How to Study Comparative Urban Development Politics: A Research Note

Abstract

The problem: not much, not very comparative Emile Durkheim's dictum that science begins with comparison underscores the value of systematically, analyzing a large number of cities across different national cultures. As Durkheim (1982) suggests, only by comparing and measuring relationships can we achieve greater certainty. There are other reasons why comparison enables scholars to clarify and better explain phenomena. First, because comparison more precisely shows how variables work differently in a variety of settings; second, because comparison affords us a better chance to understand how the discovery of anomalies within different social systems can be refined and ultimately enhance theoretical understanding; and third, because comparison provides contrast models that point up crucial distinctions within a given set of findings. 1 Notwithstanding Durkheim's counsel, urban research has not been very comparative. What often stands for comparative analysis is comprised of separate chapters on a limited number of cities capped by an attempt to draw some unifying themes. When large numbers of cities are used, these works usually turn out to be a compendium of monographs, rather than tightly integrated, systematic comparisons (Robson

Editorial Urbane Ungleichheit in vergleichender Perspektive – Konzeptionelle Überlegungen und empirische Befunde aus den Americas

“…Slater, 2006;Lees et al, 2008;Bernt und Holm, 2009;Brenner et al, 2009;Davidson und Lees, 2010;Dörf-ler, 2011, für den lateinamerikanischen Kontext exemplarisch Jones und Varley, 1999;Bromely und Mackie, 2009 Dear, 2005;Bourne, 2008, Nijman, 2007Davis und Tajbakhsh, 2005;McFarlane und Robinson, 2012), sie wird jedoch aufgrund methodischer Fallstricke und konzeptionelltheoretischer Unschärfen nur selten wirklich ernsthaft unternommen (vgl. Kantor und Savitch, 2005;Ward, 2010). So hat insbesondere Robinson (2002Robinson ( , 2006Robinson ( , 2010 Vergleiche können letztlich passend oder unpassend erscheinen.…”

Gobernanza local comparada el análisis de los patrones de influencia en los sistemas políticos locales

“…Al igual que en otros ejercicios comparativos, esta agenda de investigación se enfrenta a algunos desafíos metodológicos. Uno de ellos es la medición de sus conceptos básicos Kantor y Savitch, 2005;Denters y Mossberger, 2006), entre los que destaca la estructura de poder o patrones de infl uencia existentes en los municipios. Dicho de otra manera, ¿qué actores infl uyen en las decisiones del gobierno local?…”

Practising Comparison: Logics, Relations, Collaborations

“…This seriously restricted the range of cities drawn on to inform wider interpretations of urban processes, as only most similar cities could be selected for comparison. But by following the actual practices of urban comparativists, it became clear that in fact what they found most productive for thinking with was the inevitable variety of outcomes to be found across different urban phenomena which, like most contexts or cases (territorially defined or not), are characterised by a rich and inexhaustible multiplicity of processes (Clark 1995;Kantor and Savitch 2005). The enormous restrictions associated with conventions requiring that most similar contexts be selected for comparison could easily be reconfigured to work with much more loosely defined 'shared features' (Robinson 2015).…”