Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

PART 3 - CASE STUDY RESEARCH (CASE STUDY RESEARCH - Design and Methods…

- - - - Micro-level, focusing on one actor;
        Persons and interpersonal relations
        Clinical research, biographies
      - Micro-level, more than one actor involved
        people in a restaurant
      - Meso-level, only one actor
        Organizational, institutional
        an organization, department, police station, hospital
      - Meso-level, more than one actor involved
        co-operations or networks
        between schools, conflicts between public service
      - Macro-level, only one actor
        Large communities, nation states
        local social system as a street or village, civilisation
      - Macro-level, more tahn on actor involved
        arms race, the process of organising a common European Foreign policy
      - Combination of micro- and meso-levels actors
        socialising newcomers into an organisation
      - One should keep in mind tha the researcher is interested in the general phenomenon, and not in the more or less accidental case, or ïnstance", in which the phenomenon manifests itself.
        A more appropriate expression would be that a case study is the study of a phenomenon or a process as it develops within one case.
        The researcher's choice of the phenomenon, a specific topic, is the primary choice that should be expressed in the research question.
- - - - a "case" is generally a bounded entity (a person, organization, behavioral condition), but the boundary between the case and its contextual conditions - in both spatial and temporal dimensions - may beblurred.
        the case serves as the main unit of analysis.
    - - single case
        
        embedded
        
        holistic
      - multiple-cases
        
        embedded
        
        holistic
        
        a common multiple-case design might call for two or more cases that deliberately tried to teste the conditions under which the same findings might be replicated. Alternatively, the multiple cases might include deliberately contransting cases..
        here the cases in a multiple-case study might have been selected to predict similar results (direct replicaitons) or to predict contrasting results but for anticipatable reasons (theoretical replications)
  - - - Direct observations, human actions or physiscal environment
      - Interviews, open-ended conversations with key participants
      - Archival records, student records
      - Documents, newspapers articles, letters and e-mails, reports
      - Participant-observation, being identified as a researcher but also filling a real-life role in the scene being studied
      - Physical artifacts, computer downloads of employees' work
  - - - enable you to compare your empirically based pattern (based on the data you had collected) with the predicted onwe
    - - a case study may not have staterd with any predicted patterns but in fact may have started with an ope-ended research question that would lead to the use of an explanation-building technique.
    - - assembling key events into a chronology. the resulting array may not only produce insightful descriptive pattern but also hint a possible cusal relationships, because any presumed causal condition must precede any presumed outcome condition. Assuming again the availability of data about rival hypotheses, such information would be used in examining the chronological patterns.
    - - replication analysis
  - - - from samples to universes
    - - depend on using a study's theoretical framework to establish a logic tha tmight be applicatble to other situations
- - - - Descriptive
        
        Emphasis on determining the frequency with which something occurs, or the covariance between two variables.
        
        most quantitative research falls into two areas: studies that describe events and studies aimed at discovering inferences or causal relationships. Descriptive studiesare aimed at finding out "what is", so observational and survey methods are frequently used to collect descriptive data
        
        Descriptive research is a study designed to depict the participants in an accurate way. The three main ways to collect this information are: Observational, defined as a method of viewing and recording the participants. Case study, defined as an in-depth study of an individual or group of individuals
        
        How
      - Explanatory
        
        tries to explain relationships between variables
        
        builds on both exploratory and descriptive research
        
        explain why things happen
      - Exploratory
        
        Exploratory research takes place when problems are in preliminary stage. Exploratory research is used when the topic or issue is new and when data is difficult to collect.
        
        Exploratory research is research conducted for a problem that has not been studied more clearly, intended to establish priorities, develop operational definitions and improve the final research design. Exploratory research helps determine the best research design, data-collection method and selection of subjects
        
        major emphasis is on gaining ideas and isights.
        
        What
      - Causal
        
        Emphasis on determining cause-and-effect relationships
    - - Experiment
      - Survey
      - Archival Analysis
      - History
      - Case Study
    - - type of reasearch question posed
      - the extent of control an investigator has over actual behavioral events
      - the degree of focus on contemporary as opposed to historical events
      - A - "What" questions are exploratory?
        
        what are the ways of aking schools effective?
        any of the 5 strategies can be used
      - B - "Wha"t (form of, "How many" or "How much")
        What have been the outcome from a particular managerial orgaization?
        
