ESRCNCRM Training Seminar CrossNational Research Challenge, Cooperation and Compromise

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ESRC/NCRM Training SeminarCross-National
ResearchChallenge, Cooperation and Compromise

• Scientific and pragmatic rationales for choice of
  countries, cases and contexts
• EU Projects on Family and Welfare
• Linda Hantrais

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Challenge, cooperation, compromise

• Challenges of cross-national comparisons
• Methodological complexity
• Crossing national, cultural and linguistic
  boundaries
• Pragmatism and compromise
• Cost in time, effort and money
• Impact of methods and means on findings
• Cross-national, cultural or societal?
• Understanding of concepts and contexts
• Rationales for choice of countries
• Combining methods

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EU policy reviews

• DG Research policy reviews (FP4, 5)
• education, training, employment, quality of work,
  social inclusion, inequality, social protection,
  citizenship and identity, migration, regional
  policy, governance, enlargement, sustainability,
  FW
• linkages between research and policy
• value for money
• complementarity, critical mass, synergy
• ? policy solutions
• observation of research process, policy interface

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Setting and achieving objectives

• How not to design a research programme
• No consultation at the research design stage
• Thematic coverage not a priority
• Country coverage not determined by themes
• Policy relevance not built into the research
  design
• Post hoc justification for country mix, methods
  and policy relevance

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From the theory of country selection

• Number ? breadth vs depth
• Breadth ? generalisation, limited variables,
• Description, juxtaposition
• Problems of comparability due to data
  inconsistencies
• Depth ? fine-grain analysis
• subnational / regional variation

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From the theory of country selection

• Mix ? J.S. Mills method of
• agreement (most similar for dependent variable)
• difference (most different)
• concomitant variation (association between
  variables)
• Not a recipe for establishing causality
• Problem of isolating independent variables
• Different results from different combinations of
  cases

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Nation as the unit of analysis

• International organisations
• EU as policy-making framework for nations
• Eurostat as statistical agency
• Defined but shifting territorial boundaries
• Recognised legal and administrative systems
• Not necessarily common cultural, linguistic and
  ethnic identity
• Changing membership of international bodies
• Multilevel systems of governance
• Common reference point diversity
• Material for cross-national analysis

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the practice of country selection

• Political rationale
• geographical coverage
• North, south, east France, Germany, UK
• ? Representativeness and wider applicability
• Scientific rationale
• exploring diversity
• ? Capturing and analysing diversity

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the practice of country selection

• Pragmatic rationale
• partners with cultural/linguistic affinity
• ? Dealing with bias
• FW rationales
• Common research methods
• Self-selection
• Common mission
• Cultural proximity

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IPROSEC country rationale

• 1. EEC founder member states gt France, Germany,
  Italy (continental welfare systems)
• 2. EC second wave member states gt Ireland, UK
  (universal, residual welfare systems)
• 3. EC third wave member states gt Greece, Spain
  (southern European welfare systems)
• 4. EU fourth wave member states gt Sweden
• (Nordic, social democratic welfare systems)
• 5. EU fifth wave member states gt Estonia,
  Hungary, Poland (post-communist welfare systems)

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IPROSEC research design

• Aims and objectives
• Compare and contrast the policy process
• Inform policy
• Assess policy responses and outcomes
• Methods
• Secondary data analysis
• Policy context analysis
• In-depth interviews with policy actors and family
  members
• Intraregional heterogeneity

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Implications of country mix

• Policy reviews
• Validation through triangulation
• Overlap/duplication
• Patchy country coverage
• Limited reliability and applicability
• Concordant/discordant outcomes
• Need to revisit assumptions
• Awareness of diversity and complexity
• Analysis of policy effects
• Understanding what works and why in different
  policy contexts