Commissioned Book Review: Patrick A. Mello, Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Introduction to Research Design and Application
| Author | Houssein Al Malla |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299211053488 |
| Published date | 01 November 2022 |
| Date | 01 November 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Reviews |
Political Studies Review
2022, Vol. 20(4) NP17 –NP18
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
1053488PSW0010.1177/14789299211053488Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
research-article2021
Commissioned Book Review
Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An
Introduction to Research Design and
Application by Patrick A. Mello. Washington, D.C.:
Georgetown University Press, 2021. 240 pp., £97.98
($134.99 USD), ISBN 9781647121440 (1647121442)
Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) has
recently started gaining salience in the Social
Sciences research communities for its ability to
capture the causal complexity of social phe-
nomena that are often caused by a countless
number of interwoven factors. Researchers
employing QCA gain the unique advantage of
being able to study the concepts of conjunc-
tural causation (combinations of conditions),
equifinality (multiple pathways) and causal
asymmetry (outcome and non-outcome may
require different explanations) in their research.
The method allows researchers to explore the
specific conditions under which the events of
their interest occur, through breaking down the
conditions into ‘necessary’ (i.e. must be pre-
sent for an event to occur) and ‘sufficient’ (i.e.
will produce the event, but not necessary).
Similar to other novel research methods,
the learning curve for the adoption of QCA has
been a steep one, especially given the fact that
it involves the usage of specialized software
for its application such as fsQCA or R. In his
2021 book titled Qualitative Comparative
Analysis: An Introduction to Research Design
and Application, Mello aimed at bridging the
learning gap for anyone wishing to adopt or
even teach QCA as a research method. The
book, divided into 10 distinct chapters, pro-
vides a holistic approach to introducing QCA
as a research method in the Social Sciences, its
distinct advantages and step-by-step guidance
on turning projects into QCA Studies, in addi-
tion to providing guidance on the interpretation
and analysis of QCA results in publications.
Mello’s book especially stands out from other
publications on QCA in three different areas:
the chapters on research design (Chapter II),
QCA and its critics (Chapter IX) and the online
‘R Manual’ that accompanies the publication.
These elements are especially interesting given
the fact they are not discussed in many texts on
QCA, thus filling an additional gap in the lit-
erature on the method.
In the chapter on research design, Mello
guides the reader through the process of formu-
lating and designing research for QCA. The
chapter answers the most prominent questions
on the types of research questions that can be
answered with the set-theoretic approach of
QCA, formulating theory that allows research-
ers to gain the most leverage from implement-
ing the method, selecting cases and conditions
and conducting multi-method research with
QCA. This chapter is particularly interesting,
given the fact that the technical implementa-
tion and refinement of QCA (processes that are
conducted at later stages in the research cycle)
are generally given heavier importance in other
QCA textbooks, while Mello correctly argues
that many of the challenges that come about
from implementing QCA can be addressed at
the study design phase of research.
In the chapter on QCA and its critics, Mello
seeks to provide an up-to-date summary of
existing critique and clarifies some recurring
misunderstandings about the method. The
chapter discusses four major themes of QCA
critique: analytical robustness, comparisons
with other methods, formalization and algo-
rithms, in addition to causal analysis and solu-
tion terms. The chapter proves to be especially
essential to the study of QCA as it distinguishes
between QCA as a method and its application
in empirical studies, which allows researchers
wishing to employ QCA the opportunity to
gain a better holistic understanding of the
method’s usage. In addition, the chapter serves
as a great resource that addresses a major flaw
of the circulating critiques on the method:
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