Logical Constraints: The Limitations of QCA in Social Science Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 552-568
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Boolean Algebra ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Social World ◽  
Logical Language ◽  
The Social ◽  
Logical Constraints

Researchers employing qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and its variants use two-element Boolean algebra to compare cases and identify putative causal conditions. I show that the two-element Boolean algebra constrains research in three important ways: it restricts what we can say about sets and the interactions between sets, it embodies a logical language that is too weak to capture modern social science theories, and it restricts our analysis of causation to necessity and sufficiency accounts and does not allow for counterfactuals. Modern quantitative analysis suffers none of these restrictions and provides a much richer way to understand the social world.

scholarly journals Qualitative Researches In Social Sciences

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 54-61
Author(s):  
Prakash Upadhyay ◽  
Vikash Kumar KC
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Social World ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Causal Explanations ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Globalized World

Qualitative social science research is fundamentally embedded in grounded theory concerned with how the social world is interpreted, realized, understood and experienced, or produced. Qualitative investigation seeks answers to their questions in the realistic world. They congregate what they see, hear and read from the people and places and from events and activities and their main purpose are to learn about some aspects of the social world and to generate new understandings that can be used by that social world. The main objective of this study is the interpretation of social world especially of cultures and people’s life-ways rather than seeking causal explanations for social-cultural practices. Nevertheless, in very rapidly changing information dominated globalized world, innovative traditions of the perception of emerging local and global contexts and realities need to be exposed and accepted as well as practiced in qualitative social science research. Janapriya Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol. III (December 2014), page: 54-61 

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document