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The key to using an analytic method is to understand its underlying logic and figure out how to incorporate it into the research process. In the case of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), so far these issues have been addressed only partly. While general introductions and user's guides for QCA software packages are available, prospective users find little guidance as to how the method works in applied data analysis. How can QCA be used to produce comprehensive, ingenious explanations of social phenomena? In this article, the author provides such a hands-on introduction to QCA. In the first two parts, he offers a concise overview of 1. the method's main principles and advantages as well as 2. its vital concepts. In the subsequent part, he offers suggestions for 3. how to employ QCA's analytic tools in the research process and how to interpret their output. Lastly, the author shows 4. how QCA results can inform the data analysis. As the main contribution, he provides a template for how to reassess cases, causal recipes, and single conditions based on QCA results in order to produce better explanations of what is happening in the data. With these contributions, the article helps prospective QCA users to utilize the full potential the method offers for social science research.

"Comparative Analysis in African Politics" published on by Oxford University Press.

This article aims to qualify the skeptical view of many leading methodologists on multi-value Qualitative Comparative Analysis (mvQCA). More specifically, it draws attention to a distinctive strength of this QCA-variant. In contrast to the other QCA-variants, mvQCA is capable of straightforwardly capturing the specific causal role of every category of a multi-value condition. This provides it with an important advantage over both crisp set (csQCA) and fuzzy set QCA (fsQCA). fsQCA is not capable of capturing the causal effect of an intermediate category if, depending on the context, it can have a different impact than the full presence of the corresponding condition. csQCA, in turn, tends to attribute a causal role to the absence of condition values, which in the case of multi-value conditions often encompass very different cases. The article first discusses the comparative advantage of mvQCA with a constructed data set, after which it reanalyzes two published studies to demonstrate these advantages with empirical data. (author's abstract)

Group theory claims greater comprehensiveness & operational utility in that it directs study to concrete & observable entities leading to data-accumulation & explanation. In fieldwork such theory does not prove so fruitful, esp in underdeveloped systems where interest articulation is weak. The dichotomy soon concludes that `interest' is conditioned by secular forces like any other activity. The best way to a theory of comparative pol is a comprehensive comparative look at the main features of a pol'al system which requires a good understanding of the historical dimension of the pol'al system: this will help to differentiate between systems & to isolate those factors that may account for observable diversities & similarities. IPSA.

Comparative Analysis of SettlementsSummaryThe aim of this paper is to describe the development of an analytica technique for use in the study of individual settlements and contiguous areas. Two examples are given of an analysis of a single factor: "retail sales per head of population" and "social structure of occupied population", and two examples of an analysis of functional relationships, namely: "delineation of retail service areas" and "elucidation of regional characteristics". Data for the exercise were taken from official British census publications and were obtained from a house to house survey in the county of East Sussex.Analyse Comparative De L'habitat et des Structures ÉcologiquesRésuméCe rapport a pour but la mise au point d'une technique d'étude des villages et des structures écologiques de la région. Deux exemples d'analyse d'un facteur simple sont donnés: »ventes au détail par tête d'habitant« et »structure sociale de la population active«, et deux exemples d'analyse de relations fonctionnelles »délimitation de zones de distribution au détail« et »détermination des caractéristiques régionales«. Les matériaux ont été extraits des publications du recensement Britannique officiel et obtenus à la suite d'une enquête par foyers dans le comté de «l'East Sussex«.Vergleichende Analyse Von WohnortenZusammenfassungZiel der Arbeit ist, die Entwicklung eines analyhschen Verfahrens zum Studium einselner Wohnorte und ihrer Nachbargebiete aufzuzeigen. Zwei Beispiele für die Analyse von Einzelfaktoren werden gegeben: «Kleinhandelsumsätze pro Kopf der Bevölkerung" und «Sozialstruktur der Beschäftigen", sowie zwei Beispiele für die Analyse funktionaler Abhängigkeiten, nämlich: «Die Beschreibung von Kundenbezirken des Kleinhandels" und «Auffindung regionaler Eigenarten". Die Arbeit basiert auf veröffentlichtem Material des offiziellen britischen Zensus und auf einer Totalerhebung in der Grafschaft von East‐Sussex.