Case Study and (Causal-) Process Tracing

Chapter 4 focuses on process tracing as a powerful tool of within-case analysis. Until now, no commonly agreed description of this method has emerged and process tracing is in danger of becoming a fuzzy catch-all phrase. The authors argue that we should see 'causal-process tracing' (CPT) as a specific approach to within-case analysis that is based on 'configurational thinking' and 'temporality' as ontological and epistemological cornerstones. By doing so, they seek to fulfill Peter Hall’s call for aligning methodology to those aspects of causal complexity that are at the heart of many current theories in public policy and beyond. The chapter provides corresponding definitions of 'causal mechanisms', 'causal chains' and 'causal conjunctions'. introduces three kinds of causal-process observations – 'comprehensive story lines', 'smoking-gun observations' and 'confessions'– and illustrates the use of these concepts in various published case studies.