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Advanced Topics in Set-Theoretic Methods and QCA

Course Dates and Times

Monday 17 – Friday 21February 2019, 14:00 – 17:30 (finishing slightly earlier on Friday)
15 hours over five days

Ioana-Elena Oana

nena.oana@yahoo.com

Institution: European University Institute

Carsten Q. Schneider

schneiderc@ceu.edu

Institution: Central European University

This course addresses advanced issues that arise if and when scholars embrace notions of sets and their relations. While it is a course about set-theoretic methods writ large, most of the time, we will discuss issues specific to QCA.

We will try and address all the following topics but, depending on participants' needs and interests, we can put more emphasis on some:

set-theoretic multi-method research
robustness and sensitivity
set-theoretic theory evaluation
enhanced Standard Analysis
data structures and set-theoretic methods, including temporal ordering and two-step QCA
model ambiguity
multi-value QCA.

Tasks for ECTS credits

2 credits (pass/fail grade) Attend at least 90% of the course hours, participate fully in in-class activities, and carry out the necessary reading and/or other work prior to, and after, classes.

3 credits (to be graded) As above, plus complete daily assignments which involve performing data analysis in R, using the functions and concepts learned in class.

4 credits (to be graded) As above, plus complete a take-home paper of roughly 15 pages. You will receive a published QCA study plus its data. You must, first, replicate and, second, expand the analysis. Deadline for submission of the paper, along with clean R code, is three weeks after the end of the course.

Instructor Bio

Nena (Ioana-Elena) Oana is a Research Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence, where she is currently working on developing semi-automated solutions for protest event analysis in the framework of the SOLID project.

Nena is the main developer of the R package SetMethods and has extensive experience in teaching QCA using R at various international methods schools and universities (ECPR Methods Schools, Lund University, University of Helsinki, EUI, etc).

She has also co-authored, with Carsten Q. Schneider and Eva Thomann, the book Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) using R: A Beginner's Guide, forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.

Besides research methodology, Nena's main research interests include political participation and representation, political behaviour, and political psychology.

@NenaOana

Carsten Q. Schneider is Professor of Political Science at Central European University Budapest.

His research focuses on regime transitions, autocratic regimes, the qualities of democracies, and the link between social and political inequalities. He also works in the field of comparative methodology, especially on set-theoretic methods.

Carsten has published in leading political science journals, and he is the author three books, among them Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

The book Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) using R: A Gentle Introduction, co-authored with Ioana-Elena Oana and Eva Thomann, appeared in 2021 with Cambridge University Press and his book Set-Theoretic Multi-Method Research: A Guide to Combining QCA and Case Studies is forthcoming with the same publisher.

@CarstenQSchneid

If you have good knowledge of all the elements listed under 'Prerequisite knowledge', above, this course will deepen your understanding of the potentials and pitfalls of set-theoretic methods. The skills you gain will enable you to be more critical and assertive if and when you choose or reject set-theoretic methods as the most appropriate research method for your research project.

By the end of this course, you will be able to produce QCA studies of a quality and level of sophistication beyond the current mainstream and thus yield substantive results that are more compelling for you and for your (critical) audience.

Much of the course explores the boundaries of the still-relatively-young family of set-theoretic methods. Unavoidably, some of our debates will remain inconclusive. You won't always get ready-made, foolproof answers and procedures for all the issues you will face when trying to implement a high-quality QCA. Rather, this course invites you to think critically about set-theoretic methods, and, by extension, also about other data analysis techniques you will have to choose when doing empirical comparative research.

Day 1: Refresher Potpourri
We refresh our knowledge and go through the standard protocol of a QCA, using the relevant R packages. We cover a set of relatively unrelated, yet interesting and important issues. We focus on one or two of the following topics in more detail, depending on participants' interest:

Enhanced Standard Analysis
skewed sets and their analytic consequences
multi-value QCA.

Day 2: SMMRI I
We introduce set-theoretic multi-method research as an attempt at specifying just how QCA should be combined with within-case process tracing. We define the meaning of typical and deviant cases after a QCA, spell out the different rationales for studying each of them, and provide formulas for selecting the best available cases for (comparative) within-case analysis after a QCA. We discuss the principles and computer-assisted practice of set-theoretic theory evaluation.

Day 3: SMMR II, plus Theory Evaluation

Day 4: Sensitivity Analysis and Data Structures I
We engage with the notion of robustness in set-theoretic methods and try to systematise the debate by specifying the analytic decisions against which QCA results should be expected to be robust. Along these lines, we aim to formulate criteria for meaningful robustness tests and practice recent software implementations for robustness tests.

