From August 22-28, 2022 I taught at the 26th Summer School in Social Science Methods, organized by the Swiss Foundation for Social Science (FORS) and the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI). The summer school is hosted at USI in beautiful Lugano, Switzerland. This was the fourth time I offered a one-week intensive course on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) at the Summer School in Lugano (after 2016, 2019, and 2021). This year, the course was offered as full-day in-presence workshop, with 18 participants hailing from 11 countries. The course was based on my QCA textbook Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Introduction to Research Design and Application, published with Georgetown University Press (2021, Publisher’s Website). Many thanks to all course participants for an intensive and fun week with QCA! And thanks to School Coordinator Janice Casarella and the School Directors Benedetto Lepori, Eugène Horber, and Patrick Gagliardini for the excellent and smooth organization!

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Registration opened for the 26th Summer School in Social Science Methods, organized by the Swiss Foundation for Social Science Research (FORS) and the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI). The school takes place at USI in beautiful Lugano, Switzerland.

For the 4th time, I am offering a one-week course on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) at the Swiss Summer School. The course takes place in presence during the week of August 22-26, 2022. The intensive full-day format in a small group settings allows for plenty of opportunities to practice empirical application with the R software, to discuss research design, and give feedback on participants’ research projects.

The course is based on my recent QCA textbook Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Introduction to Research Design and Application (Georgetown University Press, 2021).

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Am 12. und 13. Januar 2022 habe ich am Max-Weber-Institut der Universität Heidelberg einen virtuellen Workshop zu Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) gehalten. Neben einer allgemeinen Einführung in die Methodik von QCA illustrierte der Workshop empirische Anwendungsmöglichkeiten und die konkrete Durchführung von QCA-Analysen mit R und den zugehörigen R Packages. Als Grundlage diente das Lehrbuch Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Introduction to Research Design and Application (Georgetown University Press, 2021).

Herzlichen Dank an Prof. Matthias Koenig (Lehrstuhl Empirische Makrosoziologie) für die Einladung und an alle Teilnehmer*innen für den konstruktiven Workshop!

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Am 30. September und 1. Oktober 2021 habe ich am Fachbereich Interkulturelle Wirtschaftskommunikation (IWK) der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena einen virtuellen Workshop zu Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) gehalten. Der Workshop diente der allgemeinen Einführung in die QCA-Methodik sowie der konkreten Anwendung von QCA im Rahmen laufender Forschungsprojekte des IWK.

Herzlichen Dank an das ganze IWK-Team für den konstruktiven Workshop und den anregenden Austausch zu sozialwissenschaftlichen Methoden!

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From August 23-27, 2021 I taught at the 25th Summer School in Social Science Methods, organized by the Swiss Foundation for Social Science (FORS) and the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI). The summer school is hosted at USI in beautiful Lugano, Switzerland. This was the third time that I offered a one-week intensive course on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) at the Swiss Summer School in Lugano (after 2016 and 2019, respectively). The course was offered in hybrid format, with in-presence and online participants attending the course. The course was based on my QCA textbook Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Introduction to Research Design and Application, published with Georgetown University Press (2021, Publisher’s Website). Many thanks to all course participants for an intensive and fun week with QCA! And thanks to School Coordinator Janice Casarella and the School Directors Eugène Horber, Patrick Gagliardini, and Benedetto Lepori for the excellent and smooth organization!

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Am 21. und 22. Juli 2021 habe ich an der Medizinischen Fakultät der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg einen Workshop zu Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) gehalten. Der Workshop richtete sich gezielt auf die Anwendung von QCA im Rahmen eines laufenden Forschungsprojekts am Institut für Gesundheits- und Pflegewissenschaft der Uni Halle. Herzlichen Dank an das ganze Forschungsteam für die Einladung nach Halle und für den konstruktiven und anregenden Präsenz-Workshop!

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Am 14. Juli 2021 habe ich am Nachwuchskolleg „Effective and Innovative Policymaking in Contested Contexts“ (EIPCC) der Universität Erfurt einen virtuellen Gastvortrag zum Thema “Research Design and Methods” gehalten. Der Vortrag für Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden des EIPCC erläuterte grundlegende Fragen zu Forschungsdesign, Kausalität, sowie qualitativen und quantitativen Methoden der Sozialwissenschaften. Das EIPCC-Nachwuchskolleg der Universität Erfurt wurde Anfang 2021 von der Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, der Staatswissen-schaftlichen Fakultät und dem Max-Weber-Kolleg gegründet. Herzlichen Dank an die beiden Sprecherinnen der EIPCC-Kollegiat*innen, Stephanie Gast Zepeda und Almut Mohr, für die Einladung und an alle Teilnehmenden für die angeregte Diskussion im Anschluß an den Vortrag!

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Qualitative Comparative Analysis: Research Design and Application

On April 29-30, I taught a virtual workshop for 13 faculty members of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who are working on health-related applications of Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The intensive course followed the structure of my QCA textbook, which will be published with Georgetown University Press later this year (information about the book can be found here). Dating its foundation to 1740 with Benjamin Franklin as its first president, the University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Perelman School of Medicine is frequently ranked among the leading medical schools in the world. Thanks to everyone involved for turning this into a highly constructive two-day workshop experience!

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On January 14-15, I jointly co-taught a workshop on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) at the University of Lausanne, together with Benoît Rihoux of UC Louvain. Course participants were PhD students of the CUSO network of Western Switzerland (Universities of Lausanne, Fribourg, Genève, and Neuchâtel). Many thanks to the people at CUSO for the invitation and organization of the event and to the participants for a constructive workshop!

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The workshop program was announced for the 25th Summer School in Social Science Methods, organized by the Swiss Foundation for Social Science Research (FORS) and the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI). The school is hosted at USI in beautiful Lugano, Switzerland. For the third time, I am offering a one-week intensive course on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) at the Swiss Summer School. The course runs from August 23-27, 2021. The course is based on my QCA textbook Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Introduction to Research Design and Application (Georgetown University Press). Course registration will open at the end of January/early February 2021. The opening will be announced through the summer school’s newsletter (sign-up on the registration page).

Workshop contents

This workshop gives a thorough introduction to the method of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), with an emphasis on research design and practical application. Since its inception (Ragin 1987), QCA has gained recognition among social scientists as a case-based research method that is ideally suited to capture causal complexity. This essentially describes a situation where an outcome results from multiple pathways and different combinations of conditions. Moreover, QCA entails a rigorous and systematic comparison of selected cases and their configurations through Boolean logic and a software-based analytical protocol.

Throughout this workshop, participants will be introduced to the building blocks of QCA, while the course structure follows an ideal-typical research process. The introduction opens with empirical illustrations to show how and for what purposes QCA is being used, before summarizing the method’s key characteristics. This is followed by sessions on causation, causal complexity, and research design, to provide a foundation for thinking about empirical applications. The ensuing sessions engage with the use of QCA as an analytical approach, starting with set theory and concepts like necessary and sufficient conditions, Boolean algebra, truth tables, and fuzzy sets. In calibrating sets, we look into approaches to transform empirical raw data into crisp and fuzzy sets. Next, the course examines various measures of fit that help in evaluating QCA results. The session on set-theoretic analysis puts all of the elements together and shows how empirical data is analyzed and interpreted with QCA. Finally, the workshop closes with sessions on advanced topics, which can be tailored based on participants’ background and research interests. Potential topics include multi-method research design, QCA variants, addressing critiques, and recent developments. The workshop sessions are complemented by illustrations and exercises, using the R Software environment and relevant R Packages.

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