Microcredential ekomex Introduction to Process Tracing Methods
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Taking a hands-on approach, this five-day online course introduces you to the essentials of Process Tracing and develops both the theoretical understanding and the practical skills to set-up and conduct a full-fledged PT-study.
What Is This Course About?
Process Tracing (PT) is a within-case method that focusses on tracing causal mechanisms—the actual “link” between a trigger and an outcome. This five-day online course introduces you to the essentials of this method, its main underlying assumptions, and its applicability. Taking a hands-on approach, the course develops both the theoretical understanding and the practical skills to set-up and conduct a full-fledged PT-study and addresses causal mechanisms, theory development, data-gathering and analysis, and drawing inferences.
Learning Goals
- To be able to explain to a peer the added value of conducting a PT-study.
- To design a coherent and practicable PT-study in relation to your own research interests.
- To develop a strategy to implement and execute that study.
- To discuss the strengths and weaknesses of process tracing as a method.
Assignments for the Course
The course will build on several smaller, daily assignments in which you are asked to apply the day’s lessons to your own research project and one final, larger take-home paper.
Schedule
- 09:00-09:45 – Asynchronous Video lecture / instruction
- 10:00-10:45 – Synchronous (live) Teaching session with questions and discussion
- 11:00-11:45 – Asynchronous Independent learning activity
- Lunch break
- 13:00-14:45 – Synchronous (live) Supervised group work/discussion with instructor
- 15:00-16:00 – Synchronous (live) Office hours
Recommended Readings for the Course
- Beach, Derek, and Rasmus B. Pedersen. 2019. Process-Tracing Methods. Foundations and Guidelines. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
- Bennett, Andrew, and Jeffrey T. Checkel. 2015. ‘Process Tracing: From Philosophical Roots to Best Practices’. In Process Tracing: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool, edited by Andrew Bennett and Jeffrey T. Checkel, 3–37. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Machamer, Peter, Lindley Darden, and Carl F. Craver. 2000. ‘Thinking about Mechanisms’. Philosophy of Science 67 (1): 1–25.
Who Is Your Instructor?
Hilde van Meegdenburg is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University. Besides her substantive work she is a methodologist working on Process Tracing (PT) and qualitative case studies. She taught methods courses since 2016 and is currently co-authoring a book with Patrick A. Mello, Uncovering Causal Symptoms, and is keen on coherently thinking through PT-designs for social scientific research. A recent Handbook Chapter on PT from her hand can be found here. More information can be found on https://hildevanmeegdenburg.com.
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