What makes a concept good

Conceptual stretching is avoided by adding adjectives. In classical forms of taxonomical categorization, the problem of conceptual stretching is resolved by dropping an adjective authoritarianism whereas in more contemporary usage in political science it is resolved by adding an adjective bureaucratic authoritarianism.

A long standing debate in comparative politics is the question which attributes of democracy should we use to differentiate a democratic regime from a non-democratic regime? Elections, party choice, contestation, participation, accountability, protection of civil rights, equal opportunities, rule by the people, and social equity are all contested concepts, and each has specific attributes. A researcher may have 7 cases of democratic regime, and each case may have 5 out of six shared attributes, therefore each case is missing a different attribute.

Defining and conceptualizing democracy is not a simple case of operationalising variables and properties. Conceptualization is a highly contextual process. You have to know your cases. Gerring suggests that all concept formation in the social sciences can be understood as an attempt to mediate the eight criteria above. But how does this all apply to the day to day practice of research design, and ordinary language use? For Gerring , concept formation is an ongoing interpretative battle that involves a set of tradeoffs as opposed to rules between eight different criteria:.

Concept formation ultimately refers to a the phenomena to be defined , b the properties or attributes that define them , and c the label covering both. He points out that our research is heavily shaped by the concepts we use.

These means it can effectively have hundreds of different definitions. It matters a great deal how we define our terms and how we use them in our scientific discourses. Humans are bipedal and featherless i. Definitions, shared meanings, and providing clear indicators of what we are talking about are crucial in social science discourse and ordinary language use. Concepts perform a referential function.

But this is not their only purpose. They also serve to differentiate, define and explicate. The colour blue takes off where the colour green and brown ends. Familiarity is important. But if a common concept or term serves to confuse a plurality of ideas then the creation of a new concept is often necessary. But this is not an invitation to produce a Derridaesque set of neologisms yes, I did just create a new term!

As Gerring points out, on a practical level, effective phrase-making la casta in recent spanish politics can be no more separated from the task of concept formation than good writing can be separated from good research.

Concepts, for good or ill, also aspire to power, which are usually captured by their resonance. Good concepts stick because they resonate. Good concepts do not have endless definitions. Abbreviation shortens discourse and increases understanding. Mathematical and logical language is an obvious example of this. But so is the Chinese language.

It is parsimonious. Coherence suggests that the internal attributes which define the concept belong together. This is arguably the most important criteria for concept formation.

It differentiates blue from green, liberal from conservative. Coherence in the core meaning can make for a very sticky concept, which travels through time and space.

But differentiation is always a matter of degree. For example what is the difference between power, force, authority and violence? Goof concepts need operationalization. This concept is coherent, differentiated and quite parsimonious. Finally, allow me to say a few words about the central importance of typologies in the process of concept formation.

Conceptual typologies and categorical variables explicate the meaning of a concept by mapping out its dimensions. How should we conceptualize the process of involving civil society in the policymaking? Outside Westminister majoritarian systems this has led to an important set of typologies on corporatism, concertation and pluralism.

Discussion — are there are typologies that are directly relevant for organising the cases in your research project? What are the core contested concepts that shape your study?

You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Giovanni Sartori Beverly Hills: Sage, Skip to content. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply.

Previous Post Previous About concepts. However, with good concepts you sense the potential that it is more than just an one-off. You can see the opportunities to carry and nurture it for years and years to the future. The common mistake is to change winning concept too fast.

Brand representatives and advertising agencies get tired of the concepts more faster than general public does. Many times you see that fully functioning concept has been replaced with a new mediocre one, just for the sake of it being new. New is not always equivalent for better.

Concept fullfills strategy. If strategy is wrong, you will not be able to come up with great concepts. Whole team has to believe the strategy and be behind it. If there is reason of doubt or resistance among the team, the end-result will again be a lackluster campaign. Because of the channel-agnostic nature of great concepts, you have much more flexibility in terms of production.

You get better results with an excellent concept under tight budget, compared with mediocre concept pumped up with big production money. The scalability goes other way as well, the more resources you can put into concept the better it gets. Great concept pushes the envelope You have to fight for the great concept within the agency and with your client.

Mediocre and small-minded people will always try to find reasons to prevent groundbreaking and highly effective work to come out. Good concept pushes the boundaries and goes against the category conventions. This does not necessarily mean controversial work, but if your concept is not highly differentiating, it will not work. Great concept is simple at its core No matter how complicated or how many phases in the initial campaign will be, the core of the great concept is usually explained easily in a couple of sentences.

The craftmanship, rigor and the time invested to actual production based on that brilliant simplicity will make miracles. There is no shortcut for perfection and many times the final extra mile makes all the difference.

I wrote about the definition of concept last week. It is important to have good one-off ideas still on this phase, because they can […]. You are commenting using your WordPress.