Comparative Sociology: An overall outline and prospects for the future

Abstract

he paper is oriented toward an exploration into ‘comparative sociology’ as a science and teaching discipline. An understanding of the relations between comparative sociology and sociology per se is a primary concern for the authors. They argue that such an understanding along with a clarification of substantial and conceptual relations between comparative methods and comparative sociology would be crucial for the development of theoretical sociology. The paper begins with the analysis of the historical dynamics of comparative sociology in the USA. It follows with a survey of the comparative sociology institutionalization in Russian academia. Having described the current state of affairs for comparative sociology and critically debated qualitative and quantitative strategies in comparative sociological research the authors examine the potentials of comparative programs in sociological studies of everyday life. It gives them the basis to articulate their answers to the basic questions concerning relations between comparative sociology and sociology.