C C Ragin
Biographic Data
| ID | 22414 |
|---|---|
| NAME | C C Ragin |
| GIVEN NAMES | C C |
| FAMILY NAME | Ragin |
| SIGNATURE | RAGIN C C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Arizona |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7931-5408 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 66 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1150 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 66 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1975 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
A set-analytic approach to intersectionality
Analytic Induction for Social Research
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. This book explores analytic induction, an approach to the analysis of cross-case evidence on qualitative outcomes that has deep roots in sociology. A popular research technique in the early decades of empirical sociology, analytic induction differs fundamentally as a method of soc…
Intersectional Inequality: Race, Class, Test Scores, and Poverty
Case-Oriented Research
The origins, development, and application of Qualitative Comparative Analysis: The First 25 Years
A quarter century ago, in 1987, Charles C. Ragin published The Comparative Method, introducing a new method to the social sciences called Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). QCA is a comparative case-oriented research approach and collection of techniques based on set theory and Boolean algebra, which aims to combine some of the strengths of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Since its launch in 1987, QCA has been applied extensiv…
Conclusions—the Way(s) Ahead
International audience
Qualitative Comparative Analysis using Fuzzy Sets (fsQCA)
One apparent limitation of the truth table approach is that it is designed for conditions that are simple presence/absence dichotomies (i.e., Boolean or “crisp” sets—see Chapter 3) or multichotomies (mvQCA—see Chapter 4). Many of the conditions that interest social scientists, however, vary by level or degree. For example, while it is clear that some countries are democracies and some are not, there is a broad range of in-between cases. These cou…
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) as an Approach
Locate QCA as an approach and grasp its key epistemological foundations • Understand how and why QCA is “case oriented” and how one should use QCA to engage in a dialogue between cases and theories • Understand the specific conception of causality conveyed in QCA— multiple conjunctural causation—and its practical consequences • Reflect on the usefulness of QCA to reach a certain level of generalization beyond the observed cases • Grasp key common…
The Sage Handbook of Case-Based Methods
INTRODUCTION: Case-Based Methods: Why We Need Them What They Are How to Do Them - David Byrne PART ONE: THE METHODOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF CASE-BASED METHODS Complexity and Case - David L Harvey The Contextualist Approach to Social Science Methodology - Lars Mjoset Reflexivity, Realism and the Process of Casing - Bob Carter and Alison Sealey Single-Case Probabilities - Malcolm Williams and Wendy Dyer Complex Realist and Configurational Approaches to C…
Configurational Comparative Methods: Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Related Techniques
Configurational Comparative Methods paves the way for an innovative approach to empirical scientific work through a strategy that integrates key strengths of both qualitative (case-oriented) and quantitative (variable-oriented) approaches. This first-of-its-kind text is ideally suited for small-N or intermediate-N research situations, which both mainstream qualitative and quantitative methods find difficult to address. Benoit Rihoux and Charles C…
Redesigning Social Inquiry: Fuzzy Sets and Beyond
Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis to Study Causal Order: Comment on Caren and Panofsky (2005)
Caren and Panofsky (2005) seek to advance qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) by demonstrating that it can be used to study causal conditions that occur in sequences and introduce a technique they call TQCA (temporal QCA). In their formulation, the causal conjuncture is a sequence of conditions or events. The authors applaud their effort and agree that it is important to address this aspect of causation. This comment clarifies and corrects asp…
Comparative Methods
Set Relations in Social Research: Evaluating Their Consistency and Coverage
Because of its inherently asymmetric nature, set-theoretic analysis offers many interesting contrasts with analysis based on correlations. Until recently, however, social scientists have been slow to embrace set-theoretic approaches. The perception was that this type of analysis is restricted to primitive, binary variables and that it has little or no tolerance for error. With the advent of “fuzzy” sets and the recognition that even rough set-the…
How to Lure Analytic Social Science Out of the Doldrums: Some Lessons from Comparative Research
