Essex Summer School in
Social Science Data Analysis

Sebastian Dellepiane Avellaneda

Sebastian Dellepiane Avellaneda is a Scholar in the Residence in the Institute of Development Policy and Management at the University of Antwerp, where he teaches research design and comparative methods. His research interests include governance and development, the politics of institutional change, economic crises and fiscal consolidation, macro models of party competition, and the role of case studies in comparative research.

3I Case Study Methods

Sebastian Dellepiane Avellaneda, University of Antwerp
6 - 17 August (two week course / 35 hrs)

Detailed Course Outline [PDF]

THIS COURSE IS NOW FULLY BOOKED AND WE ARE OPERATING A WAITING LIST

Course Content

Case studies continue to constitute a large proportion of work generated in the social sciences. Similarly, case study research is increasingly used as a tool for policy analysis. However, the logic and the comparative merits of this approach are often unappreciated. This course stresses the role of case studies in social science methodology and provides an overview of the principles and practices of case-study analysis.

Course Objectives

The course consists of ten sessions, each composed of lectures, seminar discussions and group based workshops. We will begin by discussing what a case study is and what it is good for. We will then look at research design, confronting the practical problems of crafting theory-driven and policy-relevant case studies. In the following sessions, we will address the critical issue of case selection and evaluate techniques for choosing cases. After that, we will deal with methods of data collection, including tools for combining qualitative and quantitative sources (e.g. triangulation). The reminder of the course will be dedicated to reviewing approaches for establishing causality (e.g. process tracing, social experiments, counterfactuals) and maximising the leverage of small-n comparisons (e.g. increasing observations, analytic narratives, nested analysis, mixing methods). During this course, students will engage with state-of-the-art applications of case studies drawn from a variety of disciplines and discuss the potential contributions of case study methods to their own research projects.

Course Prerequisites

This course assumes a familiarity with a social science discipline and some basic knowledge of qualitative research methods.

Representative Background Reading

Landman, T. 2008. Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics, 3rd Edition, Routledge.

Brady et al. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology. OUP.

Brady and Collier. Eds. 2004. Rethinking Social Inquiry. Rowman & Littlefield.

Geddes. 2003. Paradigms and Sand Castles. University of Michigan Press.

Yin. 2003. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Sage.

Yin. Ed. 2004. The Case Study Anthology. Sage.

Sprinz and Wolinsky-Nahmias. Eds. 2004. Models, Numbers & Cases. University of Michigan Press.

Essential Reading

Gerring, J. 2007. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices. Cambridge University Press.

George, A. and Bennett, A. 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. MIT Press.

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