This is a resource book for social scientists engaged in cross-national comparative research. It critically examines the methodological and managerial issues which arise from such work, with a particular focus on the economic and social policy agenda of the European Union. Experts from across Europe and from different disciplinary backgrounds draw upon their own experience of conducting cross-national comparisons to offer well-informed guidance on how to overcome the pitfalls and problems they have encountered.

Compilation of conference papers on the use of quantitative documentation on political and sociological aspects, and cultural factors in cross-national comparisons, social research and cross cultural analysis. Many references, statistical tables, and bibliography pp. 561 to 569. Conference held in new haven 1963.

Historians today like to preach the virtues of comparison and cross-national work. In the last decade, cross-national histories have prospered, yielding important work in the subjects as diverse as the transatlantic trade in slaves and the cultures of celebrity. In the meantime, comparative history has also enjoyed a renaissance, but what is largely missing in the rush beyond the nation is any sense of how to tackle this research. This volume brings together scholars who have worked either cross-nationally or comparatively to reflect upon their own research. In essays that engage practical, methodological, and theoretical questions, these contributors assess the gains--but also the obstacles and perils--of research that traverses national boundaries. Drawn from the subject-areas that have attracted the most comparative and cross-national attention: war, welfare, labor, nation, immigration, and gender. Taken together, these essays provide the first critical analysis of the cross-national turn in European history.

This collection of articles is a contribution to the debate about two important questions in the study of comparative education: ‘What lessons can be learned from cross-national studies of issues in education?’ and ‘What problems of comparative method do such studies have to address?’

Addresses measurement and harmonization problems related to variables such as age, sex or gender, education, status in employment, ethnicity, etc. Includes ILO contributions by E. Hoffmann on the International Classification of Status of Employment (ICSE), and International Statistical Comparisons of Occupational and Social Structures: problems, possibilities and the role of ISCO-88.

The development of cross-national research attempts to a much-needed global perspective on sociological research. Its adherents overcome national, cultural, logistic and linguistic barriers in the attempt to provide truly comparative information on the human condition. This volume, stemming from the plenary sessions of the 1987 American Sociological Association annual meeting and edited by past president Melvin Kohn, presents the cutting edge of cross-national research. Its distinguished contributors from nine countries describe the theoretical possibilities and limits of this kind of endeavour, consider the difficulties of its implementation, and present a range of studies ranging from two-nation comparisons to truly global ones, that are

The book consists of five parts and a concluding chapter. Part 1 covers general problems and presents solutions for the harmonisation of data from different national and/or cultural contexts. In the second part EUROSTAT and ESOMAR present their established standard instruments. Tested instruments each covering one variable (i.e. occupation, education) are presented in the third part. The fourth part again includes suggested tools for the harmonisation of single variables for which standardised instruments are not yet available (i.e. age, religion, ethnicity, household, family, income). The last part presents selected empirical analyses demonstrating the use and fruitfulness of instruments presented before. This book is mainly written for two groups. First, researchers and practitioners involved in comparative research in Europe. Second, researchers working with data of the statistical offices of European countries and data from institutions of the European Union.

This open access book examines how childhood social disadvantage influences young-adult demographic decision-making and later-life economic and well-being outcomes. This book in particular focuses on testing whether the consequences of childhood social disadvantage for adult outcomes differ across societies, and whether these differences are shaped by the “context of opportunities” that societies offer to diminish the adverse impact of economic and social deprivation. The book integrates a longitudinal approach and provides new insights in how the experience of childhood disadvantage (e.g. low parental socio-economic status, family disruption) influences demographic decisions in adulthood (e.g. the timing of family-events such as cohabitation, marriage or parenthood; the risk of divorce or having a child outside a partner relationship; the exposure to later-life loneliness, poor health, and economic adversity). Moreover, using a cross-national comparative perspective it investigates whether the relationships of interest differ across nations, and tests the “context of opportunities” hypothesis arguing that the links between childhood disadvantage and adult outcomes are weakened in societal contexts offering good opportunities for people to escape situations of deprivation. To do so, the book analyzes national contexts based on economic prosperity, family values and norms, and welfare-state arrangements.