Process Tracing Methods

FREE Online Pilot Course, Thursday 23 April

The Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, in collaboration with the ECPR Methods School, are pleased to offer up to 12 participants an opportunity to attend a free online pilot course on Process Tracing Methods on Thursday 23 April.

This PhD-level course aims to give you a working understanding of the core elements of process tracing as a robust case study method, enabling you to use it in your own research – either alone or in combination with other methods. The course exploits the interactive capabilities of online technology, combining annotated readings, short pre-recorded lectures, and live group work and seminar-style discussions.

What to expect

The one-day course consists of three sessions, corresponding to the three core elements of process tracing methods:

1. Theoretical, assessing what we are 'tracing' using process tracing methods (i.e. causal processes/mechanisms)
2. How we can make evidence-based causal inferences using within-case 'mechanistic' evidence
3. Case selection and how process tracing can be combined with other methods.

In advance of the course, you should have completed the readings (annotated with comments) and viewed the three pre-recorded lectures on the course's key topics.

Prerequisite knowledge

You should be familiar with the basics of case study methods and have some experience in using them in your own research. After the course, you can earn one ECTS credit by completing two small exercises.

How to apply

Call for applications is now closed.

Indicative readings 

Full reading list provided on registration

Beach and Pedersen, 2019
Process-Tracing Methods 2nd edition
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan

Coremans, Evelyn, 2019
Opening up by closing off: how increased transparency triggers informalisation in EU decision-making
Journal of European Public Policy

About the instructor

Derek Beach is a professor of Political Science at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, where he teaches case study methodology, international relations, and European integration. He has authored articles, chapters, and books on research methodology, referendums, and European integration, and co-authored the books Process-tracing Methods: Foundations and Guidelines and Causal Case Studies (both with University of Michigan Press). He has taught qualitative case study methods at ECPR and IPSA summer and winter schools, held short courses at the APSA annual meeting on process tracing and case-based research, and numerous workshops and seminars on process tracing methods throughout the world. He is also an academic co-convenor of the ECPR Methods School.