As part of a rich case-based and comparative methods course program at its Summer School hosted by the Central European University in beautiful Vienna, MethodsNET offers the course Comparative Research Designs, taught by Benoît Rihoux. This 5-day intensive in person course is designed to enable participants to build, consolidate and implement the comparative research design (CRD) that best meets their needs. Via interactive pedagogy, it enables each participant to: (1) rigorously and critically reflect on all steps of their comparative research project, and find pragmatic solutions to their CRD challenges; (2) clarify their research goals and their ‘casing’ (defining their cases); (3) choose the most appropriate case selection strategy, among multiple possible alternative strategies, from basic to more advanced; (4) choose the most appropriate strategy for data collection, management and analysis – considering case-based qualitative, systematic comparative (QCA) and statistical types of analysis (QCA is especially examined, including how it can be sequenced with other methods); and (5) write up the full ‘research design’ section of their comparative project. Full course details here.

The MethodsNET Summer School (30+ courses offered) stands for top-pedagogy hands-on methods training, while staying affordable. The weekly course fee also gives access to a free plenary program of cross-cutting short courses. Beyond the course, MethodsNET membership also provides access to the multimedia digital ‘MethodsNET Communities’, in particular the ‘Case-based and comparative approaches’ Community that enables users and experts to communicate and collaborate.