Case, Case Study, and Causation: Core Concepts and Fundamentals

Abstract

Case studies are performed in a wide array of disciplines such as political science, sociology, history, and, to a lesser degree, economics. The philosophical foundations of the case study method vary across disciplines as well as within each discipline (Jackson 2010). The general notion of small-n research does not preclude any philosophical grounding, making it particularly necessary to clarify the foundations on which my discussion of the case study method rests. The chapter therefore is not about the philosophical foundations of the case study method but more narrowly about case studies interested in inferences about empirical regularities.¹