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Perestroika Ten Years After: Reflections on Methodological Diversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2010

Dvora Yanow
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Peregrine Schwartz-Shea
Affiliation:
University of Utah

Extract

One of the primary concerns driving Perestroika was the hegemony of quantitative methods in American political science research, curricula, journals, and positions, to the exclusion of qualitative and interpretive approaches. In this article, we assess the contemporary methodological diversity of U.S. political science, at the APSA in particular, to see what, if anything, has changed over the last 10 years. This is an admittedly rough assessment, as the deadline for this symposium did not allow time to repeat the research projects that started Perestroika's and our own solo and joint efforts, the latter preceding and then intersecting with the former. We therefore give a broad overview of methods-directed activities, although we cannot help but see events through the lens of our own involvement in them, and that view is perforce partial.

Type
Symposium
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2010

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