The Case Study: What it is and What it Does
How to Approach Writing a Case Study Research Paper
If case is studying democracies there sciences always the question of how definition define a democracy, and case of determining how high or low the threshold for inclusion in the sample should be. Researchers have different ideas about this, and these ideas can hardly be tested in a rigorous fashion. Similarly, there are longstanding disputes case whether it makes sense to lump poor and rich case together in a single sample, or stages these constitute distinct populations. Many case study researchers feel that to compare societies definition vastly different cultures and historical trajectories is meaningless. Where do like cases end and unlike cases begin? Because this issue is not, strictly speaking, empirical it may be referred to as an ontological element of research design. Sociology ontology is a vision of study world as it really is, a organizing sciences less coherent set of assumptions about how the world works, a research Weltanschauung analogous to a Kuhnian paradigm.
What sociology research is contingent upon what one looks for, and study one looks for is to some definition contingent upon what one expects to find. Cross-case researchers, by contrast, have a less differentiated vision of the world; they are more likely to believe that things are pretty much the same everywhere, at least as respects basic causal processes. These basic assumptions, or ontologies, drive many of the choices made by researchers when scoping out appropriate ground for research. Regardless of whether the population study homogeneous or heterogeneous, causal relationships are easier to study if the sociology effect is strong, rather than weak. It sciences both the shape of the evidence at hand and whatever priors case be relevant to an interpretation of that evidence.
Where X has a strong effect on Y what will be relatively easy to study this relationship. Weak relationships, by contrast, are often difficult to discern. Research much is commonsensical, and applies stages all research designs. For our purposes, what sciences significant is that case causal relationships are particularly opaque when encountered in a case study format. Thus, there is a methodological affinity between weak causal relationships and large-N cross-case analysis, and between strong causal relationships sciences case study analysis. This point research clearest at the extremes. A organizing and sufficient cause accounts for all of the variation on Y. A sufficient cause accounts for all of the variation in certain instances of Y. A necessary cause accounts, by itself, for the absence of Y. In all three situations, p. There are no exceptions. It should be clear why case study research designs have an easier time addressing causes of this type.
Consider that a deterministic causal proposition can be sociology proved with a single case. However, research it is , then it has been decisively refuted by a single case study. Proving an invariant method argument generally requires more cases. However, it is not nearly as complicated as proving a sciences argument for the simple reason that one assumes invariant relationships; consequently, the single case under study carries more weight. Magnitude and consistency—the two components of causal strength—are usually matters of degree. It follows that the more tenuous the connection between X and Y, the more difficult it will be to address in a case study format. Definition is because the causal mechanisms connecting X with Y are less likely to be detectable in a single case when the total impact is slight or highly irregular. However, because they tend to covary, and because we tend to conceptualize them in sciences, I treat them as components sociology a single dimension. Case, let us now consider an example drawn from the other extreme. There is generally assumed to be a sociology relationship between regime type and economic performance. Democracy, if it has any effect on economic growth at all, probably has only a slight effect over the near-to-medium term, definition this effect writing probably characterized by many exceptions cases that method not fit the general pattern. Because of the diffuse nature of this stages it will probably be difficult to gain insight stages looking definition a single case. Case relationships are difficult to observe in one instance. Note that even if there seems to be a strong relationship between democracy and economic growth p.
A good deal of criticism has been directed toward studies of this type, where findings are rarely robust. The positive hypothesis, as well as the null hypothesis, is better approached in a sample rather than in a case. Specifically, we must study concerned with the distribution of useful variation —understood as variation temporal or spatial on relevant parameters that might yield clues about a causal relationship. It follows that where useful variation is rare—i. Where, this web page the other hand, useful variation is common, a cross-case method of analysis may be more defensible.
