Qualitative Causal Inference and Explanation

AvDavid Waldner

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

Del i serien Strategies for Social Inquiry

1 362 kr

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Beskrivning

While existing qualitative, case-study methods deliver specific explanations, quantitative approaches to causal inference emphasize valid inferences at the expense of explanations. In this book, David Waldner presents a hybrid method drawing on both approaches to ensure that explanations are based on validly inferred causes and to avoid making valid inferences that have limited explanatory power. Qualitative Causal Inference and Explanation integrates a qualitative identification strategy based on graph-theoretic analysis into traditional process-tracing methods by introducing three novel methodological concepts: hypothetical interventions, invariant causal mechanisms, and event-history maps. This new approach provides clear and feasible standards for making valid, unit-level causal inferences. The result is a groundbreaking approach to explaining complex social and political phenomena, one that better avoids false positives while providing explanations that satisfy the criteria of explanatory depth, density, relevance, and unification.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2026-06-30
Vikt:500 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Strategies for Social Inquiry
Antal sidor:380
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9781009769563

Utforska kategorier

Sociologi inom Samhälle och politik

Mer om författaren

David Waldner is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia where he studies long-term political and economic development using case-study methods. He is the author of State Building & Late Development (Cornell University Press, 1999) and Rethinking the Resource Curse (with Benjamin Smith, Cambridge University Press, 2021), as well as many articles and book chapters on the dynamics of political regime change and qualitative methods.

Recensioner i media

'Waldner equips qualitative researchers with a shared language for making causal explanations explicit, debatable, and cumulative across cases, subfields, disciplines, and generations. The payoff of rigorous standards, he shows, is liberation, not constraint: scholars gain the questions they must ask of one another's work-and their own-to deepen what we know.' Jake Bowers, Professor in the Departments of Political Science and Statistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Innehållsförteckning

1. Introduction; Part I. Foundations: 2. Causal graphs; 3. Invariant causal mechanisms; 4. Event-history maps; Part II. Qualitative Causal Inference: 5. Inferring causes qualitatively; 6. Evaluating qualitative causal inferences; 7. Comparing methods; Part III. Qualitative Causal Explanations: 8. Causal explanations; 9. Standard explanatory patterns; 10. Looking backward and forward.