Читать книгу Global Political Cities - Kent E. Calder - Страница 22

As Karl Popper has noted, social science research can involve either a quest for new theories or a testing of existing theories.²⁷ Given the novelty of the subject at hand here—the role of global cities in international politics—this research enterprise must inevitably be a matter of exploration rather than confirmation.²⁸ The objective is, as Arend Lijphart suggests, “to develop theoretical generalizations in areas where no theory exists yet.”²⁹ Case studies, John Gerring notes, “enjoy a natural advantage in research of an exploratory nature.”³⁰

For the foregoing reasons, this book adopts an exploratory, hypothesis-generating case study methodology. By using variable-specific hypotheses and triads that test various strengths of the functional variable (highly, moderately, and minimally effective), the book explores how the concrete structural and political-economic characteristics of global political cities support their increasingly influential role in international politics. Through concrete, exploratory, yet systematic case-study analysis, the volume thus addresses an important theoretical vacuum in the study of international political economy.