        Survey or Archival Strategies
      - C - Who-Where (or their derivatives = how many-how much are likely to favor surveys strategies or the analysis of archival records
        These strategies are advantageous when the research goal is to describe the incidence or prevalence of a phenomenon or when it is to be predictive about certain outcomes.
      - D - "How" and "why" are more explanatory and likely to lead to the use of case studies, histories and experiments
        there is two interpertations to How and Why questions so that two strategies are equally attractive. Example, Clinton's ellection may have (How got ellected answered buy a usrvey of poll) (or how got ellected buy the case study of his campaing)
        questions deal with operationl links needing to be traced over time, rather than mere frequences or incidence
  - - - Case study has a distinct advantage when a "how" or "why" question is being asked about a contemporary set of events over which the investigators has little or no control.
  - - - Experiment: divorces a phenomenon from its context (context controlled)
      - History: deal with the entangled situation between pehnomenon and context, bt usually, with non-contemporary events.
      - Survey: can try to deal with phenomenon and context,but their ability to investigate the context is extremely limited
  - - - explain causal links in real-life that are too complex for the survey or experimental strategies
        
        evaluation language, linkk between program implementation and effects
      - describe an interverntion and the real-life context in which it occured
      - illustrate topics within a evaluation in a descriptive mode
      - explore situations in which the intervention being evaluated has no clear single set of outcomes
      - meta-evolution as study of an evaluation study
  - - - What to collect
        
        a study questions:
        
        "how" and "why" questions
        
        its propositions, if any
        
        Rationaly + Direction. Each proposition directs attention to something that should be examined within the scope of the study.
        only if you are forced to state some propositions will you move in the right direction
        Exploratory study may not have a proposition, but here it have a purpose, so one should state a purpose, as well as, the criteri by which an exploration will be judged sucessful
        
        its units of analysis
        
        is related to the fundamental problem of defining what the "case" is
        individual decisions, programs...
        define unit boundaries (begining and end of a case) time and geographically
        should be similar to those case studies previously studied (for comparison) by others or should deviate in a clear operationally defined ways.
      - What to do with the data
        
        what data to collect
        
        pattern-matching: several pieces of information from the same case may be related to some theoretical proposition.
        
        how to analyse the results
        
        comparing at least two rival propositions
  - - - 1. Individual theories: individual development, cognitive behaviour, personality, learning and disabilities
      - Group theories: family functioning, informal groups, work teams, etc...
      - Organizational theories: theories of bureaucracies, organizational structures and functions
      - 4. Societal theories: urban development, marktplace functions, cultural institutions
      - Decision-making theories can involve several types of theories
  - - - Generalization from case study to theory. Theory development does not only facilitate data collection phase of the ensuing case study. The appropriatelly developed theory also is the level at which the generalization of the case study will occur.
      - A fatal flaw in doing case study is to conceive of statistical generalization as the method of generalizing the results of the case
      - A preciously developed theory is used as a template with which to compare the empirical results of the case study
      - If two or more cases are shown to support the same theory replication may be claimed
      - The empirical results may be considered yet more potent if two or more cases support the same theory but to not support an equally plausible rival theory.
    - - An inference is made about a population on the basis of empirical data collected about a sample
      - survey, experiments
  - - - establishing correct operational measures for the concepts being studied. e.g. neighborhood change -> what is and how is "change" measured
      - To meet the test it is needed to cover 2 steps
        
        select the specific types of changes that are to be studied (in relation to the original objective)
        
        demonstrate that the selected measures of these changes do indeed reflect the specific types of change that have been selected
      - Tactics:
        
        Use of multiple sources of evidence (relevant during data collection)
        
        establish a chain of evience (also relevant during data collection)
        
        to have a draft case study report reviewd by key informants
    - - for explanatory or causal studies only
        not for descritptive or exploratory studies
      - Establishing a causal relationship, whereby certain conditions are shown to lead to other conditions, as distinguished from spurious relationships
        identify whether event X led to event Y
        inference problems; a case study involves an inference every-time an event cannot be directly observed
      - Tactics:
        
        pattern-matching
        
        explanation-building
        
        time-series analysis
    - - Establishing the domain to which a study's findings can be generalized
        knowning whther a study's findings are generalizable beyond the immediate case study
        study on one neighbourhood would be valid in another?
        valid analody: a "sample" (if studied correctly) readily generalize to a larger universe.
        generalize the theory not the cases
    - - demonstrating the operations of a study - such as the data collection procedures can be repeated with the same results.
        goal of reliability is to minimize the erros and biases in a study
        document procedures
      - Tactis:
        
        make as many steps as operational as possible
        
        conduct research as if someone were always looking over your shoulder
  - - - single case = single experiment
      - when it represents the critical case in testing a well-formated theory
      - whent the case represent an extreme or unique case
      - revelatory case: tje situation exists when an investigator has an opportunity to observe and analyze a phenomenon previously inacessible to scientific investigation
      - Replication happens by cross-experiments
    - - is advantageous when no logical subunits can be identified and when the relevant theory underlying the case study is itfself of a holistic nature
      - Problems: may arise when ignoring specific pehnomenon in operational detail
        the entire case may be conduced at an abstract level, lacking any clear measures or data
        the entire nature of the case study may shift during th course of study and the researcher not even realise it.
    - - Problems: when the case study focuses only on the sbunit level and fails to return to the larger unit of analysis
    - - The evidences are usually considered more compelling
      - Replication: if similar results are obtained from all different cases, replication is said to have taken place
        Rich theoretical framework
        Replication is different form sampling
        Literal replication: replicate direct result
        Theoretical Replication: deal with contrasting conditions
      - each case must be carefullt selected so the either
        a) predicts similar results
        b) produces contrasting results but for predictable reasons