Chair in Qualitative Empirical Research Methods

Our publications

On this page we present some publications. Especially in the social sciences, publications are the typical "products" of our scientific activities. As a professor of methods, we are quite book-heavy, because we are also very involved in the field of textbooks and handbooks. Our research assistants are also encouraged at a very early stage to strive for publications.

Complete publication lists can be found on the pages of the respective persons:

Prof. Dr. Claudius Wagemann
Dr. Benedikt Bender
Anna Geyer
Bonald Perkola

This book offers an interdisciplinary analysis of the interplay between protest and
institutions during an era of multiple crises in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy,
Romania and the UK. Focusing on the interaction between citizens, social movements
and movement parties, and questions of democratic quality related to participation,
competition and responsiveness, it considers the role of traditional and social media
when connecting institutional and non-institutional arenas. Building on insights
from political science, sociology and communication studies, it combines an original
cross-national survey, interviews, media analysis, document analysis, statistical
analytical techniques, critical discourse analysis, social network analysis and natural
language processing, in a comparative perspective.

In the book "The Application of Political Science Methods in Europe" (published by Springer), Claudius Wagemann, together with his colleague Luca Verzichelli from Siena, presents an anthology that explores various aspects of methodological practice in contemporary European political science. The idea for this book originated during Claudius Wagemann's research semester in Siena in the summer of 2019. The eleven chapters introduce the use of methods in different geographical regions of Europe and in various subdisciplines of political science, present recent methodological innovations, and explore whether there are “typically female" and “typically male" methods in political science. In addition to Claudius Wagemann, authors from our department include Benedikt Bender and former staff members Lukas Brenner and Bastiaan Bruinsma. Furthermore, numerous student assistants spent a considerable amount of time coding the methodological approaches used in political science journals.

Bookcover - The Application of Political Science Methods in Europe

Bookcover_Handbuch_Methoden_der_Politikwissenschaft

This handbook contains contributions on methodological research and application in political science written by leading experts in the German-speaking and international area. Firstly, it describes the insights that can be gained with the respective method. Second, the basic principles of the respective application are explained and the reader is given an introduction to the functioning of the method. Third, the contributions enable the reader to critically read publications written with the described methods and techniques, to assess the procedure and quality of the method application, and to evaluate the validity of the results obtained. And fourth, the contributions outline important fields of application of the methods using examples of political science publications.

This book offers a cross-paradigm account of the qualitative methodological repertoire in political science. Interpretive methods (qualitative interviews, group discussions, observational procedures, content analysis, discourse analysis, hermeneutic procedures, ethnographic methods, and grounded theory); case study methodology (descriptive-comparative case studies, case-comparative causal analysis, process analysis, and congruence analysis); and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), especially in its fuzzy set variant, are covered. Many examples round out the textbook.

Bookcover_Qualitative_Methoden_in_der_Politikwissenschaft

Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and other set-theoretic methods distinguish themselves from other approaches to the study of social phenomena by using sets and the search for set relations. In virtually all social science fields, statements about social phenomena can be framed in terms of set relations, and using set-theoretic methods to investigate these statements is therefore highly valuable. This book guides readers through the basic principles of set theory and then on to the applied practices of QCA. It provides a thorough understanding of basic and advanced issues in set-theoretic methods together with tricks of the trade, software handling and exercises. Most arguments are introduced using examples from existing research. The use of QCA is increasing rapidly and the application of set-theory is both fruitful and still widely misunderstood in current empirical comparative social research. This book provides the comprehensive guide to these methods for researchers across the social sciences.

Our publications

Complete publication lists can be found on the pages of the respective persons:

Protest and Democracy - How Movement Parties, Social Movements and Active Citizens Are Reshaping Europe (Book)

Citation

to the publisher

The Application of Political Science Methods in Europe (book)

Citation

to the publisher

Handbuch Methoden der Politikwissenschaft (Book)

Citation

to the publisher

Qualitative Methoden in der Politikwissenschaft (Book)

Citation

to the publisher

Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences (Book)

Citation

to the publisher