Case-Based Methods & Comparative Methods Community

Who this Community is for

This Community is for scholars engaged in case-based, comparative, and configurational research who are interested in causal inference, theory development, and systematic comparison. It welcomes researchers working with single-case, small-N, and intermediate-N designs across disciplines, including those combining qualitative, comparative, and quantitative approaches.

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Community focus and ethos

The Case-Based Methods & Comparative Methods Community serves as a pluralist hub for scholars engaged in the systematic analysis of cases. It brings together researchers seeking to bridge qualitative depth with comparative and quantitative rigor. Its intellectual focus spans single-case studies and process tracing, comparative case study designs, and set-theoretic approaches such as Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). The Community is committed to advancing methodological pluralism by examining how case-based insights contribute to causal inference, theory development, and empirical testing.

The Community plays a central role in shaping and coordinating the Community-led Case-Based and Comparative Methods track at the MethodsNET Conference. The track brings together researchers working with small-N and intermediate-N designs to engage with shared methodological challenges, including case selection, concept formation, and causal complexity. Particular emphasis is placed on contributions that innovate at the intersection of traditions, such as multi-method and mixed methods research combining statistical analysis with case-based approaches, or Bayesian perspectives on qualitative inference. The Community offers a supportive environment for rigorous methodological reflection, joint learning, experience sharing, and collaboration.

Beyond the conference, the Community supports ongoing methodological exchange and collaboration among scholars interested in advancing case-based and comparative research designs.

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Topics relevant for submissions

• Innovations in Case Selection and Comparative Research Designs: Strategies for selecting cases in multi-method designs (e.g., typical, diverse, extreme, or deviant cases), techniques for nesting case studies within large-N analysis, and developing multilevel comparative designs (micro-meso-macro)
• Developments in multimethod data collection: Strategies and protocols to gather rich data (multidata) in intermediate-N designs, crossing secondary and primary data, and using digital data collection modes 
• Causal Inference & Process Tracing: Advances in tracing causal mechanisms, dealing with equifinality, and using “smoking gun” or “hoop” tests to assess evidence.
• Set-Theoretic and Configurational Methods (QCA and related): Methodological developments and empirical applications of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA, fsQCA), Coincidence Analysis (CNA), Analytic Induction (AI) and other configurational methods
• Multi-Method Research (MMR) and Case-informed Mixed Methods Designs: integrating quantitative results with qualitative case narratives, combining QCA-related methods with single case analysis, connecting QCA with ‘relational’ methods (eg SNA, Agent Based Modeling)
• Concept Formation and Measurement: Approaches to measuring complex concepts across different cases and contexts (validity, equivalence, and calibration), and approaches to global comparison (incl. North-South)
• Comparative Historical Analysis: Methodological frameworks for analyzing macro-historical processes and critical junctures over time, and conceptualization and operationalization of time in cross-case research
• Exploiting AI in case-based and comparative methods: concrete potential at different stages of the research process, exploiting AI to build thought experiments and plausible cases, good practices and pitfalls

Co-convenors

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