The Ragin revolution

Case-based methods like QCA consider cases holistically as analytically relevant constructs. Instead, correlational methods decompose social reality into decontextualized variables. This chapter explains how case-based and correlational methods follow often juxtaposed logics. Cases being holistic, the conditions characterizing them are always interrelated, meaning that there is no such thing as an independent variable on the case level. While correlational methods look for covariation between variables on the level of a population, case-based methods like QCA look for invariances between characteristics and outcomes on the case level. QCA’s truth table is a tool with which to dialogue case-level and cross-case evidence. It identifies meaningful cross-case patterns - that is, invariances - that can be interpreted into causal claims.