The practice of quantitative research in the social sciences today is dominated by a specific research template that encourages researchers to focus on the net additive effects of independent variables on variation in a dependent variable, using samples drawn from 'given' populations. Comparative research, especially case-oriented investigation, offers a number of important challenges to this template. While these challenges may appear to constit…
Between Complexity and Parsimony: Limited Diversity, Counterfactual Cases, and Comparative Analysis
Counterfactual analysis has a long and distinguished history in comparative research. To some, counterfactual analysis is central to comparative inquiry because such research typically embraces only a handful of empirical cases If there are only a few instances (e.g., of revolution), then researchers, of necessity, must compare empirical cases to hypothetical cases. The affinity between counterfactual analysis and comparative research, however, d…
Core versus tangential assumptions in comparative research
Fuzzy Sets and Social Research
four in-depth methodological discussions of the use of fuzzy sets in social research. They have in common that they confront and compare fuzzy set methods with mainstream techniques. These contributions should not be read as introductions to fuzzy set analysis (see Smithson 1987; Ragin 2000) but as attempts to validate this new methodology and demonstrate some of its strengths by comparing it with estab-lished approaches. In brief, fuzzy sets ext…
Complexity, Generality, and Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) offers researchers the opportunity to combine the intensiveness of case-oriented research strategies and the extensiveness of variable-oriented approaches in a single framework. QCA is specifically designed for a moderate number of cases, too few for variable-oriented research designs and too many for in-depth, case-oriented analysis. To illustrate QCA's applicability to moderate-sized data sets, we analyze …
New methods for social history: New Methods for Social History
During the two decades prior to publication of this book, sociologists had developed a range of new research methods that could be of much use to social historians. This 1999 collection of essays introduces some of the most interesting of these methods: event structure analysis, words-to-numbers, network analysis, qualitative comparative analysis, fuzzy logic, and recursive regression. All essays are written by outstanding experts, address non-in…
The Logic of Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Social scientists often face a fundamental dilemma when they conduct social research. On the one hand, they may emphasize the complexity of social phenomena – a common strategy in ethnographic, historical and macro social research – and offer in–depth case studies sensitive to the specificity of the things they study. On the other hand, they may make broad, homo genizing assumptions about cases, and document generalities – patterns hold across ma…
The Effect of Human Capital and State Intervention on the Performance of Medical Systems
Using theoretical perspectives of several literatures (e.g., human capital investment, state theory, mortality, and professional dominance), this study explains variation in the performance of national medical systems. Using an unique data set, it assesses the consequences of human capital investments by analyzing the impact that investments in the number of doctors and in the proportion of doctors who were specialists have on reductions in morta…
Sociology for the Student as Public: A Neglected Genre
European Revolutions, 1492-1992
Some Observations on Formal Methods of Qualitative Analysis
Set Relations in Social Research: Evaluating Their Consistency and Coverage
Because of its inherently asymmetric nature, set-theoretic analysis offers many interesting contrasts with analysis based on correlations. Until recently, however, social scientists have been slow to embrace set-theoretic approaches. The perception was that this type of analysis is restricted to primitive, binary variables and that it has little or no tolerance for error. With the advent of “fuzzy” sets and the recognition that even rough set-the…
Social Democracy, Christian Democracy, Constitutional Structure, and the Welfare State
The literature on the determinants of welfare state effort displays many inconsistencies and contradictins. This article takes imoprtant stepts toward resolving these issues with the use of pooled cross-sectional and time-series analyses. The findings are that various independent variables affect different measures of welfare state effort in different and theoretically meaningful ways. Of special importance are the contrasting effects of Christia…
Global and National Sources of Political Protest: Third World Responses to the Debt Crisis
In recent years internationalfinancial institutions have required Third World debtor countries to adopt various austerity policies designed to restore economic viability and ensure debt repayment. The hardships created by these policies have provoked unprecedented protests in debtor countries, ranging from mass demonstrations to organized strikes and riots. We examine variation among Third World debtor countries in the presence and severity of pr…
