Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Science Wars: a way out
- Part one Why social science has failed as science
- Part two How social science can matter again
- 5 Values in social and political inquiry
- 6 The power of example
- 7 The significance of conflict and power to social science
- 8 Empowering Aristotle
- 9 Methodological guidelines for a reformed social science
- 10 Examples and illustrations: narratives of value and power
- 11 Social science that matters
- Notes
- Index
6 - The power of example
from Part two - How social science can matter again
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Science Wars: a way out
- Part one Why social science has failed as science
- Part two How social science can matter again
- 5 Values in social and political inquiry
- 6 The power of example
- 7 The significance of conflict and power to social science
- 8 Empowering Aristotle
- 9 Methodological guidelines for a reformed social science
- 10 Examples and illustrations: narratives of value and power
- 11 Social science that matters
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Learning to see – habituating the eye to repose, to patience, to letting things come to it; learning to defer judgement, to investigate and comprehend the individual case in all its aspects. This is the first preliminary schooling in spirituality.
Friedrich NietzscheIn a standard reference book such as the Dictionary of Sociology, the full citation regarding the term “case study” reads as follows:
Case Study. The detailed examination of a single example of a class of phenomena, a case study cannot provide reliable information about the broader class, but it may be useful in the preliminary stages of an investigation since it provides hypotheses which may be tested systematically with a larger number of cases.
This description is indicative of a general view of the case study, which, if not directly wrong, is so oversimplified as to be grossly misleading. It is correct that the case study is a “detailed examination of a single example,” but it is not true that a case study “cannot provide reliable information about the broader class.” While a case study can be used “in the preliminary stages of an investigation” to generate hypotheses, it is misleading to see the case study as a pilot method to be used only in preparing the real study's larger tests, systematic hypotheses testing, and theory building.
The problems of this view can be summarized in five misunderstandings or oversimplifications about the nature of the case study as a research method:
Misunderstanding 1. General, theoretical (context-independent) knowledge is more valuable than concrete, practical (context-dependent) knowledge.
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- Making Social Science MatterWhy Social Inquiry Fails and How it Can Succeed Again, pp. 66 - 87Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001
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