LIHS Mini Master Class
© Alexandru Nicusor Matei
2013 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Title: Of cases and the case
study method
Presenter: Mary Godfrey
Focus of the session
• What is a case?
• What is the case study method
Distinct albeit related meanings
LIHS Mini Master Class
What is a case?
• Multiple ways in which the concept of ‘case’ is
understood;
What unit or set of units constitute the case
(individual, group, organisation, nation state)
• Are cases empirical units or theoretical
constructs (‘community’ as an example);
• Answers to the question of ‘what is a case’
affects the conduct and results of research
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Case Study Research?
• Given the multiple ways in which the concept of ‘case’
is understood, what is distinctive about case study
research?
Typically means a form of inquiry that is distinguishable
from the experiment and social survey:
In the range of dimensions explored
In attempt to understand a phenomenon in its complexity and
holism
In its focus on dynamic processes and systems
In its conception of causality in inter-dependent terms – i.e. case
study explores configurations of relationships in their real life
setting
It presumes some wider context
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Why a case?
Reflects the complexity of the empirical world:
“the empirical world is limitless in its detail, complexity,
specificity and uniqueness…and we make sense of its infinity
by limiting it with our ideas…theoretical ideas and principles
provide ways to see the empirical world and to structure our
descriptions of this world…at best theory provides a …starting
point for looking at empirical evidence…while empirical
evidence allows us to articulate theories, to flesh them out, to
ascertain their spatio-temporal limits and establish their
scope conditions” [Charles Ragin, 1992: 21-218]
Ragin talks of ‘casing’ i.e.. Focusing attention on specific
aspects of that infinity, highlighting some aspects as relevant
and obscuring others.
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‘Cases’ in qualitative research
• Flow from the conception of the social world as
holistic, dynamic, interpretive and in process; and
its implications for how we understand that social
world;
• Even so, understanding is partial: contextual and
contingent;
• Problem in qualitative research is how to
generate concepts or theories that go beyond the
uniqueness of the individual case while at the
same time contain features of that uniqueness
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Case study method
• A specific form of enquiry which contrasts
with two other influential modes of enquiry:
experiment and social survey in a range of
dimensions of which key are:
Number of cases investigated
Amount of detailed information collected about
each case
The degree of control exercised by the researcher
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What is a case for purposes of the case
study method?
• A case in case study research is:
“an empirical enquiry about a contemporary phenomenon
(e.g. a case set within its real world context especially when
the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not
clearly evident” .[Yin, 2009: 18]
• The case is the main unit of analysis although cases
may have nested sub-units within them
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Examples of case study research?
• Case study of intermediate care systems (Godfrey et
al 2005)
Research on intermediate care as a system of care (most
studies had focused on services): what is IC; how is it
configured; what are its components; what effects patient
flow in an through the system; for whom does what work
and how; is there an optimum type of system to meet the
diversity of need in a locality?
• Person-centred care for patients with dementia in
acute wards (Young, Woolley, Godfrey et al)
Ward as the unit of analysis; case studies of individual
patients nested within the ward
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Rationale for selection of case studies
• Single or multiple cases
• Holistic/embedded sub-cases
• Selection criteria: What is this a case of?
Unique/extreme/ordinary or everyday
Multiple case studies: to provide empirical or
theoretical replication (cases selected that might
be anticipated as producing similar findings; cases
selected that might be predicted to produce
contrasting findings for anticipatable reasons)
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Methods
• Multiple methods (interviews, observation,
collection of documents, surveys, case records)
• Over time – to provide a causal, narrative,
processual analysis
• To capture the unique character of a single case;
or via cross-case comparison to examine the
diverse pathways through which outcomes can be
reached or what configurations produce
outcomes that are the same or different to others
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Generalisability: empirical
• Empirical generalisation: is this possible given
the small number of cases? In what respects
might empirical generalisation be
appropriate?
Related to sample selection: was the sample
selected as typical/atypical in key respects
pertinent to the phenomenon of interest; what do
we know about the characteristics of the cases
being studied compared with the population to
which generalisation is intended?
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Theoretical generalisability
• Within and between case comparison to identify
patterns of relationships that operate in
particular contexts with consequences that are
contingent on certain conditions being
present/absent;
• Here, generalisability can be tested through
subsequent exploration of cases that are similar
to, and different from, those that comprised the
studied cases – in the manner discussed at the
outset
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Key points 1
• Multiple ways in which the concept of case is understood
• ‘Cases’ and case study method have distinct but inter-related
meanings
• The concept of the ‘case’ flows from an understanding of the social
world as complex, dynamic, interpretive and processual; to develop
an understanding of the social world requires methods that
capture some of that complexity.
• Examining a small number of cases in depth enables us to capture
complexity in a real life context whether the case is individual(s),
group(s), organisations(s) etc.
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Key points 2
• The analytic strategy common to ‘cases’ and ‘case study’ method is
comparison, both empirical and theoretical (how and in what ways
is this similar to and different from…)
• Case study method is a particular approach to describe or evaluate
a phenomenon in its complexity using multiple methods
• Key questions to consider: what is this a case of (focus of study and
sampling strategy), the setting in which the case is located, the
methods to examine it (not defined by a particular methodology),
and the kinds of explanations that can be developed from it;
• Case study method can produce explanatory accounts that are
theoretically generalisable
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Further Information
Yin, RK (2009) Case study research: design and
methods. 4th Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Becker, H and Ragin C [Eds.] (1992) What is a
case: exploring the foundations of social enquiry?
Cambridge MA: Cambridge University Press.
Byrne D and Ragin C. (Eds) (2013) The Sage
Handbook of Case-Based Methods. London: Sage
Publications
Gomm R, Hammersley, M and Foster P [Eds.]
(2000) Case study method. London: Sage
Publications
LIHS Mini Master Class