Theory and Method in Comparative Research: Two Strategies
We examine the comparative strategies of Durkheim and Weber and link them to specific presuppositions. While both are compatible with goals of explanation and generalization in sociological analysis, they use different types of explanation and different degrees of generalization to produce variable-based (Durkheimian) and case-based (Weberian) studies. Several authors (e.g., Kapsis; Smelser, b) suggest that these two strategies converge. We show …
The origins, development, and application of Qualitative Comparative Analysis: The First 25 Years
A quarter century ago, in 1987, Charles C. Ragin published The Comparative Method, introducing a new method to the social sciences called Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). QCA is a comparative case-oriented research approach and collection of techniques based on set theory and Boolean algebra, which aims to combine some of the strengths of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Since its launch in 1987, QCA has been applied extensiv…
Ethnic Political Mobilization: The Welsh Case
Schultz, T. W. (ed.) 1974 Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children and Human Capital. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Siegel, P. M. 1971 Prestige in the American Occupational Structure. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago. Sorokin, Pitirim 1927 Social Mobility. New York: Harper. Tien, H. Yuan 1961 The social mobility/fertility hypothesis reconsidered: an empirical study. American Sociological Review 26:247-…
Structural Blockage: A Cross-National Study of Economic Dependency, State Efficacy, and Underdevelopment
This cross-national study of the effects of dependency and state efficacy on development supports the "structural blockage" argument of dependency theory. According to this argument, international economic dependency impedes development in the more advanced countries of the periphery of the world capitalist system. In support of this argument, we show that two forms of participation in the world economy, the export of a small number of commoditie…
Assessing Discrimination: A Boolean Approach
Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, various forms of employment discrimination have been prohibited by law. The courts have enforced these laws vigorously, often requiring plaintiffs and defendants to present quantitative analyses of applicant and employee records as evidence. In fact, statistical analyses have become a regular feature of employment discrimination cases. Consequently, there has been an explosion of interest in the …
Some Observations on Formal Methods of Qualitative Analysis
International Economic Dependence and Human Misery, 1938-1980: A Global Perspective
Previous quantitative cross-national studies of international inequality have skirted several basic questions raised by dependency and world-system theories. These shortcomings stem from data limitations and from difficult problems in design and conceptualization. This paper attempts to overcome some of these problems by: (1) complementing the study of economic development with analyses of cross-national variation in physical quality of life; (2)…
"Class, Status, and "Reactive Ethnic Cleavages: The Social Bases of Political Regionalism
Two conflicting perspectives on the nature of political regionalism in Britain are examined. The first, based on a developmental perspective, argues that there is a high degree of regional uniformity in party support in Britain. The second, based on the theory of reactive cleavages, supports the view that Celtic political distinctiveness is a persistent feature of British politics. Both perspectives are found to be inadequate because of errors in…
Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis to Study Causal Order: Comment on Caren and Panofsky (2005)
Caren and Panofsky (2005) seek to advance qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) by demonstrating that it can be used to study causal conditions that occur in sequences and introduce a technique they call TQCA (temporal QCA). In their formulation, the causal conjuncture is a sequence of conditions or events. The authors applaud their effort and agree that it is important to address this aspect of causation. This comment clarifies and corrects asp…
The Logic of Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Social scientists often face a fundamental dilemma when they conduct social research. On the one hand, they may emphasize the complexity of social phenomena – a common strategy in ethnographic, historical and macro social research – and offer in–depth case studies sensitive to the specificity of the things they study. On the other hand, they may make broad, homo genizing assumptions about cases, and document generalities – patterns hold across ma…
The Market, Tradition and Peasant Rebellion: The Case of Romania in 1907
