Title:	Designing Case Studies
Authors:	Joachim Blatter Markus Haverland
Keywords:	Political science Research Methodology
Issue Date:	2012
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Description:	We conducted projects involving extensive case study research before we began teaching case study methods and reflecting more intensively on the methodology of small-N research. These experiences made clear the challenges scholars face when studying cases ‘in-depth’ and led to the development of a certain sense of pragmatism. We both found that the methodological advice on case study research that was available in the mid-1990s, when we conducted the research for our PhD theses, was scant and often not very helpful, but we have been impressed by the tremendous progress that has been made since then. Methodological reflections on ‘qualitative inquiry’ and ‘case studies’ have grown substantially in number, and these reflections make it possible to escape the narrow confines of methodological advice that implicitly or explicitly understand case studies or small-N studies (we use both expressions synonymously) as the ‘smaller brothers’ of large-N statistical studies – an understanding that implies inferiority. As a result, we are now faced with a different situation: the methodological debate on case studies has become so broad that it is difficult for students and more experienced scholars alike to avoid confusion regarding these methods. We believe that the main challenge today lies in streamlining the diversity of advice found in the methodological literature into coherent approaches to case study research. The core message of this book is that it makes sense to distinguish three approaches to case study research (Blatter and Blume 2008). All approaches strive for explanation, but they vary in their research goals and questions, the corresponding criteria for proper case selection, techniques of drawing causal inferences, possible directions of generalization, and the best format for presenting results. Distinguishing between these approaches allows for stronger internal coherence in case studies. It also allows for more explicit and reflective combinations of the elements of various case study approaches. The core of this book consists of three chapters that develop each of the three approaches, which we name by coining the terms ‘co-variational analysis’ (COV), ‘causal-process tracing’ (CPT), and ‘congruence analysis’ (CON). The final chapter shows how to combine different case study approaches and how to connect case studies with large-N studies (applying statistics as a technique of data analysis) and medium-N studies (applying Qualitative Comparative Analysis as a technique of data analysis) to strengthen the internal and external validity of explanations.
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/51055
ISBN:	978-1-137-01666-9
Appears in Collections:	Population Studies

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