Patrick A. Mello

International Politics, Security, and Methods

Category: Methods

  • British International Studies Association, Bath 2018

    43rd Annual Conference of the British International Studies Association (BISA) at the University of Bath

    On 13-14 June, I took part in the BISA Conference, participating in a roundtable on “Researching Non-State Actors in International Security: Methodological Challenges and Advances”, where I talked about my chapter on “Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and the Study of Non-State Actors” from an edited volume published with Routledge in 2017, edited by Andreas Kruck and Andrea Schneiker. The roundtable was joined by Ismene Gizelis (University of Essex), Joakim Berndtsson, (University of Gothenburg), Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (Aberystwyth University), and Ingvild Bode  (University of Kent). A pre-print version of my QCA chapter can be accessed as PDF. For information on BISA and the Bath conference see here.

  • Sektionstagung Internationale Beziehungen

    5th Convention of the International Relations Section of the German Political Science Association (DVPW)

    At the IB-Sektionstagung, I co-organized a panel on QCA in International Relations (with Nina Guérin). I also presented  my chapter “Qualitative Comparative Analysis and the Study of Non-State Actors” from the Routledge volume Researching Non-State Actors in International Security: Theory & Practice (edited by Andreas Kruck and Andrea Schneiker). Moreover, I was elected Co-Speaker of the Foreign and Security Policy Group for the 2017-2020 term (with Klaus Brummer, Sandra Destradi, and Gordon Friedrichs). Information on the group’s activities can be found here. To sign for the group’s mailing list follow this link.

  • ECPR Summer School in Methods and Techniques 2017

    Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Fuzzy Sets

    Patrick A. Mello (Week 1), Carsten Q. Schneider (Week 2), and Nena Oana (Teaching Assistant)

    Methods Course taught for the European Consortium for Political Research at Central European University, Budapest, 27 July – 7 August 2017

    Course Outline: “This course introduces participants to set-theoretic methods and their application in the social sciences with a focus on Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The introductory course is complemented by an advanced course that is taught at the ECPR Winter School in Bamberg. The course starts out by familiarizing students with the basic concepts of the underlying methodological perspective, among them the central notions of necessity and sufficiency, formal logic and Boolean algebra. From there, we move to the logic and analysis of truth tables and discuss the most important problems that emerge when this analytical tool is used for exploring social science data. Right from the beginning, students will be exposed to performing set-theoretic analyses with the relevant R software packages. When discussing set-theoretic methods, in-class debates will engage on broad, general comparative social research issues, such as case selection principles, concept formation, questions of data aggregation and the treatment of causally relevant notions of time. Examples are drawn from published applications in the social sciences. Participants are encouraged to bring their own raw data for in-class exercises and assignments, if available“ [Read Further]

  • 4th International QCA Expert Workshop at ETH Zurich

    Panel Debate on Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Research Transparency

    Panelists: Gary Goertz, Peer Fiss, Patrick A. Mello, and Eva Thomann

    Workshop Summary: “With the 4th International QCA Expert Workshop we build on the workshops of the past three years in bringing together around 40 researchers working with QCA across and beyond the neighboring areas of political sciences, sociology, management, and economics. By providing a forum for cross-disciplinary exchange, the 4th International QCA Expert Workshop encourages the dissemination of new ideas, facilitate the promotion of innovative work, and create opportunities for scientific collaboration” [Read Further]

  • Swiss Social Science Summer School 2016

    Qualitative Comparative Analysis (Patrick A. Mello)

    Methods Course at the 20th Swiss Social Science Summer School

    Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, 22-26 August 2016

    The workshop provides participants with a thorough introduction to Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), both as a research approach and as a data analysis technique. In recent years, this set-theoretic method has gained recognition among social scientists as a methodological approach that holds specific benefits for comparative studies. The course begins by familiarizing participants with the foundations of set theory and the basic concepts of the methodological approach of QCA, including necessary and sufficient conditions, Boolean algebra, and fuzzy logic. The next step is devoted to the calibration of empirical data into crisp and fuzzy sets. Once these essentials are in place, the course moves on to the construction and analysis of truth tables as the core of the QCA procedure. Here, we will also spend time to discuss typical challenges that arise during a truth table analysis and techniques to overcome such problems. Finally, the course will introduce consistency and coverage as parameters of fit as well as additional measures to assess the robustness of QCA results [Read Further]

