Cross National Comparative Research Network

Professor J. Brannen (University of London)

The growth of EU funded research is leading not only to larger research teams as more countries and partners are included in cross-national projects, but also to greater variety in the types of research engaged in cross-nationally. Comparative research, once restricted to cross-national surveys and case study comparisons of two countries, is changing. Qualitative research methods are increasingly adopted but we know little of the problems researchers face in using these and the strategies they adopt to overcome them.

The aims of this project were:

To create a step change in cross-national qualitative research in respect of three significant methodological strategies relating to data analysis and in respect of generic issues in cross-national research concerning concept equivalence and the contextualisation of small scale qualitative data.
To do this by employing and building upon established multi-disciplinary networks of researchers (across both UK and European universities) who have carried out cross-national qualitative research in several EU funded projects in 11 countries in Eastern and Western Europe (TRANSITIONS and CARING), together with other EU projects (e.g. Improving Policy Responses and Outcomes to Socio-economic challenges; European policies on informal and formal care; Citizenship, Migration and Care in the European Union). Meetings will take place in London and Manchester, and in other cities if the ESRC Methods Centre and network members wish.

The project organised three methodological capacity building workshops of network members and experts from the UK and elsewhere. The workshops addressed methodological challenges and stimulate debate in data analysis and ways of writing up and presenting comparative research with respect to: