Case Studies in Developing
Countries
20.11.2013
Introduction
The case study has been especially used in
social science research, such as, human
geography, psychology, anthropology and
ecology.
• Spatial unit as the case is more prominent in
geography studies: Eg. Village, community
What is a Case study
Basically, a case study is an in depth
study of a particular situation rather
than a sweeping statistical survey.
Normally case studies take a qualitative
Style
Because of this one who conduct case
studies in developing countries should
be familiar to culture of the people
It is a challenging task
Case study research is neither a
quick nor a soft option. It
requires considerable skill on the
part of the researcher, who
needs to be adept at identifying
and analyzing data from a
number of different sources
Case Studies as a Strategy
• It is a strategy used to narrow down a very broad
field of research into one easily researchable topic.
•The case study research design is adopted for
testing whether scientific theories and models
actually work in the real world.
• It gives some indications and allow further
elaboration and hypothesis creation on a subject
Case Study Types
Yin (2003) identifies three types of case studies:
• Exploratory the case study: is used to define questions
and hypotheses – or to test out a research procedure – for
a further piece of research, such as a large-scale survey.
• Descriptive the case study: is used to describe a
particular phenomenon within its context. It can be used
to expand on a particular theme unearthed by a survey.
• Explanatory the case study: explores cause-effect
relationships, and/or how events happen.
Case Study as a Method
• Secondary data (documents, photographs,
official records)
• Observation (variants from fully participant to
semi participant)
• Interviews (informal, semi-structured)
Triangulation is a must
Triangulation
Documents
Valid Data
Observations
Case Study Rational
Extreme case
Model case
Representative case
Longitudinal case
Extreme Case
Monaragala district-
Poorest district in Sri
Lanka
Model Case for Good
Community Project
Grameen Bank in Bangladesh
Case Study Research Design
The first foundation of the case study is the
subject and relevance. In a case study, you are
deliberately trying to isolate a small study group,
one individual case or one particular population.
Start with the research questions
Define spatial or temporal boundaries of the case
( individual, a country, economy, community, an
industry, policy, social group or organization)
Advantages of Case Study Method
1. Case studies are "real" – they offer a chance to get a
snapshot of real life: a rich and thick picture. As such,
they are most appropriate for dealing with a subject that
is context dependent, complex, unusual, or where there
is some ambiguity.
2. In direct contrast to positivist approaches, which
seek to generalize, the case study offers
particularity: i.e. the opportunity for a holistic
approach without the distraction of too many
variables (Gummesson, 2007).
Advantages of Case Study Method
3. Single case study can incorporate surveys,
interviews, direct observation, and archival research.
This offers the possibility of several different layers of
analysis which can reveal several different
perspectives, with the added benefit of triangulation
of the results.
4. It can also be a useful method when the unit of
analysis, or the subject under consideration, is a
collective entity such as an organization or a
community.
Limitation of Case Studies
A case study cannot be generalized
to fit a whole population or
ecosystem. It is considered as unique
