Welcome: Focusing on the Case in Quantitative and Qualitative Research Explore this resource
 | Focusing on the Case in Quantitative and Qualitative Research Explore this resource"Focusing on the Case in Quantitative and Qualitative Research" introduces an approach to social science data analysis for both qualitative and quantitative data, where the focus of the analysis is the 'case' and the key analytical tool is comparison. |
Authors
People who originated and developed this resource are based in Durham University and the University of Manchester. The original authors of this resource were David Byrne (PI), Professor of Sociology at the University of Durham and Wendy Olsen, Lecturer in Socio-Economic Research at the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census & Survey Research, University of Manchester. They worked actively on the resource site until 2005. The ReStore team is intouch with the principal investigator concerning further updates and maintenance of this resource.
Original Project
This website introduces an approach to social science data analysis for both qualitative and quantitative data, where the focus of the analysis is the 'case' and the key analytical tool is comparison. The case may be a person, an organisation or a community. The site tackles methodological questions and provides a practical introduction to the use of computer software to assist in comparative analysis. We hope that the site will be useful for research students and researchers who are familiar with basic qualitative and quantitative social science methods and are looking for novel ways of exploring data.
Quick Summary
Focusing on the Case in Quantitative and Qualitative Research, supported by the ESRC Research Methods programme, aims
- To develop the expertise of UK based researchers in the integrated employment of a range of case centred methods including
- Numerical Taxonomy Methods - A set of computer techniques, particularly cluster analysis, which use quantitative multi-variate descriptions of cases to sort the cases into categories
- Qualitative Comparative Analysis - A set of methods in which detailed qualitative investigation of multiple cases forms the basis of systematic quantitative comparison
- Qualitative Statistical Modelling - Using statistics to help us make sense of qualitative data
- Traditional Case Study approaches - Qualitative description of one or more cases in which causality is explored through the use of narrative
- To engage in a dialogical research exercise with researchers about their needs for and understanding of case based approaches in relation to the actual research problems with which they are engaged
Rationale of the Project
One of the major tasks of social science is establishing how things come to be as they are - establishing causal systems in the real world. Although the social world is complex - you can't explain it in terms of single causes with single effects - traditional quantitative approaches based on variable analysis have tended towards such simple explanations.
Sociology has a long tradition of using detailed comparisons across a range of cases. Recently, developments in computer based methods have facilitated an integration of quantitative and qualitative approaches in a way which focuses upon the cases and allows us to address the complexity of social causes.
This project combined training in the use of such approaches with an exploration of the way in which social researchers have thought about these issues in the past and can develop new strategies in the future based on case centred methods.
Date of Restoration
This project has been restored into ReStore repository on 25/11/2009.