Joint Princeton-Columbia Graduate Student Workshop, September 29 - October 1, 2000

National Identity and Public Policy in Comparative Perspective

Methods Session Overview and Objectives

Time Period

This session will take place on Sunday morning from 10:15-11:30. It will be the last working group session of the workshop, followed by a wrap-up lunch.

Objective

The idea of this session is to allow participants facing similar methodological issues to share their experiences to date and to brainstorm about potential solutions to common problems.

Participants

Participants have been divided into four groups of roughly equal number, based on the type of research being conducted for the dissertation: a single-county study (two groups), a multiple-country comparison, or a study focusing on transnational factors. Based on the summaries of research we received at the time of application to the workshop, we have divided participants into suggested groups. If you think, however, that another group would be more interesting or appropriate, feel free to attend whichever group you prefer.

Format

We envision this session evolving into more of a conversation than a series of presentations. Each group may want to choose a discussion leader, or simply let the conversation develop as it will. Since it is the last working session of the workshop, we thought it best to be flexible.

We are sensitive to imposing any single methodology on participants, but we thought that the following questions would address issues faced by all participants to at least some degree. Moreover, if the questions are not appropriate to a participant's research, we thought a discussion of that issue might also be interesting.

We suggest that each member of the group be offered a few minutes (perhaps three minutes) to speak to the questions we pose below. After everyone has had a chance to offer his/her opening views, we expect that a full discussion can ensue for the remaining time.

1. What status do cases have in your general argument? How did you choose these cases?
2. How do you use your cases to explain the interaction between identity and policy? If you are making a causative argument, what mechanisms do you identify to demonstrate the link between identity and policy?
3. Given unlimited resources, what would you look at? Assuming you don't have unlimited resources, how did you choose the factors you did?
4. To extend your argument, what additional dimensions of this linkage would you consider given time and resources? (ie., other cases, other "variables", other time periods) Alternatively, looking back, how would you have done your research differently?

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