Day 5: Sensitivity Analysis and Data Structures II
As part of the sensitivity analysis, we focus on different structures in the data. We discuss various strategies for detecting such structures via calibration, temporal QCA (tQCA), cluster diagnostics, Coincidence Analysis (cna), and the updated version of the two-step QCA approach.

This is an advanced course. Don't expect a general introduction to the basics of set-theoretic methods and QCA, or an introduction to the basics of the R software environment.

You should have a firm command of basic formal logic, Boolean algebra, and set-theory.

You must be familiar with the basic protocol of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), including:

the difference between sets and variables
the notion of set calibration
the meaning of set relations (sufficiency, necessity, INUS, SUIN)
the construction and logical minimisation of a truth table
the calculation and interpretation of the parameters of fit (consistency and coverage)
the treatment of logical remainders as done by the Standard Analysis.

Check whether you are in command of all the questions addressed in Schneider/Wagemann (2012) Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences, chapters 1–7.

You should be familiar with the basics of the R software environment because we will use R packages relevant for performing set-theoretic analyses.

If you attended the two-week course on Set-Theoretic Methods and QCA at the ECPR Summer School, you are well prepared for this advanced course.

Day	Topic	Details
Day 1	Set-Theoretic Methods and QCA in a nutshell; Potpourri - Enhanced Standard Analysis - Skewed Sets - Multi-Value QCA	120-minute seminar the standard QCA protocol how to avoid untenable assumptions on logical remainders how to avoid analytic pitfalls that stem from skewed sets the logic of multi-value QCA 60-minute lab session implementation of standard QCA protocol in R implementation of Enhanced Standard Analysis and multi-value QCA diagnostics for skewed sets in R
Day 2	Set-theoretic multi-method research	90-minute lecture how to select cases after a QCA how to make use of the insights gained from these (comparative) within-case analyses 90-minute lab session applying the post-QCA case selection principles to examples of published QCA studies
Day 3	Set-theoretic multi-method research and Set-theoretic theory evaluation	90-minute lecture More on selection cases for within-case analysis based on a QCA result How to evaluate theories (rather than testing hypotheses) with set-theoretic methods What can and cannot be the meaning of robust results in set-theoretic methods? Robustness against what? Designing meaningful robustness tests 90-minute lab session Applying the post-QCA case selection principles to examples of published QCA studies Applying Theory Evaluation to examples of published QCA studies Applying set-theoretic robustness tests to published QCA studies
Day 4	Sensitivity and Data Structures I - robustness principles and practices - the inclusionof time into set-theoretic analyses - panel data diagnostics - temporal QCA (tQCA)	90-minute lecture How to see robust results in QCA The intrinsic challenges of including notions of time as causally relevant Diagnosing clusters in the data Simple sequences via tQCA 90-minute lab session Applying robustness functions to published QCA studies Applying tQCA and the cluster diagnostic functions to examples of published QCA studies
Day 5	Sensitivity and Data Structures II - Coincidence Analysis (cna) - two-step QCA updated	90-minute lecture More complex sequences detected via cna An updated version of the two-step QCA approach 90-minute lab session Applying cna to publshed QCA studies Implementation of the updated two-step QCA approach

