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Monday 29 July – Friday 2 August
09:00–10:30 and 11:00–12:30
This course introduces you to process tracing (PT) methodology, and aims to give you the methodological tools to use it in your own research.
The relative strength of PT methods is that they enable us to study causal mechanisms – theories that detail how an outcome is produced – in single case studies.
The course introduces the ontological and epistemological foundations of the method. This is followed by a practical introduction to topics such as:
The aim is to introduce key aspects of a PT study through practical, hands-on advice and techniques in relation to your own research topic.
The course therefore requires active participation, and you’ll get most benefit from it if you can use parts of your own research in the exercises.
To receive ECTS Credits for this course, you must be an active participant, do the readings, submit the assignments, and present a research design on the final day.
Rasmus Brun Pedersen is an Associate Professor at Aarhus University. His research areas include foreign policy, european integration and qualitative methods development. He has taught numerous classes on qualitative methodology at BA, MA and PhD level, and has taught classes on process tracing at the ECPR Summer School, 2011–2017.
Rasmus has published several research articles, books and book chapters. He co-authored Process-Tracing Methods and Causal Case Study Methods, both published by the University of Michigan Press.
@RasmusBrunPederThis course on Process Tracing gives you the foundations of PT methods and, most importantly, enables you to use PT methods in your own research. You will gain the practical research skills needed to guide you through the steps to construct a PT research design.
In comparison with other research methods, PT as a distinct method involves research where,
‘The cause-effect link that connects independent variable and outcome is unwrapped and divided into smaller steps; then the investigator looks for observable evidence of each step.’ (Van Evera 1997:64).
The promise of PT as a methodological tool is that it enables the researcher to study more-or-less directly the causal mechanism(s) linking an independent variable (or set of variables) and an outcome, allowing us to open up the ‘black box’ of causality itself.
Within political science methodology, PT is arguably the only method that allows us to study causal mechanisms, allowing us to understand how an X (or set of X’s) produces Y instead of simply studying correlations and associations, and therefore is an
‘…invaluable method that should be included in every researcher’s repertoire.’ (George and Bennett 2005:224).
The course starts by differentiating Process Tracing from other methods; including both large-n quantitative, frequentist methods, but also other small-n methods such as analytical narratives, comparative case studies, congruence etc. Here, PT is defined by the interest in studying causal mechanisms in single case studies.
The course will discuss the overall variants of PT designs: theory-testing, theory-building and -revision. It will also explain outcome PT and provide examples of the different methods.
The workshop also offers insights into the recent debate on the role of causal mechanism in political science. Topics include how we should understand causal mechanisms (as intervening variables or systems) and how they can be conceptualised and operationalised.
Conceptualisation deals with translating a causal theory into a theorised causal mechanism that can explain how X produces Y.
Operationalisation relates to how we develop ‘empirical fingerprints’ that allow us to test whether the theorised mechanism can be observed in the empirical material.
The course also provides guidelines for how to work with empirics by utilising Bayesian-inspired inference.
We then turn our attention to how we would focus on questions of case selection and mixed-methods research.
Some background knowledge of qualitative case study methods and research designs would be helpful.
It is particularly useful to know about the debate between scholars who argue that there is only one logic of scientific inquiry and qualitative scholars who contend that there are important differences between quantitative and qualitative methods and how they impact upon the logic of inference and the construction of research designs.
| Day | Topic | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What is process tracing: Foundations and principles for case based research | |
| 2 | Working with causal mechanisms: Conceptualizing causes, outcomes and causal mechanisms | |
| 3 | Operationalization of empirical tests and working with empirics | |
| 4 | Process tracing research designs in practice | |
| 5 | Presentation of research designs and introduction to case selection and mixed methods research designs |
| Day | Readings |
|---|---|
| 1 |
What is process tracing? Foundations and principles for case-based research
|
| 2 |
Working with causal mechanisms: Conceptualising causes, outcomes and causal mechanisms
|
| 3 |
Operationalisation of empirical tests and working with empirics
|
| 4 |
Process tracing research designs in practice
|
| 5 |
Presentation of research designs and introduction to case selection and mixed methods research designs
|
None.
None.
See daily schedule.
Supplemental
Brady, Henry E. and David Collier (eds) 2010
Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools Shared Standards
2nd Edition. Lanham MD: Rowman Littlefield
Bunge, Mario, 2004
How Does It Work? The Search for Explanatory Mechanisms
Philosophy of the Social Sciences 34(2): 182-210
Cartwright, Nancy, 2007
Hunting Causes and Using Them: Approaches in Philosophy and Economics
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Craver and Darden, 2013
In Search of Mechanisms
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Fairfield, Tasha and Andrew E. Charman, 2017
Explicit Bayesian Analysis for Process Tracing: Guidelines, Opportunities, and Caveats
Political Analysis, 25: 363-380
Gerring, John, 2006
Single-Outcome Studies: A Methodological Primer
International Sociology Vol. 21(5): 707-734
Gerring, 2007
Case Study Research
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Glennan, Stuart S, 2002
Rethinking mechanistic explanation
Philosophy of Science 69: 342-353
Groff, Ruth, 2011
'Getting past Hume in the philosophy of social science'
In Causality in the Sciences, edited by Phyllis McKay Illari, Federica Russo and Jon Williamson
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 296-316
Gross, Neil, 2009
A Pragmatist Theory of Social Mechanisms
American Sociological Review 74 (3): 358–79
Grzymala-Busse, Anna, 2011
Time Will Tell? Temporality and the Analysis of Causal Mechanisms and Processes
Comparative Political Studies 44 (9): 1267–97
Hedström, Peter and Richard, Swedberg (ed), 1998
Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Illari, Phyllis and Federica Russo, 2014
Causality: Philosophical Theory meets Scientific Practice
Oxford: Oxford University Press
King, Keohane and Verba, 1994
Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research
Princeton: Princeton University Press
Mayntz, Renate, 2004
Mechanisms in the Analysis of Social Macro-Phenomena
Philosophy of the Social Sciences 34(2): 237-259
Pierson, Paul, 2003
Big, Slow-Moving, and…Invisible: Macrosocial Processes in the Study of Comparative Politics
In Comparative historical analysis in the social sciences. Ed. Mahoney, James and D. Rueschemayer, 177-207
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Roberts, Clayton, 1996
The Logic of Historical Explanation
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press
Rueschmeyer, Dietrich, 2003
Can One or a Few Cases Yield Theoretical Gains?
In Comparative historical analysis in the social sciences. Ed. Mahoney, James and D. Rueschemayer, 305-337
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Summer School
Case Study Research: Method and Practice
Introduction to Historical Methods
Summer School
Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Fuzzy Sets
Introduction to Historical Methods
Comparative Research Designs