scholarly journals Collecting Sufficient Evidence When Conducting a Case Study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pearl Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Single Source ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
The Social

Case study is a popular research design within the social sciences despite concerns of its credibility. Case studies provide an in-depth exploration of the unit of analysis (case). Hence, data triangulation is a key characteristic of the design whose purpose is to provide a thick, rich, and contextual description. Data for varied sources enhances credibility of the study. However, studies involving only one source of evidence exist in peer reviewed publications. This paper reviews the nature of case studies and discusses the importance of data triangulation. Further, three published case studies involving a single source of data are reviewed and suggestions of more appropriate designs are provided.

Using process tracing to evaluate unique events: The case of EXPO Milano 2015

Evaluation ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Busetti ◽  
Bruno Dente
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Causal Attributions ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Causal Contribution ◽  
The Social ◽  
Study Results

In the social sciences, there is an emerging interest in process tracing as a method for improving rigour and transparency in within-case inferences. Recently, the method has been proposed as a possible enhancement of theory-based approaches to evaluation, but applications of the method remain rare. In an attempt to fill this gap, process tracing was used to evaluate the Universal Exposition held in Milano in 2015 (EXPO2015). Mega-events of this kind are perfect candidates for ‘testing’ the method; although their effects have been widely discussed in the relevant literature, claims about the causal contribution of mega-events are not straightforward, and a number of ambiguities complicate any clear assessment of their consequences. Two in-depth case studies of projects related to EXPO2015 – the East External Highway and Refettorio Ambrosiano – demonstrate the advantages and feasibility of process tracing and of the application of Bayesian logic to evidence search, collection and assessment. In particular, case study results show that Bayesian scrutiny may reveal unexpected weakness in apparently obvious inferences and increase reliability in assessing less straightforward causal attributions.

scholarly journals The Pitfalls and Promise of Focus Groups as a Data Collection Method

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Cyr
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Collection Method ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Individual Unit ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Despite their long trajectory in the social sciences, few systematic works analyze how often and for what purposes focus groups appear in published works. This study fills this gap by undertaking a meta-analysis of focus group use over the last 10 years. It makes several contributions to our understanding of when and why focus groups are used in the social sciences. First, the study explains that focus groups generate data at three units of analysis, namely, the individual, the group, and the interaction. Although most researchers rely upon the individual unit of analysis, the method’s comparative advantage lies in the group and interactive units. Second, it reveals strong affinities between each unit of analysis and the primary motivation for using focus groups as a data collection method. The individual unit of analysis is appropriate for triangulation; the group unit is appropriate as a pretest; and the interactive unit is appropriate for exploration. Finally, it offers a set of guidelines that researchers should adopt when presenting focus groups as part of their research design. Researchers should, first, state the main purpose of the focus group in a research design; second, identify the primary unit of analysis exploited; and finally, list the questions used to collect data in the focus group.

Laws That Enable Partnerships: The Case of Proyecto Pensilvania in Bogotá, Colombia

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Danese ◽  
Candace A. Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Study Analysis ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Institutional Determinants ◽  
The Social ◽  
Waste Pickers

AbstractWaste picking is an informal economy activity that has attracted a large amount of research across the social sciences. We contribute to the debate on informality and its institutional determinants through case study analysis. We present a unique partnership between waste pickers and firms operating in Colombia called

The Use of Photo-interviewing: Three Examples from Health Evaluation and Research

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 52-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Hurworth ◽  
Eileen Clark ◽  
Jenepher Martin ◽  
Steve Thomsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Recent Case ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Health Evaluation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social

This article reviews the use of photographs as data within the social sciences as well as defining related terminology used over the past century. It then examines the use of photos as stimuli for talking about health settings before presenting three recent case studies where photo-interviewing has been used successfully in health evaluation and research. Advantages and limitations of the method are considered.

scholarly journals Something for Everyone: A Review of Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Tarnoki ◽  
Katheryne Puentes
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Family Therapy ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Doctoral Programs ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nova Southeastern University

Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (2018), by John W. Creswell and Cheryl N. Poth was written for anyone who is considering themselves to be researchers or interested in learning more about qualitative research. As students in doctoral programs studying family therapy at Nova Southeastern University, we felt that parts of the text were explicitly tailored toward the social sciences; however, the chapters are useful for anyone interested in qualitative research from many angles and aspects.

scholarly journals Duše předmětu a tělo modlitby aneb zkoumání sociologických nejistot na případu Sóka Gakkai International

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Petra Tlčimuková
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Black Boxes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Soka Gakkai ◽  
The Relationship

This case study presents the results of long-term original ethnographic research on the international Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International (SGI). It focuses on the relationship between the material and immaterial and deals with the question of how to study them in the sociology of religion. The analysis builds upon the critique of the modernist paradigm and related research of religion in the social sciences as presented by Harman, Law and Latour. The methodology draws on the approach of Actor-Network Theory as presented by Bruno Latour, and pursues object-oriented ethnography, for the sake of which the concept of iconoclash is borrowed. This approach is applied to the research which focused on the key counterparts in the Buddhist praxis of SGI ‒ the phrase daimoku and the scroll called Gohonzon. The analysis deals mainly with the sources of sociological uncertainties related to the agency of the scroll. It looks at the processes concerning the establishing and dissolving of connections among involved elements, it opens up the black-boxes and proposes answers to the question of new conceptions of the physical as seen through Gohonzon.

scholarly journals Classroom assemblage: the vibrant setting of the schooling process

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 580
Author(s):  
Paula Cristina Lameu
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Classroom Environment ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
The Social ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Social Realm ◽  
Schooling Process ◽  
Matter Energy

Some scholars and researchers have been claiming we are in a New Materialist and Posthumanist era. It means that for the ones who are researching in Social Sciences, the focus is not only the human as the centre and the cause of what happens in the social realm. For human, nonhuman and inhuman are attributed the same importance in research once all of them are components of reality, inserted in nature.Reality is regarded as complex, not simple straightforward isolated cause and effect processes. This is how the classroom is supposed to be observed in educational research: not only teaching and learning, but these two processes and policy making, and identity construction, and emotional flows, and curriculum, and schooling, and…, and…The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the complexity of the classroom environment regarded as an assemblage. The hypothesis is that all the components of the assemblage are equally vital, although some components are more vibratory than others. The theory of Vitalism from Driesch (1914) and the Vital Materialism from Bennett (2010a, 2010b) are used as the theoretical tools for analysis. Assemblage Ethnography (YOUDELL, 2015; YOUDELL and MCGIMPSEY, 2015) is the methodology of data collection. A multiple case study was developed in three different schools in United Kingdom: one Primary, one Secondary and one Post-secondary. The results suggest that teacher and students are the components who most influence on the classroom assemblage composition, decomposition and recomposition orienting the flows of matter-energy once they are change-creating agents.

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