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Field Methods
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Complexity, Generality, and Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Charles C. Ragin

University of Arizona

David Shulman

Lafayette College

Adam Weinberg

Colgate University

Brian Gran

Case Western University

Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) offers researchers the opportunity to combine the intensiveness of case-oriented research strategies and the extensiveness of variable-oriented approaches in a single framework. QCA is specifically designed for a moderate number of cases, too few for variable-oriented research designs and too many for in-depth, case-oriented analysis. To illustrate QCA's applicability to moderate-sized data sets, we analyze data on forty-one villages in southern India reported in Robert Wade's (1988) comparative study of villagewide collective action, Village Republics. Using QCA, we show that Wade's explanation of village-wide collective action is incomplete. We complement his strictly ecological explanation with a sociological perspective and show that intervillage competition is an important condition for villagewide collective action.

Key Words: qualitative analysis • comparative analysis • small-n research • ecological explanation • resource scarcity

Field Methods, Vol. 15, No. 4, 323-340 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1525822X03257689
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