Microcredential komex Introduction to Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) using R

This hands-on, intensive five-day course introduces you to performing Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) using R in order to model complex necessary and/or sufficient conditions and systematically compare small to large numbers of cases.

What Is This Course About?
This five-day in-person course introduces you to Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), an innovative set-theoretic technique that allows for comparisons of small, intermediate or large numbers of cases in order to identify necessary and / or sufficient conditions for an outcome, model causal complexity, and integrate in-depth case knowledge at all stages of the analysis. The intensive course has a practical focus and combines theoretical blocks with hands-on exercises. We will use real-world data to replicate a published study with the freely available R software, and discuss examples from the participants’ own research projects in class.

Learning Goals
Design your research using Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Understand the logic and technical underpinnings of Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Independently perform a standard crisp-set or fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis using the R software environment
Address potential pitfalls of Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Assignments for the Course
Daily formative assignments (e.g. Quizzes, R lab exercises)
Summative assignment: replication of published QCA study or own QCA (Standard Analysis)

Schedule

• 09.00-10.30 – Course
• 10.30-11.00 – Break
• 11.00-12.30 – Course
• 12.30-13.30 – Lunch break
• 13.30-14.30 – Course

Recommended Readings for the Course

• Oana, I.E., Schneider, C.Q. and E. Thomann. 2021. Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) Using R: A Beginner’s Guide. Cambridge University Press.
• Ragin, C.C. (1987/2014). The comparative method: Moving beyond qualitative and quantitative strategies. University of California Press.
• Schneider, C.Q. and C. Wagemann (2012). Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences. A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Who Is Your Instructor?
Eva Thomann is a full professor at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz who specializes in case-oriented and set-theoretic research design and methodology, which she teaches at international method schools. She co-authored the textbook “Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) Using R: A Beginner’s Guide” (2021, Cambridge University Press, with Carsten Q. Schneider and Ioana-Elena Oana) as well as the article “Designing Research with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): Approaches, Challenges, Tools” (2020, Sociological Methods & Research, with Martino Maggetti). Her monograph “Customized implementation of European Union food safety policy: United in diversity?” (Palgrave, 2019), using set-theoretic methods, received the 2019 best book award from the International Public Policy Association. Eva Thomann is the founder and academic convenor of KOMEX, a board member of the COMPArative Methods for Systematic cross-caSe analysis (COMPASSS), and a founding member of the Methods Excellence Network (MethodsNet).
X: @evathomann