Tqca

A Technique for Adding Temporality to Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Bibliographic Data

ID2330480
AuthorsNeal Caren (0000-0003-1704-5494, New York University), Aaron Panofsky (0000-0001-7666-2359, New York University)
Year2005
Volume34
Issue2
Pages147-172
Publication date2005-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Methods & Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0049-1241 • E-ISSN: 1552-8294
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0049124105277197
OpenAlexW1963798083
LanguageEN
Citations received54
References cited32

As originally developed by Charles Ragin in The Comparative Method (1987), qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) has been used extensively by comparative and historical sociologists as an effective tool for analyzing data sets of medium-N populations. Like many other methods, however, QCA is atemporal and obscures the sequential nature of paths of causation. QCA ignores the order of events by treating combinations of attributes as though they occur simultaneously rather than as unfolding over time. While preserving the essential strengths of QCA, the authors present a modification that is capable of capturing the temporal nature of causal interactions. This modification involves a hybrid of Boolean algebra and sequence analysis to create a parsimonious set of solutions. This technique is referred to as temporal qualitative comparative analysis, or TQCA

Causation · Comparative method · Comparative research · Epistemology · Linguistics · Machine learning · Qualitative comparative analysis · Sequence (biology) · Set (abstract data type) · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Political Conflict and Governance · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research · Theoretical Computer Science