Reviews 291 Stake, Robert E. The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage [PDF]

Citation preview

Reviews



291



Stake, Robert E. The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995. 175 pp. $23.50 (paperback). (ISBN 0-8039-5767-X). Reviewed by ReijD Savolainen, Acting Associate Professor, Department of Information Studies, University of Tampere, Finland, P.O.B. 607, FIN-33101 Finland [email protected]>. The book has its roots in evaluation research, mainly focusing on educational issues. Robert E. Stake is Professor of Education and Director of the Center for Instructional Research and Curriculum Evaluation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 1963, he has been active in program evaluation, having a special interest in “responsive evaluation.” In the development of evaluation tools, qualitative case study approaches have been of major importance. Stake’s book can be seen as a crystallization of the theoretical and methodological insights accumulated from a number of research projects. The book focuses on qualitative case studies drawing on naturalistic, holistic, ethnographic, phenomenological, and biographical methods, whereas quantitative case studies such as snap-shot surveys receive little attention. The author characterizes his book as a student reader, or as a textbook for a short course, a book which may serve the needs of a field activity course or form part of the broader reading for a general methods course (p. xiv). Philosophical and methodological issues of qualitative research are not discussed at length; those intemsted in a closer consideration of these questions are given some useful references, for example, Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Denzin and Lincoln.. This strategy is well-founded because it makes it possible to focus on core issues of field activity. All in all, the book serves simultaneously two related ends. On the one hand, it offers an introduction to qualitative research methods, and on the other hand it familiarizes the reader with the specific features of case study research within the qualitative framework. The book is characterized by clarity and systematicity. In itself the ability to illuminate different aspects of the case study process with authentic examples gives evidence of the author’s vast experience in the field of qualitative research. In the specification of the characteristics of case study, Chapter 1 (The Unique Case) offers a valuable introduction. Stake discusses the nature of the “case” and the criteria of its selection by stressing that, although a case always implies something unique, specific, and bound to a context, a case may also help us to understand what seemingly different phenomena have in common. Stake employs the Greek symbol theta to represent a case as an integrated system, that is, as a whole with its parts and boundaries taken as an object of study at a certain time. The main issues within the case indicating contextually relevant conceptual structures are symbolized by the Greek letter iota. This distinction makes sense, but Stake does not discuss in detail how the concepts of issue, topic, theme, and problem area might be related; he merely states that in comparison “problems are more concrete, issues are more abstract” (p. 17, footnote). According to Stake, a case can be approached from two directions. If one is interested in a particular case in order to understand its characteristics in detail, but with no intention of learning about other cases by means of it, we may speak of intrinsic case study. In this type of case study, the theta is dominant. However, if the case is chosen to arrive at a deeper understanding of certain issues, the inquiry may be



292



Reviews



called instrumental case study, where iota predominates, that is, the study starts and ends with certain issues. The comparison of the findings of several case studies to gain general understanding implies a third type called collective case study (pp. 3-4; 16). The distinctions serve mainly analytical needs even though they may also be useful in the consideration of the generalizability and validity of case study results. As might have been expected, Stake emphasizes that statistical generalization cannot be the primary aim of case studies but rather the opportunity to learn from them. In order to achieve this, the researcher should try to maximize the variance of characteristics being studied. All in all, “the real business of case study is particularization, not generalization” @. 8). Ideally, the researcher tries to reveal the unique complexity of the case. The book consists of ten chapters which largely follow the progress of a qualitative study process. Stake discusses setting of research questions, issues of data gathering, ways of data analysis and interpretation, practices of triangulation and finally, writing the report. The author describes clearly the various stages of the research process. As the title of the book suggests, doing case study research can be seen as an art. In order to develop fully, this art requires much practicing in field work; reading textbooks is only the beginning. This art, a kind of intellectual handicraft, is needed at every stage of the research process which is characterized by progressive focusing. As the investigation unfolds, the problem areas will be progressively redefined and clarified. This may mean that “the best research questions evolve during the study . . . guiding the work during data gathering and the report writing . . . sharpening the meanings of previous studies and illuminating the differential utility of prospective findings” (p. 33). Novice researchers may find the book particularly useful because the author is not satisfied with introducing the general rules of case study research. Stake substantiates the rules with well-chosen (and not merely anecdotal) examples drawn from field studies. The examples are dispersed evenly in various chapters. The book moreover provides a lengthy description of the evaluation of the Chicago School Reform (Chapter 10). Best of all, the author also discusses the concrete dificulties encountered, for example, in gathering data by observing or in the triangulation of the data. Those writing a case study report are also given useful hints. Ideally, “an effective author . . . tells what is needed and leaves the rest to the reader” (p. 121). Here we find one of the basic requirements of the art of case study, that is, the researcher’s ability to concentrateon the essentials, without burying the reader under an avalanche of details. Thus, the art of analysis and reporting requires the ability of making trade-offs between the intention of seeing the wood for the trees and the attempts to give a “thick description.” Quite often, this is not possible without a ruthless winnowing and sitting of the data. In case studies, the role of contextual factors is extremely important. This view is emphasized from the outset: ‘The qualitative researcher emphasizes episodes of nuance, the sequential&y of happenings in context, the wholeness of the individual” (p.xii). The contextual elements are further clarified by stating that “phenomena are intricately related through many coincidental actions . . . understanding them requires looking at a wide sweep of contexts: temporal and spatial, historical, political, economic, cultural, social, and personal” (p. 43). Unfortunately, Stake does not discuss in greater detail the role of these factors, for example, their nature as given or as constructed. It seems that the conception of the “context” is understood as a kind of



Reviews



293



primitive term which defies any attempts at exact definition. However, a closer analysis of the concept of context would have been useful because on several occasions the interpretation of case study data tends to draw on contextual factors as a final instance of meaning. Although the examples employed in the book originate mostly from educational studies, the book can also be utilized without diBiculty in the field of library and information science. For example, studies on information seeking might benefit from the ideas and practical guidelines. They would help investigators to sharpen their focus on the really challengeable issues of qualitative research such as the multiple nature of information use in different contexts. REFERENCE Denzin, N., & Lincoln, Y. (Eds.). (1994). Handbook of qualitativeresearch. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.