Comparative research in social work: methodological considerations using the ‘diachronic–synchronic’ distinction in linguistics

Although there has been a significant increase in the number of comparative studies in social work, there has, to date, been a deficit in terms of methodological discussion and development in this domain. In this article, a linked pair of methodological concepts (‘diachronic’–‘synchronic’), drawn from linguistics, and often used in comparative research studies in the humanities and social sciences, has been applied to the field of comparative research in social work. The use of this distinction in comparative research of social work contributes to the progress of social work as a research-based scientific discipline. The distinction also offers the potential for the development of research methodology in the field of comparative social work research.     

The Melanesian Cargo Cults: A Test of the Value-Added Theory of Collective Behavior*

This research examines Smelser's value-added theory of collective behavior. According to Smelser, six determinants are necessary for the development of a social movement: structural conduciveness, structural strain, generalized beliefs, precipitating factors, mobilization of participants, and social control. As a test of this analytic framework, two Melanesian cargo cult movements and the general history of these movements are investigated. On the basis of a historical and comparative analysis that relies upon both primary and secondary sources, the six factors outlined in the theory are shown to be present. The relevance of these findings for the explanation of social movements is discussed.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Faith-Based Welfare Agencies

Abstract

This study examines the methodological challenges associated with conducting research on faith-based organizations. The arguments advanced are based on a group of comparative case studies conducted by the authors on secular and faith-based providers in three different social service domains: (1) transitional housing, (2) parent education, and (3) residential substance abuse treatment programs. All case studies utilized the same research protocol. The study identifies the lessons learned from comparative case study research on faith-based organizations when a similar protocol is implemented to examine a variety of social service domains and provider types.     

A Comparative Analysis of the Global Emergence of Social Enterprise

This article compares the emerging concept, practice, and context of social enterprise across seven regions and countries of the world. Broadly defined as the use of market-based approaches to address social issues, social enterprise provides a “business” source of revenue for civil society organizations. However, within these broad parameters, world regions have come to identify different concepts and contexts with the social enterprise movement in their areas. Largely lacking in the social enterprise literature are explanations of what these regional differences are, and whether and how socioeconomic context may play a role in these variations. Drawing on social origins theory, recent social enterprise comparative research, and socioeconomic data, this article examines the different factors shaping social enterprise in seven regions and countries. It finds that variations in socioeconomic contexts appear to account for international differences in social enterprise. These findings have practical implications for the development and transfer of social enterprise internationally.     

回顾与前瞻：中国青年研究动向——基于五种青年研究类学术期刊的量化分析

对2002至2011年中国有关青年研究的样本文献进行科学计量学分析后发现,国内学界对该领域进行了持续探索．给我国的青年实践发展和社会进步提供了坚实的智力支持,但目前的研究仍存在诸多不足,包括研究内容过于集中、缺乏比较研究和实证分析、跨学科交叉研究有待进一步提升等。今后应进一步强化青年理论与实践相结合的研究力度,不断创新研究方法,拓展研究内容．加强比较分析和跨学科研究,在系统和整体把握当下国内青年研究动态的基础上,不断促进该领域研究的深入发展。     

"Sustainability" as a Dialogue of Values: Challenges to the Sociology of Development

Even in an increasingly polarized climate of global policy-making, the ideal of "sustainable development" retains currency across a remarkably broad swath of the political spectrum in debating alternative scenarios for the future. By adapting Weber's classic categories of value spheres and collective rationality, I distinguish contemporary approaches to operationalizing the concept of sustainability and elucidate the practical implications of each. For some, the social, ecological, and economic dimensions of sustainability are synergistic components of a single meaningful goal, pursued by either an overarching technique or a unifying ethic. In contrast to these unifying models, one may conclude that the dimensions of sustainable development invoke values that inevitably conflict in any complex social interaction to derive strategies for collective action. Framing the concept in such terms, as a dialogue of values , highlights the need to adapt social institutions to mediate value conflict at different scales, and points to opportunities for engaging development debates through applied research on comparative governance.     

The Frequency of Warfare: an Evolutionary Perspective*

This research stresses the utility of evolutionary theory and comparative methodology for explaining warfare frequency. It is hypothesized that warfare frequency (external war, civil war, rioting, and feuding) is related to sociocultural development as indicated by cross-cultural measures of technology and social differentiation. The hypotheses were supported utilizing data drawn from the Human Relations Area microfilm Files on 132 contemporary and historical societies.     