Day	Readings
Day 1: Standard QCA protocol; Potpourri; Enhanced Standard Analysis / Skewed sets / mvQCA	Haesebrouck, Tim. 2016 The Added Value of Multi-Value Qualitative Comparative Analysis Forum: Qualitative Social Research 17(1) Schneider, Carsten Q., and Claudius Wagemann. 2012 Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences: A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapters 8, 9, 10.2 Optional *QCA basics refresher* Mahoney, James. 2014 Set Diagrams and Qualitative Research Comparative Political Studie Schneider, Carsten Q., and Claudius Wagemann. 2012 Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences: A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapters 1–7 *QCA critics and rejoinder* Collier, David. 2014 Symposium: The Set-Theoretic Comparative Method: Critical Assessments and the Search for Alternatives Qualitative & Multi-Method Research Newsletter 12(1): 1–52 Rohlfing, Ingo, and Carsten Q Schneider. 2014 Clarifying Misunderstandings, Moving Forward: Towards Standards and Tools for Set-Theoretic Methods Qualitative & Multi-Method Research Newsletter 12(2): 27–34 Paine, Jack. 2015 Set-Theoretic Comparative Methods: Less Distinctive Than Claimed Comparative Political Studies 49(6), 703–741 Schneider, Carsten Q. 2016 Real Differences and Overlooked Similarities: A Reply to Paine (2015) Comparative Political Studies 49(6): 781–792 Thiem, Alrik, Michael Baumgartner, and Damien Bol. 2015 Still Lost in Translation! A Correction of Three Misunderstandings between Configurational Comparativists and Regressional Analysts Comparative Political Studies, 49(6): 742–774 *ESA* Cooper, Barry, and Judith Glaesser. 2016 Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Necessary Conditions, and Limited Diversity Field Methods 28(3): 300–315 Schneider, Carsten Q., and Claudius Wagemann. 2016 Assessing ESA on What It Is Designed for: A Reply to Cooper and Glaesser Field Methods 28(3): 316–21 *Skewed sets* Cooper, Barry, and Judith Glaesser. 2011 Paradoxes and Pitfalls in Using Fuzzy Set QCA: Illustrations from a Critical Review of a Study of Educational Inequality Sociological Research Online 16(3) Cooper, Barry, and Judith Glaesser. 2016 Analysing Necessity and Sufficiency with Qualitative Comparative Analysis: How Do Results Vary as Case Weights Change? Quality and Quantity 50(1): 327–46 *Multi-Value QCA* Cronqvist, Lasse, and Dirk Berg-Schlosser. 2009 Multi-Value QCA (mvQCA) In Configurational Comparative Methods. Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Related Techniques, eds. Benoît Rihoux and Charles C Ragin Thousand Oaks/London: Sage. pp, 69–86 Thiem, Alrik 2015 Parameters of Fit and Intermediate Solutions in Multi-Value Qualitative Comparative Analysis Quality & Quantity 49: 657–74 (accessed March 12, 2014) Thiem, Alrik. 2013 Clearly Crisp, and Not Fuzzy: A Reassessment of the (Putative) Pitfalls of Multi-Value QCA Field Methods 25(2): 197–207. (accessed March 29, 2013) Thiem, Alrik. 2013 Unifying Configurational Comparative Methodology: Generalized-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis Sociological Methods & Research 43(2): 313–37 Vink, M. P., and O. van Vliet. 2009 Not Quite Crisp, Not Yet Fuzzy? Assessing the Potentials and Pitfalls of Multi-Value QCA Field Methods 21(3): 265–89. (accessed May 3, 2011)
Day 2 – SMMR I	Schneider, Carsten Q., and Ingo Rohlfing. 2013 Set-Theoretic Methods and Process Tracing in Multi-Method Research: Principles of Case Selection after QCA Sociological Methods and Research, 42(4), 559–597 Schneider, Carsten Q., and Ingo Rohlfing. Forthcoming Corridors and Conjunctions for Case Selection in Set-theoretic Multi-Method Research Swiss Political Science Review Optional Mikkelsen, Kim Sass Fuzzy-Set Case Studies Sociological Methods and Research. 2015, online first Mikkelsen, Kim Sass Negative Case Selection: Justifications and Consequences for Set-Theoretic MMR Sociological Methods and Research. online first Ragin, Charles C. and Garrett Andrew Schneider. 2011 Case-Oriented Theory Building and Theory Testing, pp. 150–166 In Sage Handbook of Innovations in Social Research Methods, ed. Malcolm; Vogt Williams W. Paul London: Sage Rihoux, Benoît, and Bojana Lobe. 2009 The Case for Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): Adding Leverage for Thick Cross-Case Comparison, pp. 222–242 In Sage Handbook Of Case-Based Methods, eds. David Byrne and Charles C Ragin London: Sage Ragin, Charles C. 1987 *The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies, pp. 118–121 University of California Press Rohlfing, Ingo, and Carsten Q. Schneider. 2013 Combining QCA With Process Tracing in Analyses of Necessity* Political Research Quarterly 66(1): 220–235 Schneider, C. Q., and I. Rohlfing. 2016 Case Studies Nested in Fuzzy-Set QCA on Sufficiency: Formalizing Case Selection and Causal Inference Sociological Methods & Research 45(3): 526–568
