Book Chapters

Byrne, D. (2009). Case-based methods: why we need them; what they are; how to do them. In D. Byrne & C. Ragin (Eds.), Handbook of case-based methods (pp. 1–10). London: Sage.

The title says it all. David Byrne argues, as I do in this book, for the centrality of a case-based approach for practising and understanding social science. Chapters that follow this introduction in the book take the notion of cases and casing in social science well beyond the simplicity of the single case study.

Guest, G., Namey, E. & Mitchell, M. (2013). Qualitative research: defining and designing. In Guest, G., Namey, E., & Mitchell, M. Collecting qualitative data: A field manual for applied research (pp. 1–40). London: Sage (SRM doi: 10.4135/9781506374680).

Guest et al (2013) review several definitions of qualitative research and offer their own application-focused definition before briefly reviewing key characteristics and classic methodologies used in qualitative research. They then outline critical decision points in designing qualitative research, and conclude with a summary table setting out design steps and methods options.