Comparing Regional Spaces: Research Strategy and Distancing from Methodological Nationalism

How do we build a comparative analytical framework? What empirical strategies should researchers develop in data collection? This paper seeks to provide some answers from a variety of comparative experiences in regions in Europe. The first challenge is to study regional space as a unit of analysis of political change in order to dismiss methodological nationalism and thus make comparison across regions possible as well as of their different political traditions, social values, and cultures. Therefore this implies considering the territory not as a mere receptacle of exogenous factors, but as a dynamic, institutionalized space, producing its own logics of power. The second challenge is to collect rich and diverse empirical material in order to build an original viewpoint and argument on the phenomenon studied. This crossed analysis of qualitative and quantitative data allows an intensification of what can be called an empirical body of evidence. Indeed, only by collecting a large volume of empirical material can one establish causal relationships between the phenomena studied, and thus better understand and inform the parameters of regional power.