Day 3 – SMMR II – Theory Evaluation	Schneider, Carsten Q., and Claudius Wagemann. 2012 Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences: A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Chapters 11.3 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Day 4: Data structures I - time, small sequences, and cluster diagnostics	Oana, Nena, and Carsten Q. Schneider Case orientation and parameters of _t orientation. A proposal for systematized robustness tests in QCA using R mimeo Schneider, Carsten Q., and Claudius Wagemann. 2012 Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences: A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Chapters 11.2 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Optional Baumgartner, Michael, and Alrik Thiem. 2017 Often Trusted But Never (Properly) Tested: Evaluating Qualitative Comparative Analysis Sociological Methods & Research: 1–33 Baumgartner, Michael, and A. Thiem. 2015 Model Ambiguities in Configurational Comparative Research Sociological Methods & Research: 1/34 Braumoeller, Bear. 2015 Guarding Against False Positives in Qualitative Comparative Analysis Political Analysis, online first García-Castro, Roberto, and Miguel A. Arino. 2016 A General Approach to Panel Data Set-Theoretic Research Journal of Advances in Management Sciences & Information Systems 2: 63–76 Hug, S. 2013 Qualitative Comparative Analysis: How Inductive Use and Measurement Error Lead to Problematic Inference Political Analysis 21(2): 252–65 Krogslund, Chris, Donghyun Danny Choi, and Mathias Poertner. 2014 Fuzzy Sets on Shaky Ground : Parametric and Specification Sensitivity in fsQCA Political Analysis, 23(1), 21–41 Rohlfing, Ingo. 2015 Mind the gap: A review of simulation designs for Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research and Politics, October–December, 1–4 Rohlfing, Ingo. 2016 Why Simulations Are Appropriate for Evaluating Qualitative Comparative Analysis Quality & Quantity 50: 2073–2208 Seawright, Jason. 2014 Comment: Limited Diversity and the Unreliability of QCA Sociological Methodology, 44(1), 118–121 Skaaning, Svend-Erik. 2011 Assessing the Robustness of Crisp-Set and Fuzzy-Set QCA Results Sociological Methods & Research 40(2): 391–408 Thiem, A. (2014) Mill's Methods, Induction and Case Sensitivity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis: A Comment on Hug (2013) Qualitative & Multi-Method Research, 12(2), 19–24 Schneider, Carsten Q., and Claudius Wagemann. 2012 Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences: A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Chapters 10.3 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Day 5: Data structures II - chains - two-step	Caren, Neal, and Aaron Panofsky. 2005 TQCA: a Technique for Adding Temporality to Qualitative Comparative Analysis Sociological Methods & Research 34(2): 147–72 Ragin, Charles C, and Sarah Strand. 2008 Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis to Study Causal Order. Comment on Caren and Panofsky (2005) Sociological Methods & Research 36(4): 431–41 Williams, Timothy, and Sergio M. Gemperle. 2016 Sequence Will Tell! Integrating Temporality into Set-Theoretic Multi-Method Research Combining Comparative Process Tracing and Qualitative Comparative Analysis International Journal of Social Research Methodology 5579 (March): 1–15 Thiem, Alrik, Reto Spöhel, and Adrian Duşa. 2016 Enhancing Sensitivity Diagnostics for Qualitative Comparative Analysis: A Combinatorial Approach Political Analysis 24(1): 104–20 CNA Baumgartner, Michael. 2013 Detecting Causal Chains in Small-N Data Field Methods 25(1): 3–24 Two-Step Haesebrouck, T. (2019) An alternative update of the two-step QCA procedure Quality & Quantity Schneider, C. Q. (2019) Two-Step QCA Revisited: The Necessity of Context Conditions Quality & Quantity, 53(3), 1109–1126 *Optional* Chains Baumgartner, Michael, and Alrik Thiem. 2015 Identifying Complex Causal Dependencies in Configurational Data with Coincidence Analysis The R Journal: 1–9 Baumgartner, Michael and Ruedi Epple. 2014 A Coincidence Analysis of a Causal Chain: The Swiss Minaret Vote Sociological Methods and Research, 43(2), 280–312 Thiem, Alrik. 2015 Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis for Identifying Causal Chains in Configurational Data: A Methodological Commentary on Baumgartner and Epple (2014) Sociological Methods and Research, online first Two-Step Mannewitz, Tom. 2011 Two-Level Theories in QCA: A Discussion of Schneider and Wagemann’s Two-Step Approach Schneider, Carsten Q, and Claudius Wagemann. 2006 Reducing Complexity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): Remote and Proximate Factors and the Consolidation of Democracy European Journal of Political Research 45(5): 751–86

Software Requirements

R, R packages QCA, QCAGUI, SetMethods, and all their dependencies

RStudio

Hardware Requirements

Bring your laptop

Literature

Goertz, Gary, and James Mahoney. 2012
A Tale of Two Cultures: Contrasting Qualitative and Quantitative Paradigms
Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press

Ragin, Charles C. 2008
Redesigning Social Inquiry: Fuzzy Sets and Beyond
Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Schneider, Carsten Q., and Claudius Wagemann. 2012
Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences: A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Recommended Courses to Cover Before this One

Summer School

Set-Theoretic Methods: Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Related Approaches
Introduction to R

Winter School

Comparative Research Designs

Recommended Courses to Cover After this One