Nonprofit Comparative Research: Recent Agendas and Future Trends

Comparative research on nonprofit organizations (NPOs) has been a prominent approach for advancing our understanding of these organizations. This article identifies the primary drivers that shape the NPO comparative research agenda and explores new research trends. Based on a systematic literature review, nine definitional aspects and ten impulses are identified as drivers of NPO research. This article conducts a correspondence analysis to study the relationships between the definitional aspects and impulses that are discussed in 111 articles that were published in philanthropic and third-sector journals in the period January 2001–January 2015. Based on our results, we suggest three new clusters for future comparative research: investment and growth, participation and social impact, and social cohesion and civil society.     

Economic socialization: Basis for international comparisons

The aim of this article is to discuss some theoretical backgrounds concerning children's development and socialization, particularly centered on economic socialization; this paper also describes how an international comparative research project reached maturity. The joint object is to investigate, through cross-cultural comparisons, a general picture of children's economic socialization throughout the world. Common points and differences according to specific social, economical and political situations in the countries are brought to the fore by an international comparative research project. A common method based on interviews centered on economic understanding, economic reasoning and economic attitudes was applied in 15 different countries.     

Rethinking the European countryside—can we learn from the South?

A new paradigm of multi-dimensional rural development has emerged which advocates a broader conception of the rurality where the rural is no longer the monopoly of the farmer. This new, broader paradigm needs to be reflected in the methodology of social scientific research, both generic and applied. In this paper we are primarily concerned with transfer of research methodologies utilised in development studies in the South to explore their usefulness for rethinking the European countryside. Such a transfer of methodology may be helpful, because integrated rural development can build on a long legacy in the South, while it has only recently been advocated in the EU context. The paper reflects upon the application of two such analytical concepts originating from development studies, which we have applied for research on the rural geographies in the European countryside, namely Sen's livelihood capabilities approach and Chambers’ concept of participatory rural appraisal (PRA). Having the sustainable livelihoods approach as overall framework, both methodologies are qualitative in nature and address people's survival strategies and livelihood practices with a focus on micro-level analysis at individual, household (Sen) and community level (PRA), while reflecting their embeddedness in wider social, political and economic structures. Our comparative studies suggest that the prospects for bottom-up development, as orchestrated by PRA or similar approaches, is constrained by structural factors, which define the boundaries for local development. The capabilities approach is useful to detect the capabilities to act and be within which bottom-up approaches may take their—though limited—role in rural development.     

Comparative studies and sociological theory: Autobiographical notes

The following article presents a brief survey on the development of the author's sociological studies and research, especially on the ways in which he has explored in these studies the relations between comparative studies and major problems and developments in sociological theory. The article analyzes how the central focus of his interest has been the problem of human creativity and its limitations, especially as it related to the social arena, the construction of different social formations—ranging from the so-called microsituations to the more formalized institutional and macroinstitutional formations—the problem of charisma and its routinization.     

Measuring social values in philanthropic foundations

Philanthropic foundations are seen as organizations that allocate resources to achieve their visions of a better world. Drawing on a sample of foundations in Canada, the United States, and Europe, this research undertakes to reveal the social values that constitute such visions and to measure the consistency between espoused social values and those conveyed by resource allocations. A social values identification and measurement instrument is described and tested. The social values that comprise the instrument are presented in a chart of social values. A methodology for measuring the consistency between social values espoused by a foundation and those actually conveyed by resource allocation decisions is described, tested, and critiqued. It is argued that the results of this research provide a basis on which to pursue development of a standardized vocabulary of social values that may enhance understanding and discourse regarding the purposes and work of foundations, as well as provide a basis for cross‐cultural comparative analyses of foundations.     

Central and Eastern Europe in the limelight

I have been involved in community development in Hungary since1980 and during this period international work has always playeda significant part in my work. However, four years ago, theHungarian Association for Community Development (HACD) beganto reorganize its contacts in other central and eastern Europeancountries. In this paper I seek to avoid generalities and insteadfocus on a small portion of our joint work in the region, describingthe experience we gained through carrying out comparative research.I begin by exploring the concept of civil society as the idealgoal of community development. I then introduce the situationin Hungary and, to a certain extent, the central and easternEuropean region, and outline some of the findings we have obtainedin measuring social capital. I go on to raise some issues concerningthe main challenges facing community development in the regionand, in a concluding section, I discuss the position of communitydevelopment workers.     

