Multi-Sited Comparison of "Doing Regulation"

Abstract

George Marcus (1995) emphasizes that multi-sited ethnography embodies within itself a comparative dimension. For our general understanding of comparison, however, multi-sited ethnography lacks a crucial component: a grounding or tertium comparationis. Th is article proposes a multi-sited comparison which does not take as its point of departure any tertium comparationis but instead identifies this as an outcome. Th e method of comparison was developed amidst a multisited ethnography of "doing regulation," here with reference to computer games and the regulatory purpose of protecting minors from harmful media content.

Between context and comparability: Exploring new solutions for a familiar methodological challenge in qualitative comparative research

“…We do not want to overstretch the comparison and emphasis on commonalities between the two at this point. However, we wanted to link the two constructivist methodological propositions that explore new ways of comparison—those of Schmidt (, ) and Sørensen (, )—with older methods (Bereday, ; Berry, ; Hilker, ) based on realist notions that we discuss in the following to broaden the debate on comparative methodology.…”

“…Like Schmidt, Sørensen (, ) in her likewise constructivist perspective suggests inverting the standard process of comparison and treating the tertium comparationis as a result and not as a precondition. She calls this approach process‐oriented comparability.…”

“…Both basically propose an inversion of the standard comparative process (defining comparative criteria—comparing cases—denoting differences/similarities). Sørensen (, ) additionally suggests a rearrangement of the spatial constellation. The plan here is to connect their propositions to comparative higher education research that also uses many other methodological approaches than ethnography and that also utilises a range of qualitative data (e.g., interviews, documents and website material) and various methods of data analysis (coding, qualitative content analysis and a variety of reconstructive analyses—grounded theory methodology, narrative analysis, sequential analysis and the documentary method) (Tight, , ; Wells, Kolek, Williams, & Saunders, ).…”

Shifting Ontologies of a Serious Game and its Relationships with English Education for Beginners

“…Comparative thinking involves consciously establishing multiple sites for investigation, as can be seen in variations of comparative education and multi-sited ethnographical approaches (e.g. Marcus 1995;Sørensen 2008). A different approach is thinking in terms of enactments of alternatives as a fundamental condition in research that takes part in enacting the phenomena we are researching.…”

Negotiating Solidarity: Collective Actions for Precarious Migrant Workers’ Rights in Sweden

“…This dissertation has further investigated the occurrence of cooperation between collective actors and the grounds for their varying responses. By drawing on the four articles, this concluding discussion will summarise the process of collective action negotiation, bringing together the three interconnected sites (Sørensen, 2008) for negotiations related to the rights of precarious migrant workers. The collective actors encountered at the three sites have come forth not only as advocates (see Andrews and Edwards, 2004;Gamson, 2004) for the rights of precarious migrant workers, but too almost exclusively assuming the role as proxies in relation to the workers' plight.…”