On boxes and arrows: cognitive maps as a method for actor-centered process tracing

Abstract

Process tracing as a method in comparative politics usually aims at reconstructing socio-political macro processes. This entails the risk of structuralist or functionalist short-circuiting, i.e. the results-driven ascription of actors’ preferences and strategies. To avoid this, one has to take actors and their particular logics of thought and action seriously. The article presents the cognitive map as a way to ground macro-political process tracing via actor-centered micro analyses. Two cognitive maps taken from an analysis of the indigenous movement in Ecuador are used to discuss the added value, the possibilities and the limits of this methodological tool.