Process Tracing: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool (Strategies for Social Inquiry)

Cambridge University Press, 11/13/2014
EAN 9781107044524, ISBN10: 1107044529

Hardcover, 344 pages, 24.4 x 17 x 2.1 cm
Language: English

Advances in qualitative methods and recent developments in the philosophy of science have led to an emphasis on explanation via reference to causal mechanisms. This book argues that the method known as process tracing is particularly well suited to developing and assessing theories about such mechanisms. The editors begin by establishing a philosophical basis for process tracing - one that captures mainstream uses while simultaneously being open to applications by interpretive scholars. Equally important, they go on to establish best practices for individual process-tracing accounts - how micro to go, when to start (and stop), and how to deal with the problem of equifinality. The contributors then explore the application of process tracing across a range of subfields and theories in political science. This is an applied methods book which seeks to shrink the gap between the broad assertion that 'process tracing is good' and the precise claim 'this is an instance of good process tracing'.

Preface
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.