超越公共行政案例研究中的“定量范式”——与于文轩教授商榷

Beyond the “Quantitative Paradigm” of Case Study in Public Administration:A Dialogue with Prof.Yu Wenxuan

案例研究因适用于分析中国转型期间的各类实质性政治社会问题而为公共行政学界所广泛认可和运用。围绕着立足本土经验的案例研究能否科学识别问题、对已有理论作出贡献等议题,学者们在近年来展开了一系列论争。最新关于如何推进中国公共行政案例研究的相关论述,存在着遵循量化研究随机抽样原则和沿用强势学科信效度评判指标的危险。针对这一趋势,有必要在重新审视案例研究重视实质性问题这一比较优势的基础上,就中国公共行政研究者如何开展案例研究进行再思考。一般而言,为超越"定量范式",公共行政案例研究者可以从数据收集的"结构化"和分析过程的"可比较"出发,在避免忽略竞争性假设的同时,着力于提出具有一般化意义的发现,进而形成自身特有的研究风格。

Case study is broadly recognized and applied by public administration scholars to study the substantial political and societal issues during the transitional period of recent China.Focusing on whether as a method,case study can scientifically clarify the real problems and contribute to existed theories,the scholars in public administration have held several debates.A new paper by Prof.Yu shows the danger of following quantitative study and the criteria of reliability and validity in more developed disciplines.In order to overcome such trends,this paper echoes the comparative advantage of case study in finding substantive problems and rethinks the processes for scholars in public administration to conduct case study.Generally speaking,in order to break away from "quantitative paradigm",an experienced public administration scholar will focus on the structured data and comparative analytical process to avoid alternative explanations and figure out more generalized findings,which will contribute to the unique research style of themselves.