case studies
1Monday, November 12, 2012 by Unknown
"the case study does not imply the use of a particular type of evidence" (Yin, 1981, p. 58)
"Nor does the case study imply the use of a particular data collection method" (Yin, 1981, p. 59)
"the distinguishing characteristic of the case study is that it attempts to examine: (a) a contemporary phenomenon in its real-life context, especially when (b) the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident" (Yin, 1981, p. 59)
Within the first 2 pages of the Yin article that we read for this week my entire (mis)understanding of case studies was given an overhaul. I thought that I understood case studies a lot better than I did, and I'm really not sure why. But reading the Yin article, I was suddenly aware of all the misconceptions that I've held about case studies. In presenting his response to Mile's critique of case study research Yin was able to pull out, what I believe to be, some of the more taken for granted assumptions about performing a case study. The idea that a case study can use quantitative data, and is not necessarily the result of an ethnography really opened my eyes to the number of possible uses for this method. Did anyone else find that you knew a lot less about case studies than you thought you did?
I was planning on designing my research proposal around the use of a case study. I would still like to, but now I am realizing how much more research I will have to do. I think the lecture this week will be really valuable in helping me to get a better grasp of this method.
I agree that case studies were largely a mystery to me. I had thought they served as particular, enclosed examples of a larger phenomenon and were, as Yin mentions, based manly on the results of participant observation. Ethnography has always been somewhat difficult for me - I never thought I would be studying people who actually live, as opposed to the texts of those who died a long time ago. How can one provide true insight into a culture by studying it? Case studies are an extremely interesting way of painting a PARTICULAR picture of a culture for outsiders, but it seems to me that a culture - with all its nuances - can only truly be understood by those within it.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I had trouble placing the Beaulieu, Scharnhorst, and Wouters (2007) article within my knowledge of case studies and ethnography. It seems to me that their difficulty lies in the fact that they are not considered "objective" enough to provide a foundation for further study. The authors thus propose new ways in which case studies can be used to build knowledge. It is interesting that for them, cases are used to "emphasize the diversity of science and technology, to de-essentialize them" (p. 675). Case studies are used precisely to demonstrate particularities in the field, which I suppose speaks to my doubts as to whether they can describe a culture as it truly is.
I had never thought of case studies as means for comparison, and would never have thought to ensure that I had developed a case that was "comparable". I realize that this is just one aspect of the problem the author's present, but it certainly has given me a lot to think about.