Methodologies (in) Conversations: Session 3 – Case studies in Social Science and Humanities

This session will deal with a method deployed both in empirical and non-empirical research: case studies. Beyond addressing the differences and commonalities between the use of specific cases in both these strands, we aim here to have a productive interdisciplinary conversation about what case studies are, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to best use them.

Please note that this seminar is not exclusively centered around the texts below – they are there only to be informative and as a way to invite you to reflect on your engagement (or nonengagement) with case studies.

Suggested readings

• Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). Building theories from case study research. The Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 532–550.
• Flyvbjerg, B. (2001). The power of example. In S. Sampson (Trans.), Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it Can Succeed Again (pp. 66-87). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Gerring, J. (2004). What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for? American Political Science Review, 98(2), 341–354.
• Ketokivi, M., & Choi, T. (2014). Renaissance of case research as a scientific method. Journal of Operations Management, 32, 232–240.
• Ragin, Charles C.; Becker, Howard S. (Eds.) (1992): What is a case? Exploring the foundations of social inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Sjoberg, G., Williams, N., Vaughn, T. R., Sjoberg, A. F. (1991). The case study approach in social research: Basic methodological issues. In Feagin, J. R., Orum, A. (Eds.), A case for the case study (pp. 27–79). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
• Yin, R. K. (2018). Analyzing case study evidence: How to start your analysis, your analytic choices, and how they work. In Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods (Sixth edition). SAGE.
• VanWynsberghe, R., & Khan, S. (2007). Redefining case study. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 6(2), 80–94.