Sequence will tell! Integrating temporality into set-theoretic multi-method research combining comparative process tracing and qualitative comparative analysis

Abstract

This article brings together recent developments in the methodological literature on case selection in multi-method research (MMR), design of process tracing studies and the relevance of temporality in the explanation of political processes. It presents an extension of set-theoretic MMR by introducing a comparative process tracing (CPT) framework based on fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. To facilitate case selection for CPT, different types of cases in qualitative comparative analysis are defined. The CPT framework, then, specifies the cases to be compared in theory-testing or theory-building process tracing designs where the emphasis lies on the elaboration of the importance of timing and sequencing of conditions leading to an outcome.

Keywords:

• Comparative method
• multi-method research
• sequencing
• temporality
• qualitative comparative analysis
• process tracing

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ingo Rohlfing and Frank Schimmelfennig for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this article.

Notes

1. Most probably because of the marginal number of studies applying TQCA or CNA, Rihoux and Marx (2013) in their review of the last 25 years of studies applying CCM do not list TQCA or CNA articles.

2. In csQCA the classification is significantly simpler as the presence or absence of the configurations and the outcome are dichotomous and thus there are only four categories with no internal differentiations. Here the cases in the top right quadrant of Figure 1 are typical cases, deviant cases by consistency are in the bottom right, deviant cases by coverage remain in the top left and negative typical cases are in the bottom left quadrant. When considering which case to select within these categories, no guidance is possible from the information in the QCA; in the absence of any further case information, it becomes impossible to determine the most appropriate case and researchers will have to resort to random selection.

3. This explanation of a case’s deviance based on the sequence of conditions differs from standard QCA procedure where it is argued that a case’s deviance is caused by a condition omitted in the analysis.