Case-based methods have a long history in the social sciences. They are extensively used and raise many practical and theoretical questions. This book provides a comprehensive, critical examination of case-oriented research. It offers concrete proposals about the best research methods and provides an unparalleled guide to the emergence and complexity of the field. The Handbook: - Situates the reader in the essential theoretical and practical issues; - Demonstrates the unity and diversity of case-oriented research through an examination of case-based methods; - Distinguishes between case-based and case study research; - Elucidates the philosophical issues around case based methods; - Examines case-based work in the context of both social theory and theories of research methods.

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION: Case-Based Methods: Why We Need Them; What They Are; How to Do Them - David Byrne PART ONE: THE METHODOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF CASE-BASED METHODS Complexity and Case - David L Harvey The Contextualist Approach to Social Science Methodology - Lars Mjøset Reflexivity, Realism and the Process of Casing - Bob Carter and Alison Sealey Single-Case Probabilities - Malcolm Williams and Wendy Dyer Complex Realist and Configurational Approaches to Cases: A Radical Synthesis - David Byrne PART TWO: METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF CASE-BASED RESEARCH Typologies - Ways of Sorting Things Out Explanatory Typologies in Qualitative Analysis - Colin Elman Introducing Cluster Analysis: What Can It Teach Us about the Case? - Emma Uprichard Visualizing Types: The Potential of Correspondence Analysis - Dianne Phillips and John Phillips How Classification Works, Or Doesn′t: The Case of Chronic Pain - Emma Whelan Quantitative Approaches to Case Based Methods Case-Centred Methods and Quantitative Analysis - Ray Kent The Logic and Assumptions of MDSO - MSDO Designs - Gisèle De Meur and Alain Gottcheiner The Case for Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): Adding Leverage for Thick Cross-Case Comparison - Benoît Rihoux and Bojana Lobe On the Duality of Cases and Variables: Correspondence Analysis (CA) and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) - Ronald L Breiger Using Cluster Analysis, Qualitative Comparative Analysis and NVivo in Relation to the Establishment of Causal Configurations with Pre-existing Large N Datasets: Machining Hermeneutics - David Byrne Qualitative Approaches to Case-Based Research Computer-Based Qualitative Methods in Case-Study Research - Nigel Fielding and Richard Warnes Extending the Ethnographic Case Study - Seán Ó Riain Scope in Case-Study Research - Gary Goertz and James Mahoney Small-N Access Cases to Refine Theories of Social Exclusion and Access to Socially Excluded Individuals and Groups - Nick Emmel and Kahryn Hughes Using Comparative Data: A Systems Approach to a Multiple Case Study - Fred Carden PART THREE: CASE-BASED METHODS IN DISCIPLINES AND FIELDS Making the Most of an Historical Case Study: Configuration, Sequence, Casing, and the US Old-Age Pension Movement - Edwin Amenta Poetry and History: The Case for Literary Evidence - John Walton Social Interactions and the Demand for Sport: Cluster Analysis in Economics - Paul Downward and Joseph Riordan The Proper Relationship of Comparative-Historical Analysis to Statistical Analysis: Subordination, Integration or Separation? - James Mahoney and P Larkin Terrie Case Studies and the Configurational Analysis of Organizational Phenomena - Peer C Fiss The Case in Medicine - Frances Griffiths Team-Based Aggregation of Qualitative Case Study Data in Health Care Contexts: Challenges and Learning - Sue Dopson, Ewan Ferlie, Louise Fitzgerald and Louise Locock Working with Cases in Development Contexts: Some Insights from an Outlier - Pip Bevan Non-Nested and Nested Cases in a Socioeconomic Village Study - Wendy Olsen Causality and Interpretation in Qualitative Policy-Related Research - David Byrne, Wendy Olsen and Sandra Duggan Reflections on Casing and Case-Oriented Research - Charles C Ragin