Description
Instructor: Prof. Natalia Calfat (Harvard Divinity School)
This course will take place on 15 July 2023, from 09:00 to 17:00 (UTC -3), at the Congress venue in Buenos Aires.
Venue: Building San Jose - Auditoriums - UCA1680 Avenida Alicia Moreau de Justo, Buenos Aires, CABA, C1107 (MAP)
Are case-based scholars able to rigorously draw causal inferences from their research designs? How can researchers empirically trace and accurately assess causality within their temporal mechanisms while studying real-world processes? Process Tracing (Beach and Pedersen, 2019) is a research method increasingly being used in the Social Sciences and Public Policy evaluation. The method is designed to help scholars unpack and empirically trace mechanistic processes linking causes and outcomes together and is particularly concerned with the causal forces operating in between a chain of historical events. The course will be focused on the practical use of process tracing for in-depth single case studies and small-n comparisons. The day will consist of a morning lecture session (09:00 -12:00) followed by a workshop-style afternoon group session (13:00 - 17:00) when the key concepts and rationales presented during the morning will be used in practice through the discussion of published examples of process tracing.
The class structure is threefold: what is being traced, how it can be traced, and what lessons can be learned from it. The first part of the course will discuss what are case-based methods and how are they different from other kinds of methods applied in the Social Sciences. We will explore what is particular to the causal claims being made in case-based research and what exactly is process tracing applied in practice. For that, we will discuss what are researchers tracing in case-based methods and how to build and work with process theories. The second part of the course will focus on how a process theory can be empirically manifested in the form of observables. We will be able to discuss how to build causal claims which can be internally tested, and how to properly work with evidence. At this stage, we will present the role that critical evaluation of within-case mechanistic evidence has in process tracing. The final part of the course will discuss what type of lessons and inferences can be drawn from case studies. We will present the importance of case selection, the advantages and drawbacks of generalization, and what conditions must be met for causal mechanisms to travel across different cases.
Important note: readings should be done before the start of the course, to enable a constant dialogue in class. Participants are encouraged to bring questions and prospect how process tracing can be applied to their own research designs and policy agendas.
Basic knowledge of research methodology is desired. There are no prerequisites for this course, but participants are encouraged to send a one-page outline of their causal mechanism by the 13th of July to nnahascalfat@alumni.usp.br.
Readings:
- BEACH, Derek. Process-tracing methods in social science. In: Oxford research encyclopedia of politics. 2017.
- BEACH, Derek; KAAS, Jonas Gejl. The great divides: incommensurability, the impossibility of mixed-methodology, and what to do about it. International Studies Review, v. 22, n. 2, p. 214-235, 2020.
Afternoon session:
- LÖBLOVÁ, Olga. When epistemic communities fail: exploring the mechanism of policy influence. Policy studies journal, v. 46, n. 1, p. 160-189, 2018.
Any inquiry regarding this course can be sent to wc2023@ipsa.org.
Any inquiry regarding this course can be sent to wc2023@ipsa.org.