Publisher Description

Case-based methods have a long history in the social sciences. They are extensively used and raise many practical and theoretical questions. This book provides a comprehensive, critical examination of case-oriented research. It offers concrete proposals about the best research methods and provides an unparalleled guide to the emergence and complexity of the field. The Handbook:- Situates the reader in the essential theoretical and practical issues;- Demonstrates the unity and diversity of case-oriented research through an examination of case-based methods;- Distinguishes between case-based and case study research;- Elucidates the philosophical issues around case based methods;- Examines case-based work in the context of both social theory and theories of research methods.

Author Biography

David Byrne is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Applied Social Sciences at the University of Durham. He has published widely on the methodology of social research, for example, in Interpreting Quantitative Data (2002) and with Charles Ragin edited The SAGE Handbook of Case Based Methods (2009). His major theoretical engagement is with the deployment of the complexity frame of reference across the social sciences—see Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences: The State of the Art (with Gillian Callaghan, 2011) with a particular focus on application to policy and practice. His current research focus is on the implications of the transition to the post-industrial in welfare capitalism—Paying for the Welfare State in the 21st Century (with Sally Ruane, 2011) and Class After Industry (2018).Charles C. Ragin spent most of his youth in Texas and the southeastern United States. He attended the University of Texas at Austin as an undergraduate and received his BA degree in 1972 at the age of 19. That same year he began graduate work in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his PhD in 1975. From 1975 until 2001, he lived in the Midwest, teaching first at Indiana University and then at Northwestern University. He headed west in 2001, where he spent just over a decade at University of Arizona-Tucson. In 2012, he joined the faculty at the University of California-Irvine, where he is currently the Chancellor′s Professor of Sociology. He is best known for developing a methodological alternative to conventional research methods, using formal set-theoretic techniques for comparative research. His many publications address broad issues in politics and society, with topics ranging from the causes of ethnic political mobilization to the shaping of the welfare state in advanced capitalist countries. He has written several books including Intersectional Inequality: Race, Class, Test Scores and Poverty (with Peer Fiss, 2017). Redesigning Social Inquiry: Fuzzy Sets and Beyond (2008) Fuzzy-Set Social Science (2000). His book The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies (1987) won the 1989 Stein Rokkan Prize of the International Social Science Council of UNESCO. In 2014 he received the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award of the American Sociological Association. He is married to Mary Driscoll, and they have two sons, Andrew and Daniel.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: Case-Based Methods: Why We Need Them; What They Are; How to Do Them - David ByrnePART ONE: THE METHODOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF CASE-BASED METHODSComplexity and Case - David L HarveyThe Contextualist Approach to Social Science Methodology - Lars MjøsetReflexivity, Realism and the Process of Casing - Bob Carter and Alison SealeySingle-Case Probabilities - Malcolm Williams and Wendy DyerComplex Realist and Configurational Approaches to Cases: A Radical Synthesis - David ByrnePART TWO: METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF CASE-BASED RESEARCHTypologies - Ways of Sorting Things OutExplanatory Typologies in Qualitative Analysis - Colin ElmanIntroducing Cluster Analysis: What Can It Teach Us about the Case? - Emma UprichardVisualizing Types: The Potential of Correspondence Analysis - Dianne Phillips and John PhillipsHow Classification Works, Or Doesn′t: The Case of Chronic Pain - Emma WhelanQuantitative Approaches to Case Based MethodsCase-Centred Methods and Quantitative Analysis - Ray KentThe Logic and Assumptions of MDSO - MSDO Designs - Gisèle De Meur and Alain GottcheinerThe Case for Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): Adding Leverage for Thick Cross-Case Comparison - Benoît Rihoux and Bojana LobeOn the Duality of Cases and Variables: Correspondence Analysis (CA) and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) - Ronald L BreigerUsing Cluster Analysis, Qualitative Comparative Analysis and NVivo in Relation to the Establishment of Causal Configurations with Pre-existing Large N Datasets: Machining Hermeneutics - David ByrneQualitative Approaches to Case-Based ResearchComputer-Based Qualitative Methods in Case-Study Research - Nigel Fielding and Richard WarnesExtending the Ethnographic Case Study - Seán Ó RiainScope in Case-Study Research - Gary Goertz and James MahoneySmall-N Access Cases to Refine Theories of Social Exclusion and Access to Socially Excluded Individuals and Groups - Nick Emmel and Kahryn HughesUsing Comparative Data: A Systems Approach to a Multiple Case Study - Fred CardenPART THREE: CASE-BASED METHODS IN DISCIPLINES AND FIELDSMaking the Most of an Historical Case Study: Configuration, Sequence, Casing, and the US Old-Age Pension Movement - Edwin AmentaPoetry and History: The Case for Literary Evidence - John WaltonSocial Interactions and the Demand for Sport: Cluster Analysis in Economics - Paul Downward and Joseph RiordanThe Proper Relationship of Comparative-Historical Analysis to Statistical Analysis: Subordination, Integration or Separation? - James Mahoney and P Larkin TerrieCase Studies and the Configurational Analysis of Organizational Phenomena - Peer C FissThe Case in Medicine - Frances GriffithsTeam-Based Aggregation of Qualitative Case Study Data in Health Care Contexts: Challenges and Learning - Sue Dopson, Ewan Ferlie, Louise Fitzgerald and Louise LocockWorking with Cases in Development Contexts: Some Insights from an Outlier - Pip BevanNon-Nested and Nested Cases in a Socioeconomic Village Study - Wendy OlsenCausality and Interpretation in Qualitative Policy-Related Research - David Byrne, Wendy Olsen and Sandra DugganReflections on Casing and Case-Oriented Research - Charles C Ragin

