A Case for the Case Study

Since the end of World War II social science research has become increasingly quantitative in nature. <i>A Case for the Case Study</i> provides a rationale for an alternative to quantitative research: the close investigation of single instances of social phenomena.<br/><br/>The first section of the book contains an overview of the central methodological issues involved in the use of the case study method. Then well-known scholars describe how they undertook case study research in order to understand changes in church involvement city life gender roles white-collar crimes family structure homelessness and other types of social experience. Each contributor confronts several key questions: What does the case study tell us that other approaches cannot? To what extent can one generalize from the study of a single case or of a highly limited set of cases? Does case study work provide the basis for postulating broad principles of social structure and behavior? The answers vary but the consensus is that the opportunity to examine certain kinds of social phenomena in depth enables social scientists to advance greatly our empirical understanding of social life.<br/><br/>The contributors are Leon Anderson Howard M. Bahr Theodore Caplow Joe R. Feagin Gilbert Geis Gerald Handel Anthonly M. Orum Andree F. Sjoberg Gideon Sjoberg David A. Snow Ted R. Vaughan R. Stephen Warner Christine L. Williams and Norma Williams.