  • ECPR Summer School in Methods and Techniques 2016

    Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Fuzzy Sets

    Patrick A. Mello (Week 1), Carsten Q. Schneider (Week 2), and Nena Oana (Teaching Assistant)

    Methods Course taught for the European Consortium for Political Research at Central European University, Budapest, 28 July – 13 August 2016

    Course Outline: “This course introduces participants to set-theoretic methods and their application in the social sciences with a focus on Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The introductory course is complemented by an advanced course that is taught at the ECPR Winter School in Bamberg. The course starts out by familiarizing students with the basic concepts of the underlying methodological perspective, among them the central notions of necessity and sufficiency, formal logic and Boolean algebra. From there, we move to the logic and analysis of truth tables and discuss the most important problems that emerge when this analytical tool is used for exploring social science data. Right from the beginning, students will be exposed to performing set-theoretic analyses with the relevant R software packages. When discussing set-theoretic methods, in-class debates will engage on broad, general comparative social research issues, such as case selection principles, concept formation, questions of data aggregation and the treatment of causally relevant notions of time. Examples are drawn from published applications in the social sciences. Participants are encouraged to bring their own raw data for in-class exercises and assignments, if available“ [Read Further]

  • ECPR Summer School in Methods and Techniques 2015

    Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Fuzzy Sets

    Patrick A. Mello (Week 1), Carsten Q. Schneider (Week 2), Adrian Dusa, and Nena Oana (Teaching Assistants)

    Methods Course taught for the European Consortium for Political Research at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, 23 July – 8 August 2015

    Course Outline: “This course introduces participants to set-theoretic methods and their application in the social sciences with a focus on Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The introductory course is complemented by an advanced course that is taught at the ECPR Winter School in Bamberg. The course starts out by familiarizing students with the basic concepts of the underlying methodological perspective, among them the central notions of necessity and sufficiency, formal logic and Boolean algebra. From there, we move to the logic and analysis of truth tables and discuss the most important problems that emerge when this analytical tool is used for exploring social science data. Right from the beginning, students will be exposed to performing set-theoretic analyses with the relevant R software packages. When discussing set-theoretic methods, in-class debates will engage on broad, general comparative social research issues, such as case selection principles, concept formation, questions of data aggregation and the treatment of causally relevant notions of time. Examples are drawn from published applications in the social sciences. Participants are encouraged to bring their own raw data for in-class exercises and assignments, if available” [Read Further]

  • ECPR Summer School in Methods and Techniques 2014

    Set-Theoretic Methods: Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Related Approaches

    Patrick A. Mello (Week 1), Carsten Q. Schneider (Week 2), Priscilla Álamos-Concha, and Nena Oana (Teaching Assistants)

    Methods Course taught for the European Consortium for Political Research at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, 24 July – 9 August 2014

    Course Outline: “This course introduces participants to set-theoretic methods and their application in the social sciences with an emphasis on Qualitative Comparative Analysis and fuzzy sets. The introductory course is complemented by an advanced course that is taught during the ECPR Winter School in Vienna. The course starts out by familiarising students with the basic concepts of the underlying methodological perspective, among them the central notions of necessity and sufficiency, formal logic and Boolean algebra. From there, we move to the logic and analysis of truth tables and discuss the most important problems that emerge when this analytic tool is used for analysing social science data. All analytic issues will be introduced based on crisp sets and later expanded to fuzzy sets. Right from the beginning, the course will also teach the use of the available software packages (predominantly R and fsQCA). When discussing set-theoretic methods, in-class debates will further engage on broad, general comparative social research issues, such as case selection principles, concept formation, questions of data aggregation and the treatment of causally relevant notions of time. Real-life published applications are used throughout the course. If available, participants are also encouraged to bring their own data. Some basic empirical comparative training is useful to get more out of the course, but this is no prerequisite in a strict sense.“ [Read Further]

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