QCA and Case Selection

The workshop deals with the dimension of cases and case selection in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) from different angles. We begin with a discussion of what a case is on a general level and in a specific empirical study. Furthermore, we detail the importance and practice of delineating the population of cases in QCA.The second part briefly elaborates on the role of ‘case knowledge’ and ‘case orientation’ in QCA before the truth table analysis. While this is a classic issue in the QCA literature, choosing cases on the basis of the results of a truth table analysis is anew topic. The third section of the workshop deals with has been coined set-theoretic multi-method research (MMR). We first touch on the reasons for doing multi-method research and how it differs from introducing case knowledge before a truth table analysis. Based on this, we develop set-theoretic MMR step by step. We start with crisp-set QCA and move on to fuzzy sets that add a layer of complexity compared to crisp sets. We discuss the different types of cases that are available in set-theoretic MMR and the research goals attached to them, strategies for international single-case and comparative case selection and potential implications of case study insights for the truth table analysis.

About the Lecturer

Prof. Ingo Rohlfing, Ph.D.is a Professor for Methods of Comparative PoliticalResearch at the Cologne Center for Comparative Politics at the University of Cologne. His research interests are social science methods with an emphasis on case studies, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), and multi-method research. He works substantively on political parties.