ESRA 2027 sessions by theme

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Methodological Challenges and Transferable Solutions in Cross-National and Cross-Cultural Research

Cross-national and cross-cultural research promises insights that cannot be gained from single-country studies. While non-comparative survey research may include some methodological challenges, they multiply when studies are conducted cross-national or cultural boundaries, e.g. differences between the target and achieved populations, non-response, sampling frames, recruitment procedures, modes of data collection, and the interpretation of questions. The consequences become considerably more complex when several countries or cultural contexts are involved.
Ensuring comparability therefore requires more than translating identical questionnaires or interview guides or applying the same methodological procedures across countries. A crucial, yet sometimes underestimated, prerequisite may be in-depth contextual knowledge of each country and its institutional, social, cultural, and historical conditions. Without such knowledge, observed differences between countries may be difficult to interpret.
This session invites methodological and empirical contributions addressing challenges encountered in cross-national and cross-cultural quantitative and qualitative research. We particularly welcome contributions that demonstrate how methodological problems were identified, addressed, and evaluated in empirical practice. Examples could be strategies for sampling and recruitment, dealing with non-response and differential response patterns, questionnaire translation and adaptation, measurement equivalence, culturally sensitive question design, mixed-method approaches, and the integration of contextual knowledge into study design and data interpretation.
We are especially interested in solutions that offer lessons transferable to other comparative research projects. The session aims to bring together researchers from different substantive and methodological backgrounds to discuss how comparability can be strengthened without neglecting country-specific contexts.
Besides asking whether countries can be compared using identical methods, the session asks asks also: What methodological knowledge and practices are needed to make meaningful cross-national comparisons possible?