The Practical Use of Case Studies

Case studies, it appears, are used to test and modify typologies, and typologies are used to control comparison and thereby to contribute to improved case studies. General theories are used to explain and improve typologies so they will be more useful in classifying cases and directing case studies, and the improved case studies provide ideas for modifying general theories. And so it goes round and round, with both theory and description changing in the process. Case study methods also provide information about the internal mechanisms and dynamics of a system. However, these mechanisms and dynamics are not conceived as formal logic, as the necessary outcome of combining abstract mathematical relations in a structure. The functionalist case studies by anthropologists have gone through two stages of practical use, colonial and postcolonial. In addition, of course, they are of indirect practical use as a comparative basis for understanding our own society and culture.

Computer Science · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research · Qualitative Research Methods and Applications · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics