Charles C. Ragin

Charles C. Ragin is an American sociologist and Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Arizona.

Biography

Ragin graduated with a B.A. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin in May, 1972. He completed his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1975.

After completing his Ph.D., Ragin joined the faculty at Indiana University Bloomington. He left Indiana University in 1981. He worked on the faculty of Northwestern University from 1981 to 2001. He was also a professor at the University of Oslo in Norway from 1998 to 2001. Since August 2001, he has been a professor at the University of Arizona.

Sociological research

Ragin has made many contributions to sociology. He is a proponent of using fuzzy sets to bridge the divide between quantitative and qualitative methods. His main interests are methodology, political sociology, and comparative-historical research, with a special focus on such topics as the welfare state, ethnic political mobilization, and international political economy. He is also the author of more than 100 articles in research journals and edited books, and he has developed software packages for set-theoretic analyses of social data, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Set/Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA).

Awards and honors

Ragin has been awarded the Stein Rokkan Prize of the International Social Science Council, the Donald Campbell Award for Methodological Innovation by the Policy Studies Organization, and received honorable mention for the Barrington Moore, Jr. Award of the American Sociological Association. He has conducted academic workshops on methodology in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and for diverse audiences in the United States.

Books published by Ragin

Ragin has published the following books.

• Ragin, Charles C. Fuzzy-Set Social Science. University Chicago Press 2000.
• Ragin, Charles C. & Larry Griffin. Formal Methods of Qualitative Analysis. (Edited Collection). Special Issue of Sociological Methods and Research 23, 1. (1994).
• Ragin, Charles C. Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method. Pine Forge Press 1994.
• Ragin, Charles C. What Is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry. Cambridge University Press 1992.
• Ragin, Charles C. Issues and Alternatives in Comparative Social Research. Leiden, The Netherlands ; New York : E.J. Brill, 1991.
• Ragin, Charles C. The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press 1987.

References

• "CV of Charles C. Ragin" (PDF). The University of Arizona. Retrieved 2008-01-02.
• "Books and other publication by Charles C. Ragin". The University of Arizona. Retrieved 2008-01-02.

External links

• Personal website