How does Qualitative Comparative Analysis work?

May 11, 2009 3:16 AM

Gradschoolfilter (Social Science): Qualitative Comparative Analysis - help a Historian understand this method! Can anyone recommend any good papers?

I'm a PhD student in History of Technology who has had to take a course on Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Case Study Methods (funding requirement). Unfortunately, the course was long on theory and very short on practice, so I have no idea what the method looks like when applied.

Can anyone recommend any papers that use this method well that will help me get my head round it?

posted by Jakob to Education (2 answers total)

I saw your question, but held off in the hopes that someone more knowledgeable would answer. In the absence of that, here's a small pointer. (Caveat: I am a bioinformaticist, not a sociologist.)

Years ago I used to work for a small academic company that did Qualitative Analysis software. If you look up QSR (Qualitative Solutions Research) of Melbourne, Australia, you should find their website. They used to have pointers to papers and some introductory material there. You may also be able to find some material from the workshops they run. The name of the sociologist who ran the workshops and published in the area was Lyn Richards. Looking up her work might help.
posted by outlier at 8:14 AM on May 11, 2009

Some web sites where you can follow the links to get examples and some practical advice:
What is QCA?.
Comparative Methods.
There are tons of qualitative comparative papers. You might do a google scholar search for them in your area of interest to come up with the most useful examples.
posted by cushie at 8:14 AM on May 11, 2009