COMParative methods for the Advancement of Systematic cross-case analysis and Small-n Studies
International ressource site
NEWS: training, meetings, publications
Didactics: Boolean algebra and QCA logic
CCM Textbook
Useful links/related sites
If you have any suggestion or comments concerning this page, please send an e-mail to Damien BOL .
Comparative methods/methodology
- Comparative Methods in Political & Social Research website, maintained by David Levi-Faur (Political Science Deparment, University of Haifa, Israël)
- ISA's Research Committee 33 on Logic and Methodology publishes its Bulletin de Methodology Sociologique.
- ISA's Research Committee 35 on Conceptual and Terminological
Analysis
Scientific meetings of the Committee on Conceptual and Terminological Analysis (COCTA) are held during Congresses of the ISA, and at other times. COCTA participates in other modes of exchange, such as the internet e-mail discussion group COCTA-L; maintains special scientific exchanges and joint programs with research committees of the same name within the International Political Sciences Association and within the International Social Science Council.
- Comparative and Historical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association. Consists of ten thematic webpages (including a newsletter) with information about the section and the areas of comparative and historical sociology.
- Research Committee on Concepts and Methods of the International Political Science Association. C&M understands itself as an open and plural platform of discussion. It strives to promote methodological discussion that takes seriously both concept analysis and qualitative methods in political science.
- ECPR Standing Group on Political Methodology : The Standing Group is meant to provide a venue for methodological discussions among European political scientists and interested scholars and students from adjoining disciplines.
QCA analysis and (fs)QCA software
- Two-day workshop on Small and Large-N Comparative Solutions
22nd - 23rd September 2005
University of Sussex
This project is funded by the ESRC and is part of the Research Methods Programme. Comparative research has at its heart the ambition of generalisability and of having a breadth that is unavailable to case study approaches, but it is hampered by the practical difficulties of funding and facilitating widescale comparative projects. This tension is usually resolved either in favour of depth without breadth (through in-depth narrowly-oriented projects) or breadth without depth (through large, often quantitative, cross-national comparative projects seeking to garner basic data from multiple cases). The work of King, Keohane and Verba has forced comparative researchers to recognise the costs of either of these strategies and therefore we need to think more creatively about meeting the challenge. This workshop is focused around the particular issues that this trade-off raises for comparative researchers. The aim of the workshop is explore two potential (but very different) solutions to this problem. The two approaches identified and discussed in the seminars would be: (1) The use of Boolean analysis and fuzzy set analysis. This is a technique that can be used to maintain empirical rigour through looking intensively at a small number of cases and through formal logical analysis can yield greater empirical purchase on the small data size through the use of fuzzy case logic by Ragin; (2) The uses and challenges of multi-researcher multi-case multi-site analysis (MRMCMS). Using a large number of researchers from different intellectual contexts to come together to provide broad but in-depth comparative analysis of particular cases offers the hope of both in-depth and wide-reaching empirical research. But it also brings with it the challenges of (a) co-ordination and (b) synthesis.
- Linkkejä ja kirjallisuutta kvalitatiivisesta vertailevasta analyysista eli QCA:sta page (in Finnish), maintained by Pentti Luoma (University of Oulu, Finland). Includes a bibliographical list.
Fuzzy sets and fs/QCA software (for the fuzzy sets part)
Other small N approaches and techniques (including software)
- APES (Actor Process Event Scheme), developed by Uwe Serdült, Chantal Vögeli, Christian Hirschi and Thomas Widmer. APES is a web-based software tool allowing the use of qualitative case study data for a systematic comparative assessment of policy processes. Focusing on the actors' participation in decision-making processes, the description of a policy process can be visualized with APES. By defining the participating actors as well as all relevant events of the decision-making process, the user gets the possibility to generate with APES a graphical representation of qualitative case study data, which allows the comparison over different cases.
- AQUAD Six software for the analysis of qualitative data, by Günter L. Huber (University of Tübingen, Germany). Features many qualitative analysis procedures, and also allows one to treat cases/texts by Boolean analysis of critical features ("logical minimization").
- Event Structure Analysis (ESA) software, developed by David R. Heise (University of Indiana, Bloomington, USA). Event structure analysis is a qualitative methodology for understanding sequential events in a narrative. Prerequisite analysis focuses on how the events are connected logically. The program draws a chart showing the prerequisite structure. Composition analysis focuses on how the events link people and things. The program creates tables showing how people are associated with each other and with non-human entities.
- Steve BORGATTI's (Boston College) qualitative research methods course homepage: Content Analysis, Ethnographic Methods, Cultural Domain Analysis, with many other features.
- Mixed
Methods Network for Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences homepage,
based on the book by Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003) "Handbook of
mixed methods in the social and behavionral research".
Varia
- "It is my great pleasure to report the arrival of the first issue of the Qualitative Methods newsletter, sponsored by the Organized Section on Qualitative Methods of the American Political Science Association (APSA-QM). (...)" Read more
- Inter-University Faculty Consortium on Qualitative Research Methods (CQRM). This consortium was formed to promote the teaching and use of qualitative research methods in the social sciences. Its activities include an annual training institute, where leading scholars teach advanced qualitative methods to about twenty-five graduate students and junior faculty.
- The Society
for Political Methodology and the Political Methodology Section of the
APSA.
This is the home page of the Society for Political Methodology , the Political Methodology Section of the American Political Science Association, and the central web site for the political methodology community. The primary purpose of this site is to serve as the gateway to the Electronic Paper Archive. From here you can view abstracts of conference and Working Papers online and download papers for local printing. This is also the gateway to The Political Methodologist, our newsletter, and Political Analysis, the official journal of the section. - Social
Science Methodology
page of the Social Science Information Gateway
Internet Resources Listed By Type:
- Articles/Papers/Reports (collections)
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- Liens Socio,
Portail français des sciences sociales
Et en particulier, un repertoire de sites traitants de thèmes méthodo.
- Social Science Sites
This site is subdivided into four major sub-sites for people information themes fundamentals. These sub-sites are partitioned into segments each of which is subdivided by topics.
Various feedback on this website
Last modified 06-Jan-2008
Benoît RIHOUX, Centre de Politique Comparée
Gisèle
DE MEUR, Lab.
de recherche en MAThématiques et sciences humaines
Afdeling
Arbeids- en Organisatiesociologie
Peter BURSENS,
Onderzoeksgroep
Internationale Politiek