Two models of peasant rebellion are examined using historical census data relevant to the Romanian peasant rebellion of 1907. One model synthesizes the arguments of Wolf Moore, Hobsbawm and Tlly. The other is Stinchcombe's. Each model is operationalized and tested using multiple regression techniques on county level data. The first synthetic model works well and shows that the most important variable explaining the intensity of the rebellion is t…
Comparative Sociology and the Comparative Method
Modernizing Institutions, Mobilization, and Third World Development: A Cross-National Study
Following the implications of modernization theory, we test via panel regression analysis several hypotheses relating modernizing institutions to the economic development of poor countries. Controlling for the economic constraints imposed by initial poverty and world-system position, we find that the school furthers economic development while exposure to the cinema hinders it. Further analysis shows that these effects vary by political context: i…
Core versus tangential assumptions in comparative research
Complexity, Generality, and Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) offers researchers the opportunity to combine the intensiveness of case-oriented research strategies and the extensiveness of variable-oriented approaches in a single framework. QCA is specifically designed for a moderate number of cases, too few for variable-oriented research designs and too many for in-depth, case-oriented analysis. To illustrate QCA's applicability to moderate-sized data sets, we analyze …
Introduction: The Problem of Balancing Discourse On Cases and Variables In Comparative Social Science
Fuzzy Sets and Social Research
four in-depth methodological discussions of the use of fuzzy sets in social research. They have in common that they confront and compare fuzzy set methods with mainstream techniques. These contributions should not be read as introductions to fuzzy set analysis (see Smithson 1987; Ragin 2000) but as attempts to validate this new methodology and demonstrate some of its strengths by comparing it with estab-lished approaches. In brief, fuzzy sets ext…
Intersectional Inequality: Race, Class, Test Scores, and Poverty
How to Lure Analytic Social Science Out of the Doldrums: Some Lessons from Comparative Research
The practice of quantitative research in the social sciences today is dominated by a specific research template that encourages researchers to focus on the net additive effects of independent variables on variation in a dependent variable, using samples drawn from 'given' populations. Comparative research, especially case-oriented investigation, offers a number of important challenges to this template. While these challenges may appear to constit…
Major Labor Disputes in Britain, 1902-1938: The Relationship Between Resource Expenditure and Outcome
While there have been many studies of the frequency of strikes, only a few researchers (e.g., Snyder and Kelly, 1976) have studied strike outcomes. This topic has been ignored partly because the dominant perspective in the study of industrial conflict, the resource mobilization perspective, treats strikes as acts that contribute primarily to workers' long-term political interests. We argue that strikes are at least as much acts of economic instru…
New methods for social history: New Methods for Social History
During the two decades prior to publication of this book, sociologists had developed a range of new research methods that could be of much use to social historians. This 1999 collection of essays introduces some of the most interesting of these methods: event structure analysis, words-to-numbers, network analysis, qualitative comparative analysis, fuzzy logic, and recursive regression. All essays are written by outstanding experts, address non-in…
Mechanical Solidarity, Repressive Justice, and Lynchings in Louisiana
The Market, Tradition and Peasant Rebellion: The Case of Romania in 1907
Two models of peasant rebellion are examined using historical census data relevant to the Romanian peasant rebellion of 1907. One model synthesizes the arguments of Wolf Moore, Hobsbawm and Tlly. The other is Stinchcombe's. Each model is operationalized and tested using multiple regression techniques on county level data. The first synthetic model works well and shows that the most important variable explaining the intensity of the rebellion is t…
Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development
"Class, Status, and "Reactive Ethnic Cleavages: The Social Bases of Political Regionalism
Two conflicting perspectives on the nature of political regionalism in Britain are examined. The first, based on a developmental perspective, argues that there is a high degree of regional uniformity in party support in Britain. The second, based on the theory of reactive cleavages, supports the view that Celtic political distinctiveness is a persistent feature of British politics. Both perspectives are found to be inadequate because of errors in…
Mechanical Solidarity, Repressive Justice, and Lynchings in Louisiana
Modernizing Institutions, Mobilization, and Third World Development: A Cross-National Study
