Studying Long-Term Large-Scale Change: Concluding Reflections on the Relevant Unit of Analysis

Authors

  • Timothy Patrick Moran SUNY Stonybrook

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2009.327

Abstract

When I first received the papers as discussant for the ASA panel, Methodology for World-Systems Analysis (the papers that would come to constitute this journal?s special issue), I didn?t quite know how to proceed. In large part, the papers used innovative methodology to answer interesting substantive questions, so quality was not a question. The author?s were rigorous in how this methodology was applied, and creative in searching for and manipulating worldwide data, so no need to comment there. The problem was semantic. Not in the ?petty dispute over word choice? sense of semantic, but in the ontological relationship between distinctive concepts and their intended (in this case theoretical) meaning.

Downloads

Published

2009-02-26

How to Cite

Moran, T. P. (2009). Studying Long-Term Large-Scale Change: Concluding Reflections on the Relevant Unit of Analysis. Journal of World-Systems Research, 15(1), 115–123. https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2009.327

Issue

Section

Methodological Issues in Macro Comparative Research