Course Schedule
Veranstaltungen von Prof. Dr. Lukas Hakelberg
Lehrveranstaltungen
Comparative Historical Analysis (Seminar)
Dozent/in: Lukas Hakelberg
Termin:
wöchentlich | Dienstag | 10:15 - 11:45 | 13.10.2025 - 30.01.2026 | C 12.006 Seminarraum
Inhalt: Comparative Historical Analysis (CHA) involves the systematic comparison of two or more historical sequences. These sequences of events are usually studied at the macro level. That is, at the level of the city, nation-state, region or even the globe. Scholars have, for instance, provided CHAs of the processes linking capitalism to the emergence of democracy, access to overseas resources to the Industrial Revolution, or agricultural suitability to the emergence of tax havens. CHA is an overarching methodology in that it encompasses more specific methods of cross-case analysis and within-case analysis. Cross-case methods include simple matching tools such as Mill's methods of agreement and difference, statistical matching, and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). Within-case methods include inductive, deductive and Bayesian process-tracing. Hence, CHA is a method for deriving causal inferences from a combination of (some) quantitative and (mostly) qualitative data. It is a method for data analysis rather than data generation (such as interviews or content analysis). This seminar will mediate the method of CHA in four steps. Students first engage with some introductory methodological literature on CHA and the different cross-case and within-case methods it may encompass. Second, they dissect past CHAs from the field of Political Economy, identifying the main research design elements and methodological choices of the authors. Third, students engage in a reverse research design exercise that involves slipping into the shoes of the author of a book they read at the beginning of the research presented in the book. Fourth, students develop their own research designs, applying CHA to a topic of their choice.