Social and causal complexity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): strategies to account for emergence
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Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is said to be a method that can be used to uncover social complexity. However, this complexity is often ‘missing in action’ in actual empirical applications of the method. We aim to rearticulate the properties of social and causal complexity in their relationship to QCA. We first discuss the reasons why this relationship is not fully articulated in the current research. Rooted in a realist understanding of social emergence, we identify four possible strategies to bring social complexity back on focus when performing QCA: the use of thick case descriptions; the opening of the black box of conditions, by stacking and/or by developing them in a grounded manner; the integration of time in the method itself; and the combination of QCA with other, more time-sensitive methods.
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QCA is primarily seen as a method that requires thick, detailed knowledge of cases, particularly when the aim is to understand complex causation.
“given that QCA is primarily seen as a method that requires thick, detailed knowledge of cases, particularly when the aim is to understand complex causation [8].”
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- Authors
- Gerrits, L., & Pagliarin, S.
- Affiliations
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL)
- University of Bamberg (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Gerrits, Lasse
- Venue
- International Journal of Social Research Methodology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2020-08-04
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 501-514
- ISSN
- 1364-5579 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-5300
- OpenAlex
- W3047053712
- Semantic Scholar
- d54164312b74e1cc6184ebc766555c5987f96657
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 98
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 9.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Social Research Methodology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
- Social Sciences › Education › Qualitative Research Methods and Applications
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Critical Realism in Sociology
- Keywords
- qualitative comparative analysis, social complexity, causal complexity, social emergence, realist theory, stacking, configurational comparative methods
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