Journal article
A Case for Description
PS, political science & politics, v 57(1), pp 51-56
Jan 2024
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Descriptive research—work aimed at answering “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” and “how” questions—is vital at every stage of social scientific inquiry. The creative and analytic process of description—through concepts, measures, or cases, whether in numeric or narrative form—is crucial for conducting research aimed at understanding politics in action. Yet, our field tends to devalue such work as “merely descriptive” (Gerring 2012), subsidiary to or less valuable than hypothesis-drive causal inference. This article posits four key areas in which description contributes to political science: in conceptualization, in policy relevance, in the management and leveraging of data, and in challenging entrenched biases and diversifying our field.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- A Case for Description
- Creators
- Carolyn E. Holmes - University of Tennessee at KnoxvilleMeg K. Guliford - Drexel University, PoliticsMary Anne S. Mendoza-Davé - California State Polytechnic UniversityMichelle Jurkovich - University of Massachusetts Boston
- Publication Details
- PS, political science & politics, v 57(1), pp 51-56
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Number of pages
- 6
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Politics; Drexel University
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001091262300001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85176114457
- Other Identifier
- 991021861182504721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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InCites Highlights
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Political Science