|
Lehrende: Markus B. Siewert
Veranstaltungsart:
Seminar / Übung
Orga-Einheit: Politics, Administration & International Relations
Anzeige im Stundenplan:
AM QCA
Semesterwochenstunden:
1,5
Credits:
3,0
Standort:
Campus der Zeppelin Universität
Unterrichtssprache:
Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl:
5 | 30
Prioritätsschema: Standard-Priorisierung
Inhalte:
Qualitative research approaches have experienced crucial innovations over the last two decades (Goertz and Mahoney 2012; Mahoney 2010), with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (Ragin 2008; Schneider and Wagemann 2012) being one major advancement in the field of case-based research (Siewert 2017; Wagemann 2017). Drawing upon set-theoretical thinking, QCA enables to analyses social phenomena in terms of set relations, and is especially suitable to detect patterns which are configurative, equifinal, and asymmetric. As an approach, QCA can be seen as an innovative analytic instrument to conduct cross-case analysis with keeping a strong focus on the underlying cases.
This advanced methods workshop offers a comprehensive and application-oriented introduction into Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in its main variants, i.e. crisp-set and fuzzy-set QCA. The workshop will focus on the following aspects:
a) research design of QCA as an approach to study social phenomena,
b) applying QCA as a technique, and
c) how to perform a QCA with the suitable software package in R.
In detail, the workshop starts from basic notions of QCA and its core underpinnings of set-theory, configurational thinking, diversity- and case-orientation. In a next step, we further elaborate on the idea of sets to operationalize concepts (calibration) and discuss different strategies for constructing sets from various forms of data. Following this, we will go through the main steps in the analytic protocol of QCA, i.e. checking for necessary and sufficient (combinations of) conditions. In doing so, we will highlight common pitfalls which might occur during an analysis, discuss strategies how to deal with them based on both methodological advices and best practices, and lastly summarize some core guidelines for applying QCA. The workshop is interactive and application-oriented. It also gives an introduction into QCA with R/RStudio based on the QCA package (Dusa 2017).
The seminar will be an application-oriented methods class. No prior knowledge is required for this class, although basic familiarity with quantitative and/or qualitative methods will provide participants additional paybacks. For the practical parts of the class, we will use the freeware R (https://cran.r-project.org/) and RStudio (https://www.rstudio.com/). Participants are asked to bring their own laptops and to download the software prior to the first class. A teaching script will be provided as course material. The classes will be a mix of lecture and interactive parts; therefore, active participation will be a necessary condition for a fruitful seminar. The course language will be English, as will most of the literature. While sufficient language skills are required to follow the course (C1-level), it has no effect on the grading.
Weitere Informationen zu den Prüfungsleistungen:
end-term paper of app. 1.500-2.000 words
Course Examination
Active participation is proven via an end-term paper of app. 1.500-2.000 words. The topic of this paper is a methodological review of a selected journal article which employs a QCA on a social or political research question. Students can select the topic according to their own substantial interests (applications can be found on www.compasss.org). The final deadline for the paper is 2018_07_15
For a module exam, a replication of one selected application is required (4.500 words for a BA paper, and 6.000 words for a MA paper; these specifications refer to the main text without title, abstract, table of contents, list of references and appendix). Final deadline for this paper is 2018_07_15
Plagiarism
Following the basic rules of academic (and human) behavior, all your works have to be the product your own creativity and energy. Google-ing the works of other people does not count as such! The written assignments have to follow the rules of academic writing, e.g. citing other works. Please, hand-in the following signed statement with your written works:
Erklärung über die selbstständige Erstellung einer wissenschaftlichen Arbeit
Hiermit erkläre ich, … , geboren am … , gegenüber dem Institut für Politikwissenschaft der Zeppelin Universität, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstständig und nur unter Zuhilfenahme der im Literaturverzeichnis angegebenen Literatur und Hilfsmittel angefertigt habe. Wörtlich übernommene Sätze oder Satzteile sind als Zitat belegt, andere Anlehnungen hinsichtlich Aussage und Umfang unter Quellenangabe kenntlich gemacht. Die Arbeit hat in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form noch keiner Prüfungsbehörde vorgelegen und ist nicht veröffentlicht.
Unterschrift
Literatur:
Mandatory reading assignments (marked with **) as well as the course slides will be provided via the ZU’s online platform. Beyond the literature below, the course will strongly draw on the current textbook by Schneider and Wagemann. Thus, if you want to purchase one book, this is it:
• Schneider, Carsten Q. and Claudius Wagemann, 2012. Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences. A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Cambridge University Press: New York.
Other recommended works are:
• Goertz, Gary and James Mahoney, 2012. A Tale of Two Cultures: Qualitative and Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences. Princeton University Press: Princeton.
• Ragin, Charles C., 2008. Redesigning Social Inquiry. Fuzzy Sets and Beyond. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
|
