Description
Book SynopsisThere are a growing number of scholars who study politics by conducting rich empirical case studies. This book highlights process tracing - a method that plays a central role in organizing and measuring these empirics. Drawing upon numerous examples, it provides grounded, practical advice on conducting process tracing well.
Trade Review'Bennett and Checkel have assembled an impressive group of scholars on the cutting-edge methodological issues involved in process tracing, while at the same time providing concrete, practical advice for scholars who wish to use this technique of analysis in a variety of different research programs. As a result of this dual approach, this volume represents a steep change from earlier methodological studies on process tracing and fills a real gap in scholarship. There is no doubt that it will be compulsory reading on graduate-level courses in qualitative methodology for a long time to come.' Giovanni Capoccia, University of Oxford
'Bennett and Checkel's remarkable book will bring process tracing to the attention of a wide spectrum of disciplines - sociology, anthropology, history, public policy analysis and beyond. This valuable tool for causal inference has been developed primarily by political scientists, and their volume will accelerate much wider adoption of the method.' David Collier, Robson Professor, University of California, Berkeley
'This volume is the next milestone in the dynamic debate over causal mechanisms and the standards and practices of process tracing. These contributions by leading figures in the discipline covering a broad range of topics and research areas are a must-read for anyone interested in and using qualitative methods.' Ingo Rohlfing, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences
Table of ContentsPreface; Part I. Introduction: 1. Process tracing: from philosophical roots to best practices Andrew Bennett and Jeffrey T. Checkel; Part II. Process Tracing in Action: 2. Process tracing the effects of ideas Alan M. Jacobs; 3. Mechanisms, process, and the study of international institutions Jeffrey T. Checkel; 4. Efficient process tracing: analyzing the causal mechanisms of European integration Frank Schimmelfennig; 5. What makes process tracing good? Causal mechanisms, causal inference, and the completeness standard in comparative politics David Waldner; 6. Explaining the Cold War's end: process tracing all the way down? Matthew Evangelista; 7. Process tracing, causal inference, and civil war Jason Lyall; Part III. Extensions, Controversies, and Conclusions: 8. Improving process tracing: the case of multi-method research Thad Dunning; 9. Practice tracing Vincent Pouliot; 10. Beyond metaphors: standards, theory, and the 'where next' for process tracing Jeffrey T. Checkel and Andrew Bennett; Appendix. Disciplining our conjectures: systematizing process tracing with Bayesian analysis.
