GLD Research Seminar Series - Process Tracing

GLD’s research seminar series provides an introduction to the research process. In this session: David Waldner, an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia, provides an information session on process tracing- the analysis of evidence on events to either develop or test hypotheses about causal mechanisms that might causally explain the case. He discusses the small-N critique and motivations for process tracing. In addition, he touches on the general logic behind process tracing and the fundamental problem of causal inference. One limitation to process tracing is the wide variety of methods of process tracing, such as Orthodox, implicit and explicit Bayesian, sequential, nominal, and with and without causal mechanisms.
About the presenter:
David Waldner is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. He teaches courses on research design, qualitative methodology, and comparative politics. His research interests are the political and economic development of the post-colonial world and qualitative causal inference. He is the author of State Building and Late Development, Rethinking the Resource Curse (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and multiple articles and chapters on qualitative inference. His current book projects are Qualitative Causal Inference & Explanation and American Nation-Building from the American South to Afghanistan: Militarized Democracy Promotion by an Imperfect Democracy. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Recommend Readings:
Waldner, D. (2014). “What Makes Process Tracing Good? Causal Mechanisms, Causal Inference, and the Completeness Standard in Comparative Politics,” In A. Bennett & J. Checkel (Eds.), Process Tracing: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 126-152. doi.org/10.101...
Bennett, A. (2008). “Process Tracing: A Bayesian Perspective,” in J. Box-Steffensmeier, H. E. Brady, and D. Collier (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 702-721. doi.org/10.109...