Generalisation from case study

A topic in research methodology

As case study is enquiry into a specific instance, there is no automatic generalisation beyond the case, even in instrumental case studies where one case is studied to stand for the class of cases to which it belongs.

As a case study cannot be generalised in the statistical sense (case study is selected because the individual properties of a case are important, so we cannot assume this case is the same as others!) However, offering thick description supports ‘reader generalisation’ – where as reader is sufficiently informed about the case to make judgements about the extent to which findings should inform action in other cases.

Stake refers to ‘naturalistic’ generalisation:

"It is widely believed that case studies are useful in the study of human affairs because they are down-to-earth and attention-holding but that they are not a suitable basis for generalization. In this paper, I claim that case studies will often be the preferred method of research because they may be epistemologically in harmony with the reader's experience and thus to that person a natural basis for generalization.”

Stake, 1978: 5

"Naturalistic generalizations develop within a person as a product of experience. They derive from the tacit knowledge of how things are, why they are, how people feel about them, and how these things are likely to be later or in other places with which this person is familiar. They seldom take the form of predictions but lead regularly to expectation. They guide action, in fact they are inseparable from action…These generalizations may become verbalized, passing of course from tacit knowledge to propositional; but they have not yet passed the empirical and logical tests that characterize formal (scholarly, scientific) generalizations.”

Stake, 1978: 6

Source cited:

• Stake, R. E. (1978). The Case Study Method in Social Inquiry. Educational Researcher, 7(2), 5-8.