cultural and Comparative Research Methods: the Challenges of Global Social Science
Professor J. Holmwood (University of Sussex)
This project is now complete and the project website (from www.sussex.ac.uk) has been archived locally at the NCRM for ease of reference:
Visit the archived project website
This project was concerned with methods that considered how global governance and national and local governance interrelate. Substantively, these methods are frequently at the intersection of science, governance and political economy. They involve the integration of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, as well as the development of new qualitative methodologies. The issues were addressed in three focused, but linked seminar/ workshops each taking place over two days at the University of Sussex:
- Emerging ethical issues in cross cultural research: ethical dilemmas and practice in research collaborations between social sciences and medicine (5-6 May 2005)
- Problems and possibilities in 'multi-sited' ethnography (27-28 June 2005)
- Small and Large-N Comparative Solutions (22-23 Sept 2005)
Each workshop was interdisciplinary and involved approximately 25 invited participants, drawn from international networks of academic researchers and users of research. The academic participants were expected to attend at least two of the workshops. Participants presented short papers on key methodological issues. The idea was both to identify a research problem and propose possible solutions to it. These were the basis of discussion. The workshops comprised 5-6 sessions over two days, beginning at mid-day on day one and ending late afternoon on day two with a roundtable.
The seminar series concluded with a one-day conference on ‘The challenge to global social inquiry: inclusion, exclusion, and participation’ (18 November 2005).
The overall objectives were to transform an awareness of the challenges posed by global social research into innovation in research methodologies, to produce a step change that will be both technical in substance and address the changing character of the audience for social research and calls for participation.