CECAN Ltd CPD: Process Tracing

Description:

CECAN Ltd CPD Online Workshop: Process Tracing

Wednesday 10th September 2025, 09:30 – 17:00, Live Online Training (via Zoom)

Tutor: Corinna Elsenbroich, CECAN Research Fellow and Reader at the MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow

Course Details:

Process Tracing is a method used to understand causal chains in single case analysis settings. It is the systematic analysis of contribution claims through explicit investigation of how pieces of evidence support or undermine a particular hypothesis or claim.

Process Tracing is particularly good for the analysis of single scenarios where no comparison to other cases is possible. It focuses on the causal contribution of particular events to final outcomes by carefully classifying the contribution of identified causes by necessity and sufficiency.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this workshop, participants will:

• Appreciate the problems of complex evaluation

• Acknowledge the problem of complex causality for contribution claims

• Understand how and when Process Tracing can be used

• Work through a Process Tracing case study

Intended Audience: CECAN Ltd’s CPD workshops are designed to support those at all levels working in consultancy, NGOs, government, academia and other evaluation settings who face complexity challenges in their current work.

Tutor Biography:

Corinna Elsenbroich is a Reader in Computational Modelling at Glasgow University (MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit). Corinna is particularly interested in methodological and epistemological aspects of novel methods, in particular computational methods such as agent-based modelling and social simulation, and has published on aspects of ontology, explanatory power and context validity in modelling. As a computational modeller she has developed models of dynamic social networks of juvenile delinquency, neighbourhood effects of extortion racketeering and collective reasoning in social dilemma situations. She is particularly interested in complexity sensitive social science methods, comprising computational, case based and participatory methods. As a co-investigator in the Centre for Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN) she is involved with developing these methods in a policy relevant way. She is currently working on how to combine methods through novel research designs.

 

 

CECAN Ltd is the commercial arm of the ESRC funded Centre for Evaluating Complexity across the Nexus (CECAN). It offers access to innovative policy evaluation approaches and methods to support decision makers.

Cost:

Course Fees:

Tickets for this workshop are:

Government / commercial: £250 per person

Academic / charitable institutions: £225 per person

Students (including Postgraduate Researchers): £200 per person

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT: a discount of 10% will be applied to all tickets purchased by 31st May 2025.

All prices are exclusive of VAT where applicable.

The CECAN research centre has funding for a limited number of bursaries to support Early Career Researchers and Postgraduate Researchers working across the social and natural sciences to further develop their skills in policy evaluation methods from a complex systems perspective – more information here: https://www.cecan.ac.uk/cecan-training-bursaries/

Website and registration:

Register for this course

Region:

International

Keywords:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs, Evaluation Research, Policy evaluation, Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Research, Qualitative Data Handling and Data Analysis, Multimodal Analysis, Attributional Analysis, Qualitative Approaches (other), Mixed Methods Approaches (other), Research Management and Impact, Evidence-Based Policy and Practice, evaluation, complexity, process tracing

Related publications and presentations from our eprints archive:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs
Evaluation Research
Policy evaluation
Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Research
Qualitative Data Handling and Data Analysis
Multimodal Analysis
Attributional Analysis
Qualitative Approaches (other)
Mixed Methods Approaches (other)
Research Management and Impact
Evidence-Based Policy and Practice

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