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This paper attempts to build bridges across quantitative, qualitative, and interpretive traditions. I engaged this task to find common ground for communication with a range of colleagues from different disciplines; to demonstrate the varieties of quality available when social science is applied well; and to use multiple methods to produce policy. In re-reading the paper, I find that the first two tasks were possible, but the third has escaped me. It is certainly possible to find bridges across social science disciplines; they are not incommensurable, as some would argue. There are also ways in which we can recognize quality in research of different traditions. Still, these traditions look at the world differently when it comes to their answer to the basic question, "what should we do next." ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy study visits - formal visits or tours made by participants to a specific site or sites outside of their own jurisdiction to observe and gather information about a policy or policies in place at the site(s) ? are a form of policy learning through the processes of policy transfer. In this paper we review the research literature in the fields of organizational and policy learning and in policy transfer in order to generate hypotheses about policy study visits and their potential effectiveness. We then set forth a tentative typology of policy study visits and discuss various functions they might serve. We discuss the probable roles played by the visit participants, host, and organizers in affecting the effectiveness of the visit. We define effectiveness to include not only the communication of policy ideas to participants, but also that these ideas are adequately assessed and that conclusions derived from that assessment are utilized in policy making. Finally we describe research we are undertaking to better understand policy study visits and to test the hypotheses we generate in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the current state of qualitative research methods in political science and political communication, through a review of textbooks, conference papers, key earlier works, and recent controversies. Despite advances during the past quarter century, qualitative methods of research, analysis, and writing remain at the margins due to the positive philosophical orientation of political science. Although they have provided a staging ground for complaints against that orientation in recent debates, qualitative approaches to knowledge serve principally as a tool for exploratory work and as a foil to police the boundaries of mainstream political science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the role of area studies research in comparative political and social science is presented. It develops a model of how regional differentiation occurs historically. It also suggests ways to think about regions no merely as geographically proximate states, but clusters of interacting institutional forms. It proposes two practical strategies for inter-regional comparative research.

The article discusses increasing use of the multi-method research (MMR) as a quantitative and qualitative method in the social science. As mentioned, MMR presents results in the form of causality and explanation because of regularities detected by the method in the data. It further discusses connection between cross case method and MMR as it helps in describing general patterns between macro-variables.

The article discusses the questions posed by Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and other scholars regarding the use of widely accepted analytical categories in the social sciences. Rudolph critiques research approaches that posit universal categories into which social scientists claim to classify diverse people and culture.

Given the ubiquity of framing effects found in the social sciences, researchers have now begun examining the contextual and individual-level factors that influence when framing effects occur. Drawing on previous literature concerning the role that source cues play in political information processing, we examine whether an identity match (or mismatch) between the source of a framed message and respondent moderates framing effects. In Experiment 1 (n=199), we employ a 2 (Message Source: liberal/ conservative speaker) x 2 (Frame: free speech/ public order) x 2 (Participant Ideology: liberal/ conservative) experiment and expect that when the identity of the source matches that of the participant, framing effects should be heightened (relative to participants in a mismatch condition). We also examine whether constructs such as the Need for Cognition, the Need to Evaluate, or ideological ambivalence will influence this "matching effect." In Experiment 2 (n=119), we examine whether source cues resonate with individuals exposed to competing frames. Ultimately, we find strong evidence for the moderating role of source cues on framing effects, and we suggest that identity matching is an important factor to consider in future framing research. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer micorworlds are becoming a popular tool for both instruction and research in the natural and social sciences. Unlike a verbal description, the microworld provides the students an opportunity to experience in a non-passive and first hand manner the effect of alternative courses of action on the system they are exploring. This is because the student can repeat over and over the same sequence of events and observe the outcome of alternative effects. This presentation will illustrate how a relatively simple microworld was integrated into the classroom in courses in Israel and New Zealand in order to demonstrate to the students the constraints and dynamics of decision-making within the context of a protracted conflict. Another element that the students learned for themselves was the dilemma between their cognitive impulses and rational decision-making practices. The students were so captivated by this exercise that they did not want to leave the class when it ended, and requested to experiment with the simulator after the class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]