Historical Sociological Methods

The aim of this course is to introduce students to comparative historical research methods and encourage them to engage with practical exercises, to distinguish between different approaches in comparative historical research methods in social sciences.

Through the reading and seminars students will learn how to distinguish between different texts, theorists and approaches and learn how to apply these approaches to their own research and writing.

Comparative historical sociology studies major social transformations over periods of time and across different states, societies, and regions.

• Postgraduate students and staff
• Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here

Number of sessions: 4

• Session 1: Classics
• Session 2: Justifications I
• Session 3: Justifications II
• Session 4: State of the Art

• To introduce students to the qualitative dimension of comparative historical research methods
• To analyse some contemporary classics within this genre
• To review and distinguish among the variety of intellectual justifications for this genre as a methodology
• To focus on a 'state-of-the-art' defence of qualitative and comparative-historical research in theory and practice

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Session 1: Classics

• Moore, B.(1966) The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press.
• Skocpol, T. (1979) States and Social Revolutions Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Burawoy,M. (1989). “Two Methods in Search of Science: Skocpol versus Trotsky,” Theory and Society (18): 759-805.
• Goldthorpe, J. (1991). “The Uses of History in Sociology: Reflections on Some Recent Tendencies,” BJS, Vol 42, No. 2: 211-230.
• Streek, W. (2015). “Epilogue: Comparative-Historical Analysis: Past, Present, Future,” in J. Mahoney and K. Thelen, eds., Advances in Comparative-Historical Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.264-288. (https://wolfgangstreeck.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/streeck2015_comparative-historical-analysis-past-present-future.pdf)
• Bernhard, Michael, and Daniel O’Neill. "Comparative historical analysis." Perspectives on Politics 19.3 (2021): 699-704.
• Mahoney, J. and D. Rueschemeyer. (2003). “Comparative Historical Analysis: Achievements and Agenda,” in J. Mahoney and D. Rueschemeyer, eds. Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.3-38.

Session 2: Justifications I

• MacIntyre, M. (2001). “Is a science of comparative politics possible?” In Flyvberg, B. (2001). Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails, and How It Can Succeed Again. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• A. Przeworski, Is the Science of Comparative Politics Possible
• A. Przeworski, “Institutions Matter?”
• G. K. Bhambra. (2016) “Comparative Historical Sociology and the State: Problems of Method,” Cultural Sociology, 10(3): 335-351.
• Thelen, K. and Mahoney, J. (2015). “Comparative-Historical Methods in Contemporary Political Science,” in J. Mahoney and K. Thelen, eds., Advances in Comparative-Historical Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.3-38.
• Bennett, A. (2004). “Process Tracing and Causal Inference,” in Brady, H.& Collier, D. (eds). Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp.207-220.

Session 3: Justifications II

• Pierson, P. (2004) Positive feedback and path dependence [AND] Institutional Development. In Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis. (pp.17-53, 133-166).Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Pierson, P. (2015). “Path Dependence and Power,” in in J. Mahoney and K. Thelen, eds., Advances in Comparative-Historical Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ch.5.
• Mahoney, J. and K. Thelen. (2010). “A Theory of Gradual Institutional Change.” In J. Mahoney and K. Thelen, eds., Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.1-37.
• Ermakoff, I. (2019). “Causality and History: Modes of Causal Investigation in Historical Social Sciences,” Annual Review of Sociology, 45:29.1-29.6.
• Mahoney, J. (2004) “Comparative-historical methodology,” Annu. Rev. Sociol. 30:81–101.
• Collier, D. and G. Munck. (2022). “Tradition and Innovation in Critical Juncture Research,” in in D. Collier and G. Munck, eds., Critical Junctures and Historical Legacies: Insights and Methods for Comparative Social Science. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp.1-32.
• Stefes, C. (2019). “Historical Institutionalism and Societal Transformations,” in W. Merkel, R. Kollmorgen, and H. Wagener, eds., The Handbook of Political, Social, and Economic Transformation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.95-105.

Session 4: State of the Art

• Mahoney, J. (2001). "Path-Dependent Explanations of Regime Change: Central America in Comparative Perspective," Studies in Comparative International Development, 36:1, pp. 111-141.
• Mahoney, J. (2010). Colonialism and Postcolonial Development Spanish America in Comparative Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Thelen, K. (2003) How institutions evolve: insights from comparative historical analysis. In Mahoney, J. & Rueschemeyer, D.Comparative-Historical Analysis: Innovations in Theory and Methods. (pp.208-240).
• Streeck, Wolfgang. (2014). Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. New York: Verso.
• Robinson, J. (2022). “Critical Junctures and Developmental Paths: Colonialism and Long-Term Economic Prosperity,” in D. Collier and G. Munck, eds., Critical Junctures and Historical Legacies: Insights and Methods for Comparative Social Science. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp.53-66.
• Samuels DJ, and Thomson H. (2021). “Lord, Peasant … and Tractor? Agricultural Mechanization, Moore’s Thesis, and the Emergence of Democracy,” Perspectives on Politics,19(3):739-753.
• Go, J. and A. Lawson. (2017). “Introduction: For a Global Historical Sociology,” in J. Go and G. Lawson, eds., Global Historical Sociology, pp.1-34.
• Lawson, G. (2017). “A Global Historical Sociology of Revolution,” in J. Go and G. Lawson, eds., Global Historical Sociology, pp.76-98.