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This paper aims to explore ways in which an innovative method—a form of Quali-Quantitative Analysis (QQA) developed by Charles Ragin (Qualitative Comparative Analysis or QCA)—can help bring innovation to community engagement methods. The paper first identifies the key issues of internal and external validity that are important to effective community engagement research for rural health. The main challenges (definitional, technical, and ideological) relevant to these issues of validity are explored. The limitations of existing research methods for meeting these challenges of internal and external validity are highlighted. The key steps for delivering the QCA method are explained with reference to a typical situation of researching community views on the nature (attributes and outcomes) of a proposed mental health service. The paper concludes that QCA could help innovate rural healthcare development primarily through the systemacy and robustness it would bring to small-N situations where complex community perceptions need to be captured.

Item Type:	Research Book Chapter
Keywords:	community engagement, rural health, research methods
Research Division:	Human Society
Research Group:	Sociology
Research Field:	Rural sociology
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Specific population health (excl. Indigenous health)
Objective Field:	Rural and remote area health
UTAS Author:	Bell, EJ (Associate Professor Erica Bell)
ID Code:	72749
Year Published:	2011
Deposited By:	UTAS Centre for Rural Health
Deposited On:	2011-08-31
Last Modified:	2017-10-16
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