Case Study in Social Research

The Case Study in Social Research proposes and develops an innovative, rigorous and up to date methodological clarification of the case study approach in the social sciences to consistently and consciously apply it to different fields of social research. It aspires to provide the reader not with a set of prescriptive rules, but rather with ‘methodological awareness’ of the complexity and peculiarity of applying case study, so that they may carefully evaluate the limits and potential in conducting this type of investigation.What is really a case study research in the sociological field? How do we carry out a social inquiry of this type? Why does it differ from the other social research approaches? In answering these questions, the book leads the reader on a historical, epistemological, technical and applicative path in the methodology of social research, by examining all aspects of the case study approach. The aim is to answer to the still equivocal and misunderstood methodological issues, and provide a systematic illustration and exemplification of the case study approach from its sociological and methodological roots, through its research design, to the preparation and the conduction of a case study. An innovative space is dedicated to specifically and practically understand the differences between case study approach and the other social research approaches, with which it is often confused in literature, such as ethnographic research, grounded theory or qualitative research tout court. Suitable for upper level undergraduate and postgraduate students in the social sciences, and as a supplementary textbook to a main methods textbook, as well as applied social researchers, and other practitioners and academics that already have grounding in social research methodologies.

Barbara Sena is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Letters, Philosophy, Communication, of the University of Bergamo, Italy, where she teaches sociology and research methods at bachelor’s and master degree courses and in the doctoral school.