Pros And Cons Of Case Study

Introduction and background information

The first consideration of case study research method emerged around 1900, mostly within the discipline of anthropology. From early accounts of journeys, systematic investigations of other cultures in the form of field studies emerged, with participant observation as the predominant method of data collection. Another source of case study methodology has been provided by descriptions of individuals within medicine, social work and psychology, often called “case work” or “case history”. The first generation of case studies culminated in the Chicago school of sociology, in which the anthropologist’s field study method was practised on contemporary society in the university surroundings

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Some argue that it useful only as an exploratory tool and nothing more. However researchers continue to use case study research methods with success regardless the criticisms accorded to it.

The characteristics of a case study research

A case study method of research does not really need to be long, they can range from a few paragraphs to few pages depending on the question being studied. They can either be real life issues or fictitious. There is usually a dilemma that needs to be resolved, with some information missing and solutions must be within the control of the protagonist. One can write the dilemma so that it can reach one of three analytical dimensions:

• Here is a problem and this is the solution. Does the solution fit or should some alternatives be considered?

• Here is a problem and what is the

The main purpose of this type of case study is to cast light on the exceptional and the untypical. For example, countries which remain communist or that which are still governed by the military or which seem to be immune from democratizing inclinations. For example, in 1994 Rhodes sought to make sense of the decision of Britain of not develop a powerful central government until the middle of the nineteenth century, much later than most other countries in the Western Europe. The findings or the results were that Britain 's island character and secure borders meant that it did not really require a large standing army and the government needed to support it. As this illustration indicates, deviant cases studies are mostly used to tidy up our understanding of exceptions and that which does not seem