This paper is one of a number of ‘think pieces’ com missioned during the nine-month design phase of the Africa Power and Politics Programme (A PPP). Apart from an initial reaffirmation of the central research problem set out in the programme proposal, it is concerned with issues of method. The paper addresses the challenges implied by attempting to construct a unitary research design for a large multi-disciplinary consortium many of whose members are now eager to have hypotheses defined an d issues resolved. It draws on a reading and re-reading of a significant literature on qualitative research methods in comparative politics, sociology and anthropology.