Following the implications of modernization theory, we test via panel regression analysis several hypotheses relating modernizing institutions to the economic development of poor countries. Controlling for the economic constraints imposed by initial poverty and world-system position, we find that the school furthers economic development while exposure to the cinema hinders it. Further analysis shows that these effects vary by political context: i…
Ethnic Political Mobilization: The Welsh Case
Schultz, T. W. (ed.) 1974 Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children and Human Capital. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Siegel, P. M. 1971 Prestige in the American Occupational Structure. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago. Sorokin, Pitirim 1927 Social Mobility. New York: Harper. Tien, H. Yuan 1961 The social mobility/fertility hypothesis reconsidered: an empirical study. American Sociological Review 26:247-…
Aggregation Gain and Loss in Electoral Research
Comparative Sociology and the Comparative Method
National Development and the World System: Educational, Economic, and Political Change, 1950-1970
Legislatures in Development: Dynamics of Change in Old and New States
Comparative Sociology and the Comparative Method
Structural Blockage: A Cross-National Study of Economic Dependency, State Efficacy, and Underdevelopment
This cross-national study of the effects of dependency and state efficacy on development supports the "structural blockage" argument of dependency theory. According to this argument, international economic dependency impedes development in the more advanced countries of the periphery of the world capitalist system. In support of this argument, we show that two forms of participation in the world economy, the export of a small number of commoditie…
Major Labor Disputes in Britain, 1902-1938: The Relationship Between Resource Expenditure and Outcome
While there have been many studies of the frequency of strikes, only a few researchers (e.g., Snyder and Kelly, 1976) have studied strike outcomes. This topic has been ignored partly because the dominant perspective in the study of industrial conflict, the resource mobilization perspective, treats strikes as acts that contribute primarily to workers' long-term political interests. We argue that strikes are at least as much acts of economic instru…
Marxist Perspectives on International Capitalism
Theory and Method in the Study of Dependency and International Inequality
Identity and Assimilation: The Welsh-English Dichotomy, A Case Study
Theory and Method in Comparative Research: Two Strategies
We examine the comparative strategies of Durkheim and Weber and link them to specific presuppositions. While both are compatible with goals of explanation and generalization in sociological analysis, they use different types of explanation and different degrees of generalization to produce variable-based (Durkheimian) and case-based (Weberian) studies. Several authors (e.g., Kapsis; Smelser, b) suggest that these two strategies converge. We show …
Ethnopolitics: A Conceptual Framework.Joseph Rothschild
The World System of Immanuel Wallerstein: Sociology and Politics as History
Few American sociologists have succeeded in forming academic cults around themselves, and until recently none had ever done so through the writing of social history. Yet this is precisely what Immanuel Wallerstein has done, and it is worth examining the reasons for this before discussing his intellectual biography and analyzing the substance of his work. Although known as an Africanist in the 1960s and as the author of a provocative book about un…
Crises in the World-System
Original essays explore the periodic crises that seem to be a part of the very essence of the capitalist world-system. What is the nature of these crises and how do they threaten the hegemony of the powerful core countries? These questions are considered in five major analyses. Four essays are then devoted to examining the current crisis of the American economy. '...leaves the reader with far more insight into a far more serious set of problems..…
Assessing Discrimination: A Boolean Approach
Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, various forms of employment discrimination have been prohibited by law. The courts have enforced these laws vigorously, often requiring plaintiffs and defendants to present quantitative analyses of applicant and employee records as evidence. In fact, statistical analyses have become a regular feature of employment discrimination cases. Consequently, there has been an explosion of interest in the …
Classification in Social Research.Ramkrishna Mukherjee
Medieval Slavery and Liberation.Pierre Dockès , Arthur Goldhammer
The Politics of the World-Economy: The States, the Movements, and the Civilizations
Political Violence, Crises, and Revolutions: Theories and Research
Sociology (41 works) · Computer Science (33 works) · Political science (27 works) · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research (23 works) · Economics (22 works) · Social science (21 works) · Epistemology (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Mathematics (13 works) · Philosophy (13 works)