Abstrakt: |
As social scientists take space seriously and engage in systematic comparisons of subnational entities within and across nations, there is a need to systematically ground comparative policy analyses (CPA) within this research program. But, when it comes to research design concerns, what are the implications of this cross-fertilization? By drawing on the literatures on the subnational research tradition and the comparative method, and connecting them to CPA, this paper addresses key practical, analytical, methodological, and data concerns in instances in which qualitative comparisons of two or more cases (i.e. small-N) are employed and subnational levels are the main units of analysis. To scale down the comparative method and apply it to subnational policy analyses, the paper provides guidance on how to design and conduct comparative subnational research within or across countries, including key lessons, best practices, and data resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |