Rethinking policy-related research
Charting a path using qualitative comparative analysis and complexity theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13041345 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tim Blackman (0000-0003-2920-1378, The Open University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 333-345 |
| Publication date | 2012-12-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contemporary Social Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2158-2041 • E-ISSN: 2158-205X |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/21582041.2012.751500 |
| OpenAlex | W2097821247 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 38 |
This article argues that conventional quantitative and qualitative research methods have largely failed to provide policy practitioners with the knowledge they need for decision making. These methods often have difficulty handling real-world complexity, especially complex causality. This is when the mechanism of change is a combination of conditions that occur in a system such as an organisation or locality. A better approach is to use qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), a hybrid qualitative/quantitative method that enables logical reasoning about actual cases, their conditions and how outcomes emerge from combinations of these conditions. Taken together, these comprise a system, and the method works well with a whole-system view, avoiding reductionism to individual behaviours by accounting for determinants that operate at levels beyond individuals. Using logical reduction, QCA identifies causal mechanisms in sub-types of cases differentiated by what matters to whether the outcome happens or not. In contrast to common variable-based methods such as multiple regression, which are divorced from actual case realities, QCA is case-based and rooted in these realities. The use of qualitative descriptors of conditions such as ways of working engages practitioners, while their standardisation enables systematic comparison and a degree of generalisation about ‘why’ questions that qualitative techniques typically do not achieve. The type of QCA described in the article requires conditions and outcomes to be dichotomised as present or absent, which is helpful to practitioners facing binary decisions about whether to do (a) or (b), or whether or not an outcome has been achieved
Causality (physics · Data science · Economics · Epistemology · Locality · Machine learning · Management science · Mathematical economics · Outcome (game theory · Qualitative comparative analysis · Qualitative research · Reductionism · Social science · Sociology · Variable (mathematics · Computer Science · Mathematics · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
Risk and Uncertainty in the Social Sciences
Assessment and Qualitative Comparative Analysis of English Local Authority Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies to Improve Health under Austerity Conditions, 2013–2017
Fragmented property rights and their risks on foreclosed housing
Impact of augmented reality-driven cultural creative product innovation on consumers’ purchase intentions
Organisational analytical capacity
Policy evaluation for a complex world
How do policy evaluators understand complexity
Participatory systems mapping for complex energy policy evaluation
Integrating quasi-experimental and inductive designs in evaluation
Why organizations (do not) evaluate? Explaining evaluation activity through the lens of configurational comparative methods
Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis to understand complex policy problems
The nature and value of cultural policy research for early career researchers
Moving Away from Social Work and Half Way Back Again
Unpack the black box of pilot sampling in policy experimentation
Fuzzy-Set Social Science
Evidence, argument, and persuasion in the policy process
Chaos, complexity, and sociology
Using evidence
A set-theoretic approach to organizational configurations
Agendas, alternatives, and public policies
Reframing Public Policy
Health and health care
Income Dynamics, Economic Rents, and the Financialization of the U.S. Economy
The Comparative Method
The Sage Handbook of Case-Based Methods
Frame Reflection
Are RCTs the Gold Standard
Systems thinking, knowledge and action
Evidence-Based Health Care
Realistic Evaluation and QCA
Contrasting Variable-Analytic and Case-Based Approaches to the Analysis of Survey Datasets
Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences
How Does It Work
Getting evidence into policy
Economic evaluation to inform health care decision-making
A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of factors associated with trends in narrowing health inequalities in England
Why do interventions work in some places and not others
Causal Mechanisms in the Social Sciences
Telling Policy Stories
Tackling Inequalities in Health in England
Area, Class and Health
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,08 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2026 (14) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |