The Art and Craft of Comparison

Abstract

This book is a call to arms for interpretivists to embrace their creative intuition for comparative work. The book revolves around the following questions: 1. How can we compare in interpretive research? 2. How do we design a comparative interpretive project? 3. How do we undertake comparative interpretive fieldwork? 4. How do we interpret and analyse comparative data? 5. How do we communicate the findings of comparative interpretive research? Part 1 justifies an interpretive approach to comparison. Part 2 answers the questions. For each of these chapters, there is a list of practical rules of thumb on how to do comparative interpretive research. There are many examples from the authors’ comparative work. They include the everyday life of Chiefs of Staff to Australian Prime Ministers; policies on obesity in Australia and Britain; and political leadership in small Pacific states.