As you may know, APSA’s Qualitative and Multi-Method
Research section is currently running a deliberative
process about research transparency for qualitative
empirical scholarship. The QTD is a broadly inclusive
process through which a wide range of qualitative
communities are thinking through the meaning, costs,
benefits, and practicalities of transparency for the types
of inquiry in which they engage. At the end of the
process, the QTD Working Groups will produce a set of
statements that articulate understandings and practices of
research transparency that are relevant for different
forms and contexts of qualitative research. These
statements will be an invaluable resource for a wide range
of constituencies grappling with issues of research
transparency, from journal editors to researchers and
graduate students.
From now until Dec. 1, the QTD Working Groups — each of
which is focused on a particular method or context of
qualitative research — are consulting with scholars who
use and are knowledgeable about that form of inquiry. I am
a member of the Working Group on “Algorithmic Analytic
Approaches”, which covers both QCA and automated content
analysis. It would be enormously valuable to get your
thoughts on some of the issues our Group is
considering. We have posted some specific questions on the
Group’s discussion forum, which is
here: https://www.qualtd.net/viewforum.php?f=23.
To post “on the record,” if you’re not already registered
on the qualtd.net site, please first fill out the very
short registration form, here: “https://www.qualtd.net/ucp.php?mode=register
We are very keen to hear your thoughts. I’m also happy to
have a one-on-one email exchange or Skype call about these
issues if that would be more convenient for you. The main
thing is to get your input as we think through the meaning
and practice of transparency for set-theoretic comparative
methods.
Two methodological contributions were recently published
in Field Methods: Cooper and Glaesser (2016) on
“Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Necessary Conditions, and
Limited Diversity: Some Problematic Consequences of Schneider
and Wagemann’s Enhanced Standard Analysis” with a reply by
Schneider and Wagemann (2016), “Assessing ESA on What It Is
Designed For.”
Dave Garson (North Carolina State University) is seeking
comments on a monograph he is finalizing, “Case Study
Analysis & QCA.” The monograph is 130pp, two-thirds of
which is on QCA using fsQCA software with worked examples,
and is intended as an introductory graduate-level text. If
interested in reviewing it and commenting, please contact
Dr. Garson
at garson@ncsu.edu, who
will send you the current draft and later the final version.
Reviewers may use it in classes, as long as it is not posted
to the internet. The final monograph will be distributed
free in pdf form and at low cost ($5) in Kindle format.
The May 2016 issue of Comparative Political Studies
is a special issue devoted to “Debating Set Theoretic
Comparative Methods” and includes articles by Jack Paine;
Alrik Thiem, Michael Baumgartner, and Damien Bol; Gerardo
Munck; and Carsten Schneider.
As a by-product of [his] work as the management board member of COMPASSS responsible for the bibliography, [Alrik Thiem] has published a blog entry on [his] personal website that presents a ranking of QCA-friendly journals. If you want to know at which journals your risk of being rejected because of the method you have employed should be relatively low, you might want to check out this table.
This year, the 2014 Article of the Year Award of the journal Socio-Economic Review was given to
Carsten Schneider and Kristin Makszin for their article
“Forms of Welfare Capitalism and
Education-Based Participatory Inequality, Socio-Economic Review 12(2): 437-462″. In this article, QCA is
used to analyze whether the degree of political inequality between social groups is shaped by features of the welfare
capitalist system. We congratulate the authors!
Domingo Ribeiro Soriano (University of Valencia, Spain), Kun Huang Huarng (Feng Chia University, Taiwan) and Norat
Roig-Tierno (Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain) organize a Special Section Issue titled “Configurational
Comparative Research Methodologies” in the journal Quality & Quantity.
The Special Section Issue seeks to provide a forum for topical
issues that demonstrate the usefulness of configurational
comparative research methodologies. A description of the
method, its empirical applications, and potential methodological
advances that increase its usefulness in research and practice
will be emphasized. Submissions should be made using
Editorial Manager (authors must say in a cover note
that their paper is intended for the Special Section Issue). The deadline for submissions is 15 December 2015.
This year, the German Political Science Association has awarded its price for the best dissertation to Patrick Mello
for his book Democratic Participation in Armed Conflict. Military Involvement in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
In this work, QCA is used to answer the question of when democracies participate in military operations, and under
which conditions they abstain. Please see our Books section for more
details. We congratulate Patrick on this great achievement!
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Comparative Methods for Systematic Cross-Case Analysis