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Annoucements > Conferences

Conferences, Workshops and Seminars

This is a non-exhaustive list of the forthcoming and past meetings about QCA broadly speaking. This includes workshops, conference panels and sessions, colloquiums, etc… If you have any suggestion or comment concerning this page, please send an email to Damien Bol

Forthcoming meetings:

Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 7 December 2011

Doctoral Seminar of Louvain School of Management

Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in Management Studies

The first objective of this seminar is to introduce both junior and senior researchers into this new methodology. What is it? When can it be used? What are fundamental principles? Second, experienced academics in this field will present a state of the art of QCA in management research. Third, a demonstration will be given on how to apply QCA using specific software. Finally, two researchers will present their experiences with QCA each in its own research area.

The program is available here.

The deadline for registration is the 21st of October 2011. It should be done via Gerrit Sarens (UCLouvain).

Speakers:

• Gerrit Sarens (UCLouvain)
• Santi Furnari (Cass Business School)
• Benoit Rihoux (UCLouvain)
• Bart Cambre (Antwerp Management School)
• Axel Marx (KULeuven)
• Mathieu Winand (UCLouvain)
• Diane Van Gils (UCLouvain)

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Antwerp, Belgium, 10-15 April 2012

ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops

Workshop 3: Methodological Advances, Bridges and Limits in the Application of Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Applications of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) have proliferated in the 25 years since Charles Ragin's landmark publication "The Comparative Method", testifying to the marked increase in interest among researchers in the possibilities and advantages of this method as a tool for social-scientific enquiry. However, while the basic mechanisms behind its three related variants - crisp-set QCA (csQCA), multi-value QCA (mvQCA), and fuzzy set QCA (fsQCA) - have become widely accepted, a critical juncture has now been reached. Scholars begin to not only recognize fundamental limits and limitations, but also possibilities in further developing, extending, and complementing this method to reap its full potential in advancing our understanding of social, political and economic questions. The proposed workshop thus addresses junior and senior scholars working on methodological issues relating to QCA as a technique, and applications of QCA to substantial questions, in order to improve the method and broaden its applicability.

The deadline for submitting paper's proposals is the 1st of December 2011 via ECPR 2012 Joint Sessions' new Website.

Workshop directors:

• Alrik Thiem (ETH Zurich)
• Damien Bol (UCLouvain)
• Barbara Vis (VU Amsterdam)

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Rome, Italy, 11-13 April 2012

International Research Society for Public Management XVI Conference

Panel: Beyond the Paradigm Wars: Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) -impacts and prospects as an approach to advancing public management knowledge

Research on public management has been dominated for many years by two radically different approaches that are usually seen as mutually exclusive - ontologically, epistemologically and methodologically. On the one had there has been a great deal of qualitative case-study work, including usually fairly small-n case comparisons. On the other, there has been a lot of quantitative analysis of large-n data sets.

Both approaches have produced useful work and major problems - the former often reach conclusions that are difficult to generalise whilst the latter often produce precise but weak conclusions. Proponents of both approaches have often engaged in somewhat futile debates about their relative merits.

An alternative approach using systematic comparison of small to medium-n cases using "Qualitative Comparative Analysis" has been gaining ground in recent years, mostly in political science (e.g. comparative politics, democratic systems, etc) and historical sociology (e.g. welfare state studies). But it has made smaller, but still significant, contributions in public policy and management.

The purpose of this panel is to assess the contribution so far, and future prospects, of the broad QCA approach in public management. The approach appears to offer many advantages in the analysis of complex causal configurations. It perhaps also can be used to take advantage to the large number of data sets that have emerged about public administration and management in recent tears, both within and between countries, as a result of the "performance movement".

Papers that either apply the QCA approach (with an emphasis of the contribution of the approach) or take a broader view of the methodological issues posed by QCA for public management research (including reflections on previously published research) are welcomed

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More informations can be found at the IRSPM's Website. The deadline for submitting paper's proposals is the 1st of October 2011

Panel directors:

• Colin Talbot (University of Manchester)
• Philipp Krause (World Bank)

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Helsinky, Finland, 5-7 July 2012

EGOS Conference

Sub-theme on Advancing Configurational Theory and Methods in Organization Studies

The notion of configurationÑthe relative arrangement of parts and elementsÑarguably lies at the core of organization studies and is fundamental to those interested in designing and building better and more effective organizations. Yet, some 20 years after the emergence of configurational theory as a key perspective in organization studies in the 1990s, this approach has yet to deliver on its promise. While we know that configuration matters, the theory of configurations is still in its infancy and empirical research on configurations is just beginning to deliver on its promise.

We believe it is time we take the notion of configurations seriously. We therefore refer to configurational design as a key perspective on understanding organizations as complex systems of combinations of interrelated structures, roles and relationships in particular environments. In our sub-theme, we aim to re-open a discussion about the ways in which the concept of configuration is central to organizations and organizing. We ask: how can we reinvigorate configurational thinking in organization studies? What new theory and methods does it take to build a vibrant approach to organizations that places complex interdependencies in organizational architecture at its core? Beginning with the idea that organizations are multifaceted systems that are both designed and emergent, we hope to start a new discussion about the role of configurational thinking in organization studies.

We invite papers that enhance our understanding of both configurational theory and methodology in organization studies. As such, we welcome contributions from multiple theoretical perspectives and seek cross-pollination between the various approaches to understanding organizations as complex systems. We particularly welcome studies that incorporate insights from related disciplines. Likewise, we encourage both theoretical contributions that aim to clarify the theory and (causal) mechanisms of configurations, and empirical and methodological contributions that strive to enhance our ability to capture the dynamic nature of configurations. We are open to qualitative approaches such as historical case studies, discourse analysis, and ethnography, as well as quantitative approaches employing longitudinal or multi-level methods, or studies that bridge both approaches, including set-theoretic methods such as crisp and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA).

We especially welcome submissions that engage the following kinds of questions:

• How to conceptually design or redesign our view and understanding of organizations and organizing based on the configurational approach?
• Applications of configurational methods and theory in different fields.
• What are the basic elements of configurations?
• What are the key (causal) mechanisms of configurations?
• What is the role of configurations in causal explanations (ie necessary and/or sufficient configurations of conditions explaining an outcome)?
• How to apply causal mechanisms in designing effective organizations?
• How do we conceptualize configurations across levels of analysis?
• Empirically, how do we study configurations that reach across the individual, organizational, and supra-organizational levels?
• Most prior work on configurations has focused on the infrastructure of material interdependences, but how can we expand this to integrate the socio-political and symbolic-cultural side of configurations?
• Many organizational phenomena are essentially constituted by configurations of configurations. What is the role of complexity theory in understanding this aspect of configurations, and how can we build on its insights and methods?
• How can we build both theory and method that allow for a dynamic rather than static understanding of organizational configurations?
• How can we bring in the time dimension?
• How can we bring in the time dimension?
• How can we track configurations over time?
• What is the effect of time on configurations?

Please submit a short paper of not more than 3,000 words (incl. references and all other materials) by January 16, 2012 at the EGOS Website

Panel Chairs:

• Bart Cambre, Antwerp Management School, Belgium, bart.cambre [at] ams.ac.be
• Peer C. Fiss, University of Southern California, USA, fiss [at] marshall.usc.edu
• Axel Marx, Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, University of Leuven, Belgium, axel.marx [at] ggs.kuleuven.be

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