China Social Science Review

No.2, 2024

Does Quantitative Historical Research Imply the Disappearance of the Human Element?

(Abstract)

Wang Kang

Quantitative historical research, based on quantitative databases and borrowing from theories and methods of social sciences, focuses on uncovering the patterns and causal relationships of historical evolution. This approach has obvious advantages in addressing long time spans, major issues, and countering fragmented research. Quantitative methods are becoming a useful complement to traditional historiographical methods. As an interdisciplinary field, quantitative historical research requires greater collaboration between researchers from various disciplinary backgrounds. Although numerically based and emphasizing the discussion and analysis of social structures, quantitative methods do not overlook the “human history” reflected in the data. The attention given to the everyday experiences of ordinary people and the process of verifying and analyzing data demonstrate history’s concern for “human” elements. Historiography should combine a microperspective with the strengths of both quantitative methods and interpretive analysis to form a comprehensive study with a “life” dimension.