The Advantages and Limitations of Single Case Study Analysis. Define the Main Principles, and Analyse the Advantages and Limitations of One of the Following Research Methods i Single Case Study Analysis. As Andrew Bennett and Colin Elman have recently noted, qualitative research methods presently enjoy an almost unprecedented popularity and vitality in the international relations sub field, such that they are now indisputably prominent, if not pre eminent 2. This is, they suggest, due in no small part to the considerable advantages that case study methods in particular have to offer in studying the complex and relatively unstructured and infrequent phenomena that lie at the heart of the subfield Bennett and Elman, 2. Case Study And Theory Development In The Social Sciences Pdf Merge' title='Case Study And Theory Development In The Social Sciences Pdf Merge' />Get the latest science news and technology news, read tech reviews and more at ABC News. Case Study And Theory Development In The Social Sciences Pdf CreatorA listing of online experiments. Organized by topic. Microsoft Research Alumni Network. If you were formerly an employee or intern at Microsoft Research, join the newly formed LinkedIn Microsoft Research Alumni Network. Using selected examples from within the International Relations literature1, this paper aims to provide a brief overview of the main principles and distinctive advantages and limitations of single case study analysis. Lightsaber Sound Wav on this page. Divided into three inter related sections, the paper therefore begins by first identifying the underlying principles that serve to constitute the case study as a particular research strategy, noting the somewhat contested nature of the approach in ontological, epistemological, and methodological terms. The second part then looks to the principal single case study types and their associated advantages, including those from within the recent third generation of qualitative International Relations IR research. Case Study And Theory Development In The Social Sciences Pdf ViewerThe final section of the paper then discusses the most commonly articulated limitations of single case studies while accepting their susceptibility to criticism, it is however suggested that such weaknesses are somewhat exaggerated. The paper concludes that single case study analysis has a great deal to offer as a means of both understanding and explaining contemporary international relations. Principles. The term case study, John Gerring has suggested, is a definitional morass Evidently, researchers have many different things in mind when they talk about case study research 2. It is possible, however, to distil some of the more commonly agreed principles. One of the most prominent advocates of case study research, Robert Yin 2. What this definition usefully captures is that case studies are intended unlike more superficial and generalising methods to provide a level of detail and understanding, similar to the ethnographer Clifford Geertzs 1. Another frequently cited proponent of the approach, Robert Stake, notes that as a form of research the case study is defined by interest in an individual case, not by the methods of inquiry used, and that the object of study is a specific, unique, bounded system 2. As such, three key points can be derived from this respectively concerning issues of ontology, epistemology, and methodology that are central to the principles of single case study research. First, the vital notion of boundedness when it comes to the particular unit of analysis means that defining principles should incorporate both the synchronic spatial and diachronic temporal elements of any so called case. As Gerring puts it, a case study should be an intensive study of a single unit a spatially bounded phenomenon e. It is important to note, however, that whereas Gerring refers to a single unit of analysis it may be that attention also necessarily be given to particular sub units. This points to the important difference between what Yin refers to as an holistic case design, with a single unit of analysis, and an embedded case design with multiple units of analysis Yin, 2. The former, for example, would examine only the overall nature of an international organization, whereas the latter would also look to specific departments, programmes, or policies etc. Secondly, as Tim May notes of the case study approach, even the most fervent advocates acknowledge that the term has entered into understandings with little specification or discussion of purpose and process 2. One of the principal reasons for this, he argues, is the relationship between the use of case studies in social research and the differing epistemological traditions positivist, interpretivist, and others within which it has been utilised. Philosophy of science concerns are obviously a complex issue, and beyond the scope of much of this paper. That said, the issue of how it is that we know what we know of whether or not a single independent reality exists of which we as researchers can seek to provide explanation does lead us to an important distinction to be made between so called idiographic and nomothetic case studies Gerring, 2. The former refers to those which purport to explain only a single case, are concerned with particularisation, and hence are typically although not exclusively associated with more interpretivist approaches. Dj Khaled We The Best Zip there. The latter are those focused studies that reflect upon a larger population and are more concerned with generalisation, as is often so with more positivist approaches2. The importance of this distinction, and its relation to the advantages and limitations of single case study analysis, is returned to below. Thirdly, in methodological terms, given that the case study has often been seen as more of an interpretivist and idiographic tool, it has also been associated with a distinctly qualitative approach Bryman, 2. However, as Yin notes, case studies can like all forms of social science research be exploratory, descriptive, andor explanatory in nature. It is a common misconception, he notes, that the various research methods should be arrayed hierarchically many social scientists still deeply believe that case studies are only appropriate for the exploratory phase of an investigation Yin, 2. If case studies can reliably perform any or all three of these roles and given that their in depth approach may also require multiple sources of data and the within case triangulation of methods then it becomes readily apparent that they should not be limited to only one research paradigm. Exploratory and descriptive studies usually tend toward the qualitative and inductive, whereas explanatory studies are more often quantitative and deductive David and Sutton, 2. As such, the association of case study analysis with a qualitative approach is a methodological affinity, not a definitional requirement Gerring, 2. It is perhaps better to think of case studies as transparadigmatic it is mistaken to assume single case study analysis to adhere exclusively to a qualitative methodology or an interpretivist epistemology even if it or rather, practitioners of it may be so inclined. By extension, this also implies that single case study analysis therefore remains an option for a multitude of IR theories and issue areas it is how this can be put to researchers advantage that is the subject of the next section. Advantages. Having elucidated the defining principles of the single case study approach, the paper now turns to an overview of its main benefits. As noted above, a lack of consensus still exists within the wider social science literature on the principles and purposes and by extension the advantages and limitations of case study research. Given that this paper is directed towards the particular sub field of International Relations, it suggests Bennett and Elmans 2. It begins however, by discussing Harry Ecksteins seminal 1.