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The attention given to case study in the social research methods literature varies widely. Some texts ignore or barely mention it – clearly not considering it to be a major research method or design – while others give it considerable space. Thus, May (2001) devotes only a page and a half to case study research, at the end of a chapter on participant observation, with which he links and compares it. Blaxter, Hughes and Tight (2006) give it just over three pages, presenting it as a research approach, alongside action research, experiments and surveys.

Those who discuss case study at greater length tend to present it in rather different lights. Punch (2005), for example, discusses case study as an approach to qualitative research design, allocating it seven pages, alongside ethnography, grounded theory and action research. He answers his own question ‘what is a case study?’ as follows:

The basic idea is that one case (or perhaps a small number of cases) will be studied in detail, using whatever methods seem appropriate. While there may be a variety of specific purposes and research questions, the general objective is to develop as full an understanding of that case as possible. (p. 144)

He acknowledges that case study ‘is more a strategy than a method’ (p. 144), and accepts that:

almost anything can serve as a case, and the case may be simple or complex. But… we can define a case as a phenomenon of some sort occurring in a bounded context. Thus, the case may be an individual, or a role, or a small group, or an organization, or a community, or a nation. It could also be a decision, or a policy, or a process, or an incident or event of some sort, and there are other possibilities as well. (p. 144)

Burns (2000) takes a similar approach to Punch, treating case studies as a qualitative method, alongside ethnographic research, unstructured interviewing, action research and historical research. Like each of them, case studies are granted a whole chapter, amounting to 22 pages. He makes a number of revealing observations:

The case study has been unfortunately used as a ‘catch-all’ category for anything that does not fit into experimental, survey or historical methods. The term has also been used loosely as a synonym for ethnography, participant observation, naturalistic inquiry and fieldwork… The case study is rather a portmanteau term, but typically involves the observation of an individual unit, e.g. a student, a delinquent clique, a family group, a class, a school, a community, and event, or even an entire culture. (p. 459)

Bryman (2004) treats case study as a research design, but, unlike Punch and Burns, does not see it as being exclusively qualitative in nature. In his presentation, case study is contrasted with experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal and comparative designs. Bryman notes that:

The most common use of the term associates the case study with a location, such as a community or organization. The emphasis tends to be upon an intensive examination of the setting. There is a tendency to associate case studies with qualitative research, but such an identification is not appropriate… case studies are frequently sites for the employment of both quantitative and qualitative research. (p. 49, emphasis in original)

Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007) take another approach, seeing case study as a style of (educational) research, together with ethnographic, historical, action, experimental, internet-based and survey styles. They assert that case studies:

 will have temporal characteristics which help to define their nature

 have geographical parameters allowing for their definition

 will have boundaries which allow for definition

 may be defined by an individual in a particular context, at a point in time

 may be defined by the characteristics of the group

 may be defined by role or function

 may be shaped by organizational or institutional arrangements. (p. 254)

This set of characteristics seems both broad-ranging and rather repetitive.

Of course, there are many other social research methods texts which we might also examine, but this small sample already illustrates the range of alternative perspectives that are taken towards case study. Judging by these texts – summarised in Box 3.1 – we could view case study as a method, approach, style, strategy or design. And, whichever (and however many) of these it might be, it can be conceived in relation to a wide, but differing, range of other social research methods, approaches, styles, strategies or designs. These could include action research, comparative studies, cross-sectional studies, ethnography, experiments, grounded theory, historical studies, internet-based studies, interviews, longitudinal studies and surveys (these relations are considered further in the next section).