Cover; Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Figures; Tables; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Set-theoretic approaches in the social sciences; Qualitative Comparative Analysis as a set-theoretic approach and technique; Variants of QCA; Plan of the book; How to use this book; Part I Set-theoretic methods: the basics; 1 Sets, set membership, and calibration; 1.1 The notion of sets; 1.1.1 Sets and concepts; 1.1.2 The pros and cons of crisp sets; 1.1.3 Properties of fuzzy sets; 1.1.4 What fuzzy sets are not. 1.2 The calibration of set membership1.2.1 Principles of calibration; 1.2.2 The use of quantitative scales for calibration; 1.2.3 The "direct" and "indirect" methods of calibration; 1.2.4 Does the choice of calibration strategy matter much?; 1.2.5 Assessing calibration; 2 Notions and operations in set theory; 2.1 Conjunctions, Boolean and fuzzy multiplication, intersection, logical AND; 2.2 Disjunctions, Boolean and fuzzy addition, union, logical OR; 2.3 Negations, complements, logical NOT; 2.4 Operations on complex expressions; 2.4.1 Rules for combining logical operators. 2.4.2 Negation, intersection, and union of complex sets2.4.3 Calculating membership in complex sets; 2.5 Relations between sets; 2.6 Notational systems in set-theoretic methods; 3 Set relations; 3.1 Sufficient conditions; 3.1.1 Crisp sets; 3.1.1.1 Basic logic of sufficiency; 3.1.1.2 A formal analysis of sufficiency in csQCA; 3.1.2 Fuzzy sets; 3.1.2.1 Basic logic of sufficiency; 3.1.2.2 A formal analysis of sufficiency in fsQCA; 3.2 Necessary conditions; 3.2.1 Crisp sets; 3.2.1.1 Basic logic of necessity; 3.2.1.2 A formal analysis of necessity in csQCA; 3.2.2 Fuzzy sets. 3.2.2.1 Basic logic of necessity3.2.2.2 A formal analysis of necessity in fsQCA; 3.3 Causal complexity in set-theoretic methods; 3.3.1 Defining causal complexity; 3.3.2 INUS and SUIN conditions; 3.3.3 The notion of asymmetry; 3.3.4 Set-theoretic methods and standard quantitative approaches; 3.3.4.1 Set relations are not correlations; 3.3.4.2 Set theory and regression models; 4 Truth tables; 4.1 What is a truth table?; 4.2 How to get from a data matrix to a truth table; 4.2.1 Crisp sets; 4.2.2 Fuzzy sets; 4.3 Analyzing truth tables; 4.3.1 Matching similar conjunctions. 4.3.2 Logically redundant prime implicants4.3.3 Issues related to the analysis of the non-occurrence of the outcome; Part II Neat formal logic meets noisy social science data; 5 Parameters of fit; 5.1 Defining and dealing with contradictory truth table rows; 5.2 Consistency of sufficient conditions; 5.3 Coverage of sufficient conditions; 5.4 Consistency of necessary conditions; 5.6 Issues related to consistency and coverage; 6 Limited diversity and logical remainders; 6.1 Limited diversity in set-theoretic methods: how to see it when it is there; 6.2 Sources of limited diversity.

A 'user's guide' to Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and the methodological family of set-theoretic methods in social science.