Drawing Lessons from Case Studies by Enhancing Comparability
Philosophy of the Social Sciences 42 (1):99-120 (2012)
| Abstract | External validity is typically regarded as the downside of case study research by methodologists and social scientists; case studies, however, are often aimed at drawing lessons that are generalizable to new contexts. The gap between the generalizability potential of case studies and the research goals demands closer scrutiny. I suggest that the conclusion that case study research is weak in external validity follows from a set of assumptions that I term the "traditional view," which are disputable at best. In this view, external validity is treated as a matter of mere representativeness. I argue that it is best understood instead as a problem of inference and that the emphasis should be placed on the comparability of the study rather than on the typicality of the case. By making case studies highly comparable, their external validity can be reliably and efficiently assessed and, in this way, their generalizability potential enhanced | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesFrancesco Guala & Luigi Mittone (2005). Experiments in Economics: External Validity and the Robustness of Phenomena. Journal of Economic Methodology 12 (4):495-515.
Mary S. Morgan (2012). Case Studies: One Observation or Many? Justification or Discovery? Philosophy of Science 79 (5):667-677.
John Elliott & Dominik Luke (2008). Epistemology as Ethics in Research and Policy: The Use of Case Studies. Journal of Philosophy of Education 42 (s1):87-119.
A. Ritterbusch (1981). Komparative Aussagemuster in Bezug Zu Komplementären Und Enkaptischen Modellen der Morphologie. Acta Biotheoretica 30 (1).
Luis M. Miller (2010). Why a Trade-Off? The Relationship Between the External and Internal Validity of Experiments. Theoria 25 (3):301-321.
Douglas N. Walton (1983). Ethics of Withdrawal of Life-Support Systems: Case Studies on Decision-Making in Intensive Care. Greenwood Press.
Tom Brislin (1997). Case Studies by Numbers: Journalism Ethics Learning. Journal of Mass Media Ethics 12 (4):221 – 226.
Jeffrey W. Lucas (2003). Theory-Testing, Generalization, and the Problem of External Validity. Sociological Theory 21 (3):236-253.
Stephen Brigley (1995). Business Ethics in Context: Researching with Case Studies. Journal of Business Ethics 14 (3):219 - 226.
Lindley Darden (1991). Theory Change in Science: Strategies From Mendelian Genetics. Oxford University Press.
Joseph C. Pitt (2001). The Dilemma of Case Studies: Toward a Heraclitian Philosophy of Science. Perspectives on Science 9 (4):373-382.
Arthur Schram (2005). Artificiality: The Tension Between Internal and External Validity in Economic Experiments. Journal of Economic Methodology 12 (2):225-237.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2011-12-06Total downloads12 ( #93,475 of 549,754 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,425 of 549,754 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
