Comparative cross-national research

At the last meeting on Wednesday 14th March Gerbrand Tholen spoke about comparative cross-national research drawing upon his PhD study. It was discussed how cross-national comparative research has become more prominent in recent years in response to the need to understand the rapid political, economic, and social changes being experienced by many nations. It was suggested that this research can provide social scientists with a useful base to understand how social phenomenon are mediated through national differences. Methodological and epistemological differences were touched upon and what it means to take the nation state as the unit of analysis. The question was asked 'should or can we move away from state-centred methodology'.