Developing a social work curriculum on political conflict: findings from an IASSW-funded project

This paper presents the findings from an innovative project funded by the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and undertaken by an international team of academics investigating the development of a global curriculum for social work in the context of political conflict. Coupled alongside the emerging research and literature on the subject, our small-scale survey findings indicate support for the need for social work educators to address political conflict more systematically within social work curricula at both undergraduate and post-qualifying levels of social work education. This paper illuminates the opportunities for creative pedagogy whilst also examining the threats and challenges permeating the realisation of such initiatives. In this way, the implementation of a proposed curriculum for political conflict is given meaning within the context of IASSW's Global Standards for social work education. Given the exploratory nature of this project, the authors do conclude that further research is warranted in regard to potential curriculum development and suggest using a comparative case study approach with more in-depth qualitative methods as a way to address this.     

Qualitative research on homosexual and bisexual behavior relevant to HIV/AIDS

The spread of the international AIDS pandemic has drawn attention to the urgent need for data on human sexual behavior; yet the lack of an established tradition of theory and method in sex research has limited the development of research initiatives in this area. This has been particularly true in the study of homosexual and bisexual behavior, which has relied heavily on the use of quantitative survey methods that largely fail to address cross‐cultural differences in the structure and meaning of same‐sex sexual experience. More qualitative approaches offer the possibility of investigating homosexual and bisexual behavior within a broader social and cultural context and can therefore play an important role in developing a framework for the comparative analysis of behavioral data. This article seeks to contribute to the development of theory and method in sex research by outlining key research issues and possible methodologies for the qualitative investigation of homosexual and bisexual behavior in relation to HIV/AIDS.     

Doctoral studies in social work: exploring European developments

Recent discussion in the UK about the place of doctoral work in social work education and research has been paralleled by some comparative research in Europe. This paper relates some of the findings to other literature and experience of comparative developments in social work education. While debates in some countries echo UK concerns, social work educators in other countries are struggling with more fundamental questions about the relationship between social work and other social sciences or with organisational arrangements which ‘disadvantage’ professional education. Unlike experience in the US, it seems that in Europe the extent to which social work is seen as a discipline that contributes research based knowledge to professional practice is variable.     

Social networks of old people in India: research and policy

This article presents a comparative analysis of the available research on the social networks of older persons in India. Most of this research has been done in North Indian cities. The research foci of the available studies include network size, core networks and beyond, life course changes in networks, impacts of residency in old-age homes, gender differences, and joint and nuclear family residence. This research is discussed in terms of its policy implications. Because the research demonstrates that social networks are important for the welfare of older Indians, one can conclude that social policy that encourages the maintenance of robust networks throughout the life course may be worth pursuing. One aspect of policy is discussed. The analysis of the relationship between social network and gender suggests that current policies that can be seen as supporting gender inequality in terms of property may have a negative impact on the networks of older women.     

Sociology and development in the 1990s: Critical challenges and empirical trends

Recent transformations of global economic structures have been accompanied by divergent national, regional, and local patterns of development, including severe socioeconomic crises for many Third World countries. At the same time, established conceptualizations of development processes have been called into question by divergent models of social change, such as those of world systems and postmodernist theorists. These phenomena present major analytical challenges for sociologists specializing in the study of development. New technologies and production processes, changing forms of international dependency, and the appearance of new social actors are among the most important topics for study. We argue that political economy, based on midrange propositions and comparative historical methods, constitutes the most fruitful approach to this task.     

TOWARD A GLOBAL SOCIOLOGY?

This essay examines the response of U.S. sociologists to the growing call for a global sociology that can address both transnational social phenomena and international scholarly exchanges. We argue that existing research conceptions and agendas—rooted as they are in the comparative method, nationalist practices and units, and models of European-U.S. development—are ill-suited for grasping transnational phenomena and building a worldwide community of sociologists. This argument is advanced by examining leading U.S. scholars' on state formation and development, and then by proposing new orientations for future research.