In the summer semester of 2023, a group of particularly motivated students again completed our research practicum on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). This course offers deep insights into an innovative method, which can be considered the most systematic form of case comparison. QCA is based on set-theoretic principles and allows one to identify necessary and/or sufficient explanatory factors (or various combinations thereof) for particular outcomes.

This format is led by Claudius Wagemann, who himself has been instrumental in the further development and establishment of this now widely used method. He was supported this semester by the QCA- and R-savvy student assistants Christopher Hain and Philipp Schemm. While Prof. Wagemann imparted his theoretical expertise, Christopher helped with the presentation of the R code in the hands-on "Lab Sessions". Philipp, in turn, used his knowledge to assist students with any problems that arose with the R programming language.

As always, the goal of this event was to train the students themselves to become experts in this field and to enable them to make sound use of this versatile method.