What is a case? : exploring the foundations of social inquiry

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What is a case? : exploring the foundations of social inquiry

edited by Charles C. Ragin and Howard S. Becker

Cambridge University Press, 1992

  • : pbk

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Description based on 12th printing 2009

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

The concept of the case is a basic feature of social science research and yet many questions about how a case should be defined, selected, and judged are far from settled. The contributors to this volume probe the nature of the case and the ways in which different understandings of the concept affect the conduct and the results of research. The contributions demonstrate that the work of any given researcher is often characterised by some hybrid of these basic approaches, and it is important to understand that most research involves multiple definitions and uses of cases, as both specific empirical phenomena and as general theoretical categories.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • 1. Cases of 'what is a case?' Charles C. Ragin
  • Part I. Cases Are Found: 2. Small Ns and community case studies Douglas Harper
  • 3. What do cases do? Some notes on activity in sociological analysis Andrew Abbott
  • Part II. Cases Are Objects: 4. Small Ns and big conclusions: an examination of the reasoning in comparative studies based on a small number of cases Stanley Lieberson
  • 5. Theory elaboration: the heuristics of case analysis Diane Vaughan
  • Part III. Cases Are Made: 6. Case studies: history or sociology? Michel Wieviorka
  • 7. Making theoretical cases John Walton
  • Part IV. Cases Are Conventions: 8. Cases on cases ... of cases Jennifer Platt
  • 9. Cases are for identity, for explanation, or for control
  • Conclusion
  • 10. Cases, causes, conjunctures, stories and imagery Howard C. White.

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