Reflexive Methods Across Micro- and Macro-Scales: Extended Case Method and World-Systems Analysis in Dialogue

• In Event: Microsociologies, Mezosociologies, and Macrosociologies: Scale, Level, Integration

Abstract

The extended case method—as formalized by Michael Burawoy—is best known as a research methodology that demands sustained attention to social relations in discrete locales. By contrast, world systems analysis—articulated in its holistic form by Terence Hopkins, Phil McMichael, and Beverly Silver—is best known as a research methodology that demands attention to global social relations. At first blush, these methods, with their seemingly divergent emphases on the “micro” and the “macro,” appear to be irreconcilably at odds. Yet we contend that the two approaches, when combined, may form an ideal partnership for researchers in pursuit of a global sociology steeped in the concrete complexities of diverse places. This article analyzes a series of outstanding methodological contributions in both traditions to rethink how sociologists theorize across levels of analysis. We argue that both emerged as reflexive critiques of positivist social science and that each contains underappreciated resources for bridging small-scale social processes and large-scale historical transformations. By extending their methodological premises and examining exemplary works from each tradition, we show that they may complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We therefore conclude by outlining the contours of a collaborative research agenda that joins ECM’s reconstruction of theory from anomalous cases with WSA’s capacity to trace processes across space and time.

Authors

• Rishi Awatramani, University of Southern California

• Corey R. Payne, University of Richmond