*COMPASSS NEWSLETTER* no 13  November 2006
COMParative methods for the Advancement of Systematic cross-case
analysis and Small-N Studies

Here is a quick digest of main recent complements on the COMPASSS international resource site - for more detailed information: see
respective sections of the COMPASSS site at: http://www.compasss.org .


1. *COMPASSS Activities* ["COMPASSS Activities"] -
http://www.compasss.org/COMPASSS%20activities.htm

*Next COMPASSS Seminar*:
"Recent development in QCA and fuzzy-set methods and applications"
Louvain-la-Neuve, UCL, Friday 1 December 14:00-17:30
NB prior registration compulsaory (first come, first served) -- see web page for details

Guest speakers:
- Barry COOPER (Durham University)
"Class, gender, measured ‘ability’ and educational achievement in two birth cohorts: crisp and fuzzy set analyses (with a comparison of two competing approaches to calibrating fuzzy membership)"
- Lasse CRONQVIST (Marburg University)
"Causation and spuriousness in QCA Analysis"
- Bojana LOBE (Ljubljana University)
"QCA on micro level data: identifying complex patterns from rich case knowledge"

Forthcoming COMPASSS seminars :
* 9 February 2007 (info soon on the web)
* May 2007


2. *Bibliographical database*
http://www.compasss.org/Bibli%20database.htm
The bibliographical database has been fully updated. Pls notify missing references, references just published, ongoing manuscripts etc. to Anne-Sylvie Berck : berck@spri.ucl.ac.be


3. *Working Papers*
http://www.compasss.org/WP.htm

Three new working papers were added earlier this summer :

WP2006-43[Posted on 30-June-2006]
Axel MARX (Hogheschool Antwerp)
TOWARDS MORE ROBUST MODEL SPECIFICATION IN QCA
RESULTS FROM A METHODOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT

WP2006-42[Posted on 21-June-2006]
Barbara VIS (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
States of welfare or states of workfare?
A fuzzy-set ideal type analysis of major welfare state restructuring in sixteen advanced capitalist democracies, 1985-2002

WP2006-41[Posted on 20-June-2006]
Adrian DUSA (University of Bucharest)
QCA Graphical User Interface manual


4. *Training* ["News" --> "Training"] -
http://www.compasss.org/Trainings.htm

Two intensive courses on QCA (and related techniques) will be taught in the summer of 2007 :
- ECPR Summer School in Methods & Techniques, Ljubljana (Slovenia), 23 July - 3 August : course on "Comparative research design and introduction to systematic comparative methods" (provisional title) -- full information on-line in late November 2006 -- instructors : Carsten Schneider & Benoît Rihoux
- Essex Summer School in SSDCA, University of Essex (UK) : course on QCA & MVQCA -- instructors : Birk Berg-Schlosser & Lasse Cronqvist (info later on the web as well).

Full information on these will be available at the time of sending the next COMPASSS newsletter.

5. *Software* -
http://www.compasss.org/Softwares.htm

If you haven't visited the "software" page during the summer, it would be useful to do so. In particular :
- new version of fsQCA (2.0., July 06)
- new version of TOSMANA (1.255, July 06)
Both software feature new tools, routines etc -- see documentation on the respective software pages.