Process Tracing Methods – an Introduction

The aim of this course is to provide participants with a working understanding of the core elements of process-tracing as a distinct social science case study method, enabling you to utilize it in your own research. The course will develop its relative strengths and limitations, and how it can be combined productively with other methods in multi-method designs such as experiments or small/medium-n comparisons using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). During course day one, we will discuss the core elements of process-tracing, focusing first on the theory-side by assessing what we are actually 'tracing' using process-tracing methods (i.e. causal mechanisms), and second, how we are able to make evidence-based causal inferences using within-case, 'mechanistic' evidence. The final session deals with case selection and how process-tracing can be combined with other methods.In the second day, participants who are either already using or considering using Process-tracing will be able to take part in a workshop that aims to further develop their design.

About the lecturer

Derek Beach is a professor of Political Science at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, where he teaches international relations, European integration and case study methodology. He has authored articles, chapters, and books on research methodology, international negotiations, referendums, and European integration, and co-authored the books Process-tracing Methods: Foundations and Guidelines (2019, 2nd edition) and Causal Case Study Methods: Comparing, Matching and Tracing (2016) (both with the University of Michigan Press). He has taught case study methods at ECPR and IPSA summer and winter schools, held short courses at the APSA annual meeting on Process-tracing, ICPSR (Michigan), and numerous workshops and seminars on case-based methods throughout the world. He is an academic co-convenor of the ECPR Methods Schools.