Reconciling the “Micro” and the “Macro”: The Extended Case Method, World Systems Analysis, and a Reflexive, World-Historical Sociology

Rishi Awatramani, University of Southern California
Corey R. Payne, University of Richmond

The extended case method—articulated 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 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. First, we identify the similarities between these methods—which include an attention to theoretical and empirical anomalies, a focus on historical-spatial specificity, and a rejection of positivism. Second, we argue that reconciling their differences can yield a reflexive, world-historical sociology. Such an approach neither treats “the global” as merely an aggregation of local dynamics, nor as an a theoretical a priori which is merely revealed through examination of concrete instances. Rather, the generative combination of these methods can produce a relational and historical theory of global and world-historical dynamics that is subject to reflexive iteration through sustained social scientific inquiry. Additionally, we argue that, in overcoming the divide between microscopic and macroscopic points of view, such an approach can also incorporate a theory of the mediating social forces at the mesoscopic level, thus becoming more compelling for understanding the dynamics of historical and contemporary capitalism across time and space.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 22. Structure and Space in Historical Causality