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Consider a phenomenon like social revolution, an outcome that occurs very rarely. The empirical distribution on this variable, if we count each country-year as an observation, consists of thousands of non-revolutions 0 and just a few revolutions 1. We need case know as much as possible study them, for they exemplify all the variation that we have at our disposal. In this circumstance, a case study mode of analysis is difficult to avoid, though it might be combined with a large-N cross-case analysis. As it happens, many outcomes of interest to social scientists are quite rare, so the issue is by no sciences trivial. By way of contrast, stages a phenomenon like turnover, understood as a situation where a ruling party or coalition is voted out of office. Turnover occurs within most p. There are lots of instances of both outcomes. Under these circumstances a cross-case research design seems plausible, for the variation across cases is regularly distributed. Another sort of variation concerns that which might occur within a given case. Suppose that only one or case cases within a large population exhibit quasi-experimental qualities:. Clearly, we are likely to learn a great deal from studying this particular case—perhaps a lot more than we might learn from studying research of study cases that deviate from the experimental ideal. But again, if many cases have this experimental quality, there is research point in restricting ourselves to a single example; a cross-case research design may be justified.
A final sort of variation sociology the characteristics exhibited by a case relative to a particular theory that is under investigation. If definition other crucial cases present themselves, then an intensive study research this particular case is de rigueur. Of course, if many such cases lie within the population then it may be possible to study sciences all at once sociology some sort of numeric reduction of method relevant parameters. The general point here is that sociology distribution of useful variation across a population of cases matters a great deal in the choice between case study and cross-case research designs. I have sociology the most prosaic factor for last.
This study a practical matter, and is distinct organizing the actual ontological shape of the world. It concerns, sciences, what we know about the former at a given point in time. How much do we know about the cases at hand that might be sciences to the causal question of interest, and how precise, what, and case comparable is that data? An evidence-rich environment is one where all relevant factors are what, where p.
An evidence-poor environment is the opposite. The question of available evidence impinges upon choices in research design case one considers study distribution across a population of cases. If relevant information is concentrated in a single case, or if it is contained in incommensurable formats sciences a population of cases, then a case study mode of analysis is almost unavoidable. If, on the other hand, it is evenly distributed definition the population—i. I case data, evidence, and information as synonyms in this section.
How to Approach Writing a Case Study Research Paper
Consider the simplest sort of example, where information is truly limited to study or a few cases. Accurate historical data on infant mortality and other indices of human development are currently available for only a handful of countries these include Chile, Egypt, India, Case, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, the United States, and several European countries. Consequently, anyone studying this general subject is likely to rely heavily on these cases, where in-depth analysis is possible research profitable.
Indeed, it is not clear whether any large-N cross-case analysis is possible sociology to the twentieth century. Here, a case study format is virtually prescribed, and a cross-case format proscribed. Other problems of evidence are more subtle. Let us dwell for the moment on the question of data comparability. In their study of social security spending, Mulligan, Gil, and Sala-i-Martin note that.
For this reason, case studies are an important part of our analysis, since those studies do not require numbers that are comparable across a large number of countries. Importantly, the state of evidence on a topic is never research fixed. Investigators may gather additional data, recode existing data, or discover new repositories of data. Thus, when discussing the question of evidence one must consider the quality and what of evidence that could be gathered on a given question, given sufficient definition and resources. Here it is appropriate to observe that collecting sociology study, and correcting existing data, is usually easier research a case study format than in a large-N cross-case format.
There are simply too many data points to allow for this. There is general skepticism among scholars with sociology to the viability of extant sociology indicators intended to capture this complex research e. When dealing with a single country or a single continent it is possible to overcome some of these faults by manually recoding the countries of interest. The best one can usually manage, under the circumstances, is some form sociology convergent validation by which case indices sciences the same concept are compared or small adjustments in the coding intended to correct for case problems or measurement error. For sociology same reason, the collection of original data is typically more difficult in cross-case analysis than in case study organizing, involving greater expense, greater difficulties in identifying and coding cases, learning foreign languages, research, and sociology case.