Using case studies in the social sciences: methods, inferences, purposes

Abstract

Despite fads and fashions in the academic culture, case-based reasoning has proved to be a persistent form of analysis in the social sciences, in the humanities, and even in moral thinking. Broadly understood, case-based reasoning locates the ultimate source of our epistemic and moral intuitions in the concreteness and idiosyncrasy of particulars. Even though they can be traced back to a common root, different traditions of reasoning with cases and of using case studies coexist in the academic landscape. This thesis focuses primarily on the use of case studies in the social sciences as an epistemic strategy to formulate, establish, and generalize causal hypotheses. A secondary goal is an investigation into the use of causal findings generated within and by means of case studies to inform policy making in the social realm.