Crafting comparative social research

The United Nations University and Maastricht University attract professionals, mainly from international organisations, wanting to do a PhD. I gave them a compact two day method seminar, but probably learned as much from them as they did from me. Their studies aim to provide informed answers to real word problems. For example two studies try to give a better understanding of the drivers and barriers in Africa for introducing, respectively, community policing or land reforms and two others were explored how educational and financial sector reform in Northamerica may be informed by the experience of other countries.