Narrow debates pertaining to specific methods can often be resolved by an appeal to context (which method is appropriately applied in setting A?), or by an investigation of the mathematical properties underlying different statistical methods (e.g., which technique of modeling serial autocorrelation is consistent with our understanding of a phenomenon and with the evidence at hand?). Broader methodological debates, however, are always and necessarily about concepts. How should we define key terms (e.g., “case,” “causation,” “process-tracing”)? What is the most useful way to carve up the lexical terrain?

It will be seen that these questions of definition are inextricable from the broader questions of social science methodology. For it is with these key terms that we make sense of the subject matter. Thus, while the first part of the book is prefatory to the practical advice offered in Part Two, it is certainly not incidental. It is impossible to conduct case studies without also conceptualizing the case study and its place in the toolbox of social research. In thinking this matter through, a degree of abstraction is inevitable. I have endeavored to leaven the generalities with specific examples, wherever possible.

Chapter Two asks what a case study is, and how it might be differentiated from other styles of research. This chapter is definitional. It deals with the various meanings that have been attached to, or are implied by, the case study research design.