In the post-World War II era, the emergence of 'area studies' marked a signal development in the social sciences. As the social sciences evolved methodologically, however, many dismissed area studies as favoring narrow description over general theory. Still, area studies continues to plays a key, if unacknowledged, role in bringing new data, new theories, and valuable policy-relevant insights to social sciences. In Comparative Area Studies, three leading figures in the field have gathered an international group of scholars in a volume that promises to be a landmark in a resurgent field. The book upholds two basic convictions: that intensive regional research remains indispensable to the social sciences and that this research needs to employ comparative referents from other regions to demonstrate its broader relevance. Comparative Area Studies (CAS) combines the context-specific insights from traditional area studies and the logic of cross- and inter-regional empirical research. This first book devoted to CAS explores methodological rationales and illustrative applications to demonstrate how area-based expertise can be fruitfully integrated with cutting-edge comparative analytical frameworks.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Comparative Area Studies: What It Is, What It Can Do Patrick Köllner, Rudra Sil and Ariel I. Ahram Part One: What Comparative Area Studies Brings to the Table 2. Comparative Area Studies: The Golden Mean between Area Studies and Universalist Approaches? Dirk Berg-Schlosser 3. Depth-Perception: Improving Analytical Focus Through Cross- and Inter-regional Comparisons Laurence Whitehead 4. Comparing Across World Regions: Assets and Pitfalls Christian von Soest and Alexander Stroh 5. Context, Concepts, and Comparison in Southeast Asia Mikko Huotari and Jürgen Rüland 6. American Political Development in the Mirror of Europe: Democracy Expansion and the Evolution of Electoral Systems in the 19th Century Amel Ahmed 7. Comparative Area Studies and the Study of Middle East Politics after the Arab Uprisings André Bank Part Two: CAS in Action: Leveraging Cross-Regional Comparison 8. Comparing Post-Communist Authoritarianism in Russia and China: The Case of Anti-Corruption Campaigns Cheng Chen 9. Comparative Area Studies and the Analytical Challenge of Diffusion: Explaining Outcomes in the Arab Spring and Beyond Ariel I. Ahram 10. Comparing Separatism Across Regions: Rebellious Legacies in Aceh, Balochistan and Kurdistan Benjamin Smith 11. Gaining by Shedding Case Selection Strictures: Natural Resource Booms and Institution Building in Latin America and Africa Ryan Saylor 12. Organizing Production Across Regions: The Wenzhou Model in China and Italy Calvin P. Chen Conclusion 13. Triangulating Area Studies, Not Just Methods: How Cross-Regional Comparison Aids Qualitative and Mixed-Method Research Rudra Sil Bibliography