Model Cases: On Canonical Research Objects and Sites

by Monika Krause

Overview

In Model Cases, Monika Krause asks about the concrete material research objects behind shared conversations about classes of objects, periods, and regions in the social sciences and humanities. It is well known that biologists focus on particular organisms, such as mice, fruit flies, or particular viruses when they study general questions about life, development, and disease.  Krause shows that scholars in the social sciences and humanities also draw on some cases more than others, selecting research objects influenced by a range of ideological but also mundane factors, such as convenience, historicist ideas about development over time, schemas in the general population, and schemas particular to specific scholarly communities.
 
 Some research objects are studied repeatedly and shape our understanding of more general ideas in disproportionate ways: The French Revolution has profoundly influenced our concepts of revolution, of citizenship, and of political modernity, just like studies of doctors have set the agenda for research on the professions. Based on an extensive analysis of the role of model cases in different fields, Krause argues that they can be useful for scholarly communities if they are acknowledged and reflected as particular objects; she also highlights the importance of research strategies based on neglected research objects and neglected combinations of research objects and scholarly concerns.
 

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226780832
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	09/03/2021
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Monika Krause is associate professor in sociology at the London School of Economics. She is the author of The Good Project: Humanitarian Relief NGOs and the Fragmentation of Reason and coauthor or coeditor of Social Theory Now, both also published by the University of Chicago Press. She is the winner of the 2019 Lewis A. Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda Setting in Sociology.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Material Research Objects and Privileged Material Research Objects
2. How Material Research Objects Are Selected
3. Model Cases and the Dream of Collective Methods
4. How Subfield Categories Shape Knowledge
5. The Schemas of Social Theory
6. The Model Cases of Global Knowledge
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
 

Editorial Reviews

"Model Cases would be excellent for a graduate seminar on the philosophy, theory, or methodology of a number of social science disciplines."-- "Choice"

"What do we as scholars look at when we do research? That is the simple but effective question that underlies Monika Krause's highly instructive new book, Model Cases... It is a book that makes us think about the collective research patterns that we are a part of."-- "LSE Review of Books"

"If the book didn't already have a subtitle, On Canonical Research Objects and Sites, Monika Krause could have titled it Model Cases: On the Metaphysics of the Syllabus. Her fascinating book is an examination-even a deconstructive analysis-of the two- or three-page document traditionally handed out in the first class on a university program but now usually posted on class management systems like Blackboard."-- "University World News"

"Model Cases is an ambitious and compelling contribution to our understanding of the practice of scholarship, whose inner logic Krause perceptively dissects across different disciplines and methodologies. Her account of how scholars relate to the objects they study offers foundational insights into how we argue and perform research within the humanities."--Carlos Spoerhase, professor of German literature, Bielefeld University

"Krause has written a powerful, illuminating argument about how the social sciences should work. It is a worthy successor to Max Weber's Science as a Vocation."--Richard Sennett, Urban Initiatives, United Nations Habitat

From the Publisher

Krause has written a powerful, illuminating argument about how the social sciences should work. It is a worthy successor to Max Weber's Science as a Vocation.

Richard Sennett

"What do we as scholars look at when we do research? That is the simple but effective question that underlies Monika Krause’s highly instructive new book, Model Cases... It is a book that makes us think about the collective research patterns that we are a part of."

LSE Review of Books

Model Cases is an ambitious and compelling contribution to our understanding of the practice of scholarship, whose inner logic Krause perceptively dissects across different disciplines and methodologies. Her account of how scholars relate to the objects they study offers foundational insights into how we argue and perform research within the humanities."

Carlos Spoerhase

"If the book didn’t already have a subtitle, On Canonical Research Objects and Sites, Monika Krause could have titled it Model Cases: On the Metaphysics of the Syllabus. Her fascinating book is an examination-even a deconstructive analysis-of the two- or three-page document traditionally handed out in the first class on a university program but now usually posted on class management systems like Blackboard."

University World News

"Model Cases would be excellent for a graduate seminar on the philosophy, theory, or methodology of a number of social science disciplines."

Choice