Hardback
Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Learning from Cases
9781839104510 Edward Elgar Publishing
Emphasising the Q in qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), Roel Rutten presents QCA as a thoroughly qualitative method to help researchers learn from cases. He highlights that while Boolean expressions describing cross-case patterns are QCA’s most conspicuous element, they do not amount to causal explanations.
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Critical Acclaim
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Emphasising the Q in qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), Roel Rutten presents QCA as a thoroughly qualitative method to help researchers learn from cases. He highlights that while Boolean expressions describing cross-case patterns are QCA’s most conspicuous element, they do not amount to causal explanations.
Throughout the book, Rutten demonstrates how QCA’s interpretive logic pervades every step of a QCA study. He uses critical realism as a philosophical foundation to explain how QCA researchers develop their partial and perspectival knowledge of cases into Boolean expressions. Proposing multi-level sets as a way to acknowledge the diversity of social reality, Rutten criticises the use of fuzzy sets in QCA as a poor match to QCA’s threshold logic.
Comprehensive and innovative, this book is a vital read for social science methods experts and users. It is also an important book for QCA experts and students looking for a deeper understanding of QCA.
Throughout the book, Rutten demonstrates how QCA’s interpretive logic pervades every step of a QCA study. He uses critical realism as a philosophical foundation to explain how QCA researchers develop their partial and perspectival knowledge of cases into Boolean expressions. Proposing multi-level sets as a way to acknowledge the diversity of social reality, Rutten criticises the use of fuzzy sets in QCA as a poor match to QCA’s threshold logic.
Comprehensive and innovative, this book is a vital read for social science methods experts and users. It is also an important book for QCA experts and students looking for a deeper understanding of QCA.
Critical Acclaim
‘Blending philosophy and methodology, Roel Rutten expertly guides readers through the intricacies of QCA. Concise yet comprehensive, the book offers step-by-step insights into interpreting empirical knowledge, constructing causal claims, and mastering the details of QCA. Highly recommended for both beginners and experts alike.’
– Peer Fiss, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, US
‘Qualitative Comparative Analysis: Learning from Cases offers a comprehensive introduction to qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), emphasizing the proper grounding of the approach in the interplay of case knowledge, context, and concepts. Roel Rutten utilizes key insights from Critical Realism to rebalance QCA, which he argues has become too slanted toward large-N cross-case analysis and fuzzy sets, to the exclusion of case and substantive knowledge. While not everyone will agree with Rutten, all can learn from his challenges to current QCA practices.’
– Charles Ragin, University of California, Irvine, US
‘Another book on QCA, you think at first. But then you start reading. You get carried away by the smooth style, the logical structure, the lines of thought presented. And you do indeed wonder where the cases have gone in this comparative case approach. For this reason alone, this book deserves a place in your closet. It invites you to reflect on a quantitative and (partly) mechanistic view of QCA, or a qualitative one, based on in-depth case knowledge. Fascinating, without question!’
– Bart Cambré, Antwerp School of Management, Belgium
– Peer Fiss, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, US
‘Qualitative Comparative Analysis: Learning from Cases offers a comprehensive introduction to qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), emphasizing the proper grounding of the approach in the interplay of case knowledge, context, and concepts. Roel Rutten utilizes key insights from Critical Realism to rebalance QCA, which he argues has become too slanted toward large-N cross-case analysis and fuzzy sets, to the exclusion of case and substantive knowledge. While not everyone will agree with Rutten, all can learn from his challenges to current QCA practices.’
– Charles Ragin, University of California, Irvine, US
‘Another book on QCA, you think at first. But then you start reading. You get carried away by the smooth style, the logical structure, the lines of thought presented. And you do indeed wonder where the cases have gone in this comparative case approach. For this reason alone, this book deserves a place in your closet. It invites you to reflect on a quantitative and (partly) mechanistic view of QCA, or a qualitative one, based on in-depth case knowledge. Fascinating, without question!’
– Bart Cambré, Antwerp School of Management, Belgium
