Case Study Research

In the opening pages of this book, I highlighted the rather severe disjuncture that has opened up between an often-maligned methodology and a heavily practiced method. The case study is disrespected, but nonetheless regularly employed. Indeed, it remains the workhorse of most disciplines and subfields in the social sciences, as demonstrated in Chapter One. How, then, can one make sense of this discrepancy between methodological theory and methodological praxis? This was the question animating Part One of the book.

The torment of the case study begins with its definitional penumbra, as described in Chapter Two. Frequently, this key term is conflated with a disparate set of methodological traits that are not definitionally entailed. Our first task, therefore, was to craft a narrower and more useful concept for purposes of methodological discussion. The case study, I argued, is best defined as an intensive study of a single case (or a small set of cases) with an aim to generalize across a larger set of cases of the same general type. If the inference pertains to nation-states, then a case study would focus on one or several nation-states (while a cross-case study would focus on many nation-states at once). If the inference pertains to individuals, then a case study would focus on one or several individuals (while a cross-case study would focus on many individuals at once). And so forth.