POLSCI 381 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Empirical Relationship, Standard-Definition Television, Falsifiability
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3/12: what is a case study, there isn"t a standard definition, but there are lots of misconceptions b) c) It isn"t necessarily qualitative or ethnographic, but it can be: definition: an intensive study of a single unit with an aim to generalize across a larger set of units/understanding a larger class of similar units. Goal to establish a general empirical relationship between two variables (controlling for others) you want to be able to generalize. Vocabulary of variables: how to use the case study method, common pitfalls, motive behind the selection of case studies is not obvious (1) you should have a clear rationale for case selection ii) Generalizability impaired or unclear (1) specification of boundary conditions (2) clearly identify the universe to which a case or group of cases belongs iii) Falsifiability compromised (1) systematic collection of data, careful documentation: many variables, few cases (1) parsimonious theory (2) limit to variables of theoretical interest v)
