Charles C. Ragin (born ) is Chancellor's Professor of Sociology at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

Biography

Born , Ragin graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in May 1972. He completed his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

(PhD) degree in sociology from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

at age 22 in 1975. After completing his PhD, Ragin joined the faculty at

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

. He left Indiana University in 1981. He worked on the faculty of

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

from 1981 to 2001. He was also a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

in Norway from 1998 to 2001. From 2001 through 2012, he was a professor of sociology and political science at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. He began his position as Chancellor's Professor at the

in 2012.

Sociological research

Ragin has made many contributions to

. He is a proponent of using

fuzzy sets In mathematics, fuzzy sets (a.k.a. uncertain sets) are sets whose elements have degrees of membership. Fuzzy sets were introduced independently by Lotfi A. Zadeh in 1965 as an extension of the classical notion of set. At the same time, defined ...

to bridge the divide between quantitative and qualitative methods. His main interests are

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

, 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 theory Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, is mostly conce ...

analyses of social data,

Qualitative Comparative Analysis In statistics, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is a data analysis based on set theory to examine the relationship of conditions to outcome. QCA describes the relationship in terms of necessary conditions and sufficient conditions. The techn ...

(QCA) and fuzzy set

(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 received the 2014 Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award, given by the American Sociological Association's Section on Methodology to recognize a career of outstanding contributions to sociological methodology. He has conducted academic workshops on methodology in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, and for diverse audiences in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Books published by Ragin

* Ragin, Charles C. & Becker, Howard. ''Qu'est-ce qu'un cas? Explorer les fondements de l'enquête en sciences sociales.'' Schwabe 2021. * Ragin, Charles C. ''Redesigning Social Inquiry: Fuzzy Sets and Beyond.'' University of Chicago Press 2008. * 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.'' E.J. Brill 1991. * Ragin, Charles C. ''The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies.'' University of California Press 1987.

References

* *

External links

Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ragin, Charles C. 1952 births American sociologists Indiana University faculty Living people Northwestern University faculty University of Arizona faculty University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts alumni Winners of the Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research