Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research

Bent Flyvbjerg

doi:10.1177/1077800405284363

Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research

Bent Flyvbjerg

Institut for Bæredygtighed og Planlægning

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

7375 Citationer (Scopus)

44636 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Udgivelsesdato: April

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Tidsskrift	Qualitative Inquiry
Vol/bind	12
Udgave nummer	2
Sider (fra-til)	219-245
ISSN	1077-8004
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363
Status	Udgivet - 2006

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10.1177/1077800405284363

BF Qualitative Inquiry 2006 vol 12 no 2 April pp 219-245Forlagets udgivne version, 125 KB

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title = "Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research",

abstract = "This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.",

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AB - This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.

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Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research

Abstract

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