What is COMPASSS?
COMPASSS is a worldwide network bringing together scholars and practitioners who share a common interest in theoretical, methodological and practical advancements in a systematic comparative case approach to research which stresses the use of a configurational logic, the existence of multiple causality and the importance of a careful construction of research populations.
Its main goal is to further develop systematic comparative case analysis as a genuine and established research strategy to study many different and diverse phenomena. Its ‘core business’ is the further development and application of “configurational comparative methods” (crisp-set QCA, multi-value QCA, fuzzy-set QCA, and linked methods and techniques).
It is also a place of dialogue and fruitful confrontation between qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as a locus for the integration of these methods and the further development and application of original approaches, methods and techniques, in an endeavour to develop an overall approach for systematic comparative case analysis. It strives to be a place of exchange between scholars from a broad range of disciplines across the social and behavioural sciences and beyond.
Apart from the management of the International Resource Site, the COMPASSS core group also organizes seminars, manages a documentary archive, produces publications, is engaged in software development etc. (see the various pages of the Resources Site).