The (un)lucky country: the problem of the single antipodean case study and what to do about it
The (un)lucky country: the problem of the single antipodean case study and what to do about it
Single-case studies, though once the foundation of political science, have become a high-risk strategy in the discipline. The risk is especially acute for scholars who do rich qualitative work about New Zealand and Australia. There is a double bind. On the one hand, the community studying Antipodean politics is not large enough or sufficiently well-defined to ignore trends and mores overseas. On the other hand, Antipodean politics is not exotic or important enough to command the attention of the larger discipline. The danger lies in ‘falling off the map’. We consider the problem this poses for academic careers. We then outline a menu of strategies for surviving this double bind using the practices of comparative interpretive research. We posit that a more clear-eyed acknowledgement of the problem can lead to the conscious embracing of these strategies and the potential they offer for immersive case research.
Australian politics, Case study research, case selection, interpretive comparison, research design
384-395
Boswell, John
34bad0df-3d4d-40ce-948f-65871e3d783c
Corbett, Jack
78ebdcd1-2594-4faa-a849-e334211533b0
Rhodes, R.A.W.
cdbfb699-ba1a-4ff0-ba2c-060626f72948
2 February 2025
Boswell, John
34bad0df-3d4d-40ce-948f-65871e3d783c
Corbett, Jack
78ebdcd1-2594-4faa-a849-e334211533b0
Rhodes, R.A.W.
cdbfb699-ba1a-4ff0-ba2c-060626f72948
Boswell, John, Corbett, Jack and Rhodes, R.A.W.
(2025)
The (un)lucky country: the problem of the single antipodean case study and what to do about it.
Australian Journal of Political Science, 59 (4), .
(doi:10.1080/10361146.2025.2454567).
Abstract
Single-case studies, though once the foundation of political science, have become a high-risk strategy in the discipline. The risk is especially acute for scholars who do rich qualitative work about New Zealand and Australia. There is a double bind. On the one hand, the community studying Antipodean politics is not large enough or sufficiently well-defined to ignore trends and mores overseas. On the other hand, Antipodean politics is not exotic or important enough to command the attention of the larger discipline. The danger lies in ‘falling off the map’. We consider the problem this poses for academic careers. We then outline a menu of strategies for surviving this double bind using the practices of comparative interpretive research. We posit that a more clear-eyed acknowledgement of the problem can lead to the conscious embracing of these strategies and the potential they offer for immersive case research.
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The un lucky country the problem of the single antipodean case study and what to do about it
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Accepted/In Press date: 13 January 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 2 February 2025
Published date: 2 February 2025
Keywords:
Australian politics, Case study research, case selection, interpretive comparison, research design
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 497951
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/497951
ISSN: 1036-1146
PURE UUID: 61ad095a-d87d-47f6-a33b-b500ea2487fa
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Date deposited: 05 Feb 2025 17:35
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:10
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Author:
Jack Corbett
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