This is a methodological course on set-theoretic methods for the social sciences. While the spectrum of a set-theoretic methods is broad, including techniques such as Mill’s methods or typological theory, this course primarily focuses on the crisp-set and fuzzy-set versions ofQualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Invented by Charles Ragin [1987], this technique isstill undergoing modifications, improvements, and ramifications. These methods are applied infields as diverse as political science, public policy, international relations, sociology, businessand management studies, or even musicology (see www.compasss.org). 

This course aims atenabling students to produce a publishable QCA of their own. In order to achieve this, this course provides both the formal set theoretical underpinnings of QCA and the technical and Schneider & Oana – QCA, IPSA FLACSO, Fall 2022 research practical skills necessary for performing a QCA. All applied parts of the course will be performed in the R software environment, using RStudio (Cloud).