Selecting qualitative cases using sequence analysis: A mixed-method for in-depth understanding of life course trajectories.

In this paper, we propose a sequence analysis-based method for selecting qualitative cases depending on quantitative results. Inspired by tools developed for cross-sectional analyses, we propose indicators suitable for longitudinal study of the life course in a holistic perspective and a set of corresponding analysis guidelines. Two complementary indicators are introduced, marginality and gain, that allows labeling observations according to both their typicality within their group and their illustrativeness of a given quantitative relationship.