Set-Theoretic Thinking in the Social Sciences – Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in a Nutshell

Speaker: Markus B. Siewert
Chair: Dr Eszter Simon

Since its first inception in the early 1980s Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) has received increasing scholarly attention across various fields of the social sciences. Deeply rooted in configurational thinking and case-oriented research QCA offers a systematic way for examining social phenomena across multiple cases which is different from standard regression techniques. The lecture provides a short introduction to the core underpinnings of set-theoretical approaches and the central procedures of QCA as its most familiar proponent.

Biography

Markus B. Siewertis academic fellow at the Department of Social Science at Goethe University Frankfurt. In his research and teaching he focuses on configurational approaches such as Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), process tracing and other case study designs. Recently, he was visiting fellow at the European University Institute (EUI) and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in Florence. With regard to QCA, Mr. Siewert has already taught several workshops both on the national and international level, among others at the Berlin Graduate School for Social Sciences (Germany), the University of Tilburg (Netherlands), the University of Lucerne (Switzerland) and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (Italy). Substantially, Mr. Siewert research focus revolves around issues of comparative politics, especially American politics, executives, or the qualities of democracies. For more information, see http://www.fb03.uni-frankfurt.de/44523816/Siewert.