ESPAnet doctoral workshop 2013 at Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES),
University of Mannheim, Germany
Comparing Welfare States:
Applying Quantitative and Qualitative Comparative Analysis in Social Policy Research
Mannheim, Germany, July 4-6, 2013
Comparison plays an important role in welfare state research. Explaining
cross-national variations has been a major contribution of welfare state regime
analysis following Esping-Andersen’s seminal Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism.
Since Charles Ragin’s The Comparative Method the systematic study of few qualitative
cases has been advanced by more formalized methods, in particular the Qualitative
Comparative Analysis (QCA) for small-N and Fuzzy Set QCA for medium-N studies.
Applications of these methods in social policy research have grown in recent years,
including comparisons of welfare state regime typologies and public policy reforms.
Comparison is also common in quantitative analyses. Macro-comparisons include
cluster, factor or principal component analysis to test regime typologies. Pooled
time-series analysis also uses a limited number of countries to explore
cross-national variation, while also studying changes over time. Moreover, empirical
cross-national research in the social policy field includes increasingly national
and individual level data in multi-level analyses or two step quantitative
procedures. Examples include studies of attitudes toward welfare states or analysis
of social inequality data in different labour markets and minimum income systems.
Whether macro-comparative or multilevel analysis, such cross-national studies face
similar problems of a too small N and rather limited diversity of observable
national units of analysis. The selection of cases and appropriate research strategy
thus becomes a major challenge in comparative analyses of welfare states and social
policy in international perspective.
This doctoral workshop seeks to address the methodological challenges and different
research strategies of comparative methods. It invites Ph.D. students to submit and
present papers in the fields of comparative welfare state and cross-national social
policy analysis. Especially welcome are papers that reflect explicitly on the use of
comparative methods and research methodologies in their dissertation projects. Thus
papers can be methodological and / or empirical papers discussing the use of
comparative methods and / or exemplify their adaptation to comparative social policy
analysis.
Papers might for example explore methods and topics such as:
Cross-national comparison of welfare state regimes
Comparing social policymaking with QCA or Fuzzy-set Methods
Multi-level analysis of value survey data on welfare state attitudes
Comparing national panel data on social inequality
Organizer
Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus, Chair in Macrosociology, University of Mannheim
Speakers and commentators
Professor Michael Braun, GESIS and University of Mannheim, Germany
Professor Patrick Emmenegger, Political Science, Hochschule St. Gallen, Switzerland
Dr Emanuele Ferragina, Social Policy, Oxford University, UK
Professor Jon Kvist, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
Professor Wim van Oorschot, Catholic University (KU), Leuven, Belgium
Professor Claudius Wagemann, Method Centre, Goethe University, Frankfurt. Germany
Further commentators
Dr Thomas Bahle, MZES, University of Mannheim, Germany
Dr Jan Drahokoupil, MZES, University of Mannheim, Germany & ETUI, Brussels, Belgium
Dr. Nathalie Giger, MZES, University of Mannheim, Germany
Dr Dirk Hofäcker, MZES, University of Mannheim, Germany
Dr. Sebastian Koos, University of Mannheim, Germany
Professor J. Timo Weishaupt, University of Mannheim, Germany
Professor Claus Wendt, University of Siegen and SFB 884 Mannheim, Germany
Organizational coordination
Dr. Sebastian Koos, University of Mannheim, Germany
Format of the workshop
Aim
This doctoral workshop will allow 20 PhD researchers to present their own work to
colleagues and experienced researchers. It will provide doctoral researchers with a
platform for presenting their work in small groups and to receive constructive
comments from their peers and the senior researchers. In addition, there will be
presentations by experienced researchers and experts to all participants, allowing
doctoral researchers to play a role as allocated commentator or take part in the
general discussion.
Lectures
As a part of the workshop, there will be an introduction and 6 plenary lectures on
selected issues of comparative methods delivered by the senior researchers,
including topics such as qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), fuzzy-set analysis
(FS/QCA), cross-national regime comparison, comparative historical method,
multi-level methods, survey analysis and a presentation on the European Data Centre
(EDAC).
Length of each paper session
There will be 3 groups, working in parallel and each group (A, B, C) will meet 4
times for two hours. Each PhD researcher will have 60 minutes allocated to their
work. During this hour they will introduce their paper, providing an overview of the
content and argument (approximately 10 minutes), followed by critical comments and
questions from a predefined senior lead discussant (approximately 10 minutes). The
author then has a ‘right of reply’ (approx. 10 minutes), before general discussion
of the paper (approx. 30 minutes).
Distribution of papers
All papers will be electronically pre-circulated to all participants, at least 14
days in advance of the workshop. Participants are required to read the papers in
their group, and are required to attend and prepare all lectures (there will be one
article or paper per lecture as background reading). The organizer will allocate
students into groups well in advance of the workshops. The selection into groups
will be based on similar research topics, methodologies or analytical approaches.
Finance
Accommodation (two nights), lunch and dinners will be paid for by the University of
Mannheim. ESPAnet acknowledges this generous support gratefully.
Ph.D. students are expected to pay for their travel to Mannheim and additional
meals; no fee will be charged for the workshop.
Location
Mannheim is well connected to the international rail network. For information see:
www.bahn.de (multilingual site). Closest airport connection to Mannheim is
Frankfurt airport (FRA), 30-35 min. by train from Mannheim main station
(Hauptbahnhof).
The workshop will take place at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research
(MZES) in Square A5 (http://www.mzes.uni-mannheim.de/d7/en/directions), a 15-20
minute walk or short bus ride from the main station.
Application Deadline
Participants will be selected on the basis of the quality of their plans for their
papers and the fit to the workshop theme. Please send the plan including: title of
paper, outline (up to 600 words on rationale for the topic, analytical framework,
and research strategy/methods used), the name of supervisor(s) and brief description
of current state of your thesis project (e.g. when did you start and when do you aim
to finish), with your name, email and address to: [log in to unmask]
Deadline of application: 3 March 2013
Successful applicants will be notified by 15 March 2013.
Final papers
The final paper will have to be submitted a month in advance by June 4, 2013 as word
or PDF-file to [log in to unmask] All papers will be made available to the
discussant and all workshop participants via a password protected webpage.
Workshop details
Begin: Thursday, July 4, 2013 at 1 pm (13.00) Registration / 2 pm (14.00) Welcome
End: Saturday, July 6, 2013 at 1 pm (13.00) (optional lunch snack till 2 pm, 14.00)
Further information (schedule) will be provided in June.
Questions
In case you have any questions please contact the organizational coordinator
Sebastian Koos ([log in to unmask]).
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Ebbinghaus, School of Social Sciences, A5,6, University of
Mannheim, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany
http://lssoz3.sowi.uni-mannheim.de/english/news/espanet_phd_workshop/index.html
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