Review

′[This Handbook] offers concrete proposals about the best research methods, and provides a guide to the emergence and complexity of the field. It also situates the reader in the essential theoretical and practical issues, shows the unity and diversity of case-oriented research through an examination of case-based methods, distinguishes between case-based and case study research, elucidates the philosophical issues around case-based methods, and examines case-based work in the context of both social theory and theories of research methods′
Abstracts of Public Administration, Development, and Environment ′This book provides a fresh and stimulating approach to causal analysis in the social sciences. International experts provide not just the philosophical arguments for a case-based approach to research but also detailed chapters on: ′why-to′, ′when-to′ and ′how-to′. Traditional distinctions between qualitative and quantitative are rejected in favour of a case-based approach which is applicable across the social sciences and beyond.′Professor Angela Dale, The University of Manchester′This wide-ranging volume gives an excellent overview of diverse contemporary case study methods. Case study researchers of all kinds will find this book deepens their understanding of the methods they already use and broadens their knowledge of approaches they have not yet explored.′Professor Andrew Bennett, Georgetown University′An invaluable resource for social researchers who want to know how and why case studies are conducted. The contributors represent a rich stream of research active practitioners who provide an excellent guide to both qualitative and quantitative approaches to case based enquiry. Illustrations are drawn from a broad range of disciplines and provide a fertile terrain for application′Professor Dick Wiggins, The Institute of Education, University of London

Review Quote

[This Handbook] offers concrete proposals about the best research methods, and provides a guide to the emergence and complexity of the field. It also situates the reader in the essential theoretical and practical issues, shows the unity and diversity of case-oriented research through an examination of case-based methods, distinguishes between case-based and case study research, elucidates the philosophical issues around case-based methods, and examines case-based work in the context of both social theory and theories of research methods' - Abstracts of Public Administration, Development, and Environment'This book provides a fresh and stimulating approach to causal analysis in the social sciences. International experts provide not just the philosophical arguments for a case-based approach to research but also detailed chapters on: 'why-to', 'when-to' and 'how-to'. Traditional distinctions between qualitative and quantitative are rejected in favour of a case-based approach which is applicable across the social sciences and beyond.'Professor Angela Dale, The University of Manchester'This wide-ranging volume gives an excellent overview of diverse contemporary case study methods. Case study researchers of all kinds will find this book deepens their understanding of the methods they already use and broadens their knowledge of approaches they have not yet explored.'Professor Andrew Bennett, Georgetown University'An invaluable resource for social researchers who want to know how and why case studies are conducted. The contributors represent a rich stream of research active practitioners who provide an excellent guide to both qualitative and quantitative approaches to case based enquiry. Illustrations are drawn from a broad range of disciplines and provide a fertile terrain for application'Professor Dick Wiggins, The Institute of Education, University of London

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