Includes bibliographical references (p. [217]-224 and index.

Machine generated contents note: pt. 1 Getting your bearings -- 1.What is a case study? -- Is the case study scientific? -- Some definitions -- What is a case? -- What is and is not a case? -- What is the case study good and not good for? -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- Further reading -- 2.Case study and research design -- Doing the right kind of research -- What is design? -- First things first: your purpose -- Next, your question -- How to go from idea to question to case study -- Questions and different approaches to research -- Design frames and methods -- Using storyboards to help you design your case study -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- Further reading -- 3.Models of the whole -- Why am I reading this chapter? -- Break things down or see them as wholes? -- Gestalt psychology -- Dramas, theatres and stages -- Ecological psychology -- Systems thinking -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- Further reading -- 4.Ensuring quality in your case study: what's important? -- Is the s̀ample' important? -- Do I have to worry about reliability and validity in a case study? -- Quality -- Ethics -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- Further reading -- pt. 2 Getting down to doing it -- 5.Kinds of case studies: finding your case -- How do you find your case? -- Same starting points, different paths - there's no right way -- Kinds of case studies -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- Further reading -- 6.Your purpose -- Intrinsic -- Instrumental -- Evaluative -- Explanatory -- Exploratory -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- Further reading -- 7.Your approach -- Building a theory -- Testing a theory -- Drawing a picture - illustrative-demonstrative -- Interpretative -- Experimental -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- Further reading -- 8.Your process -- The single case -- The multiple or collective or comparative case (or cross-case analysis) -- Retrospective -- The snapshot -- Diachronic studies -- Nested case studies -- Parallel and sequential studies -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- Further reading -- pt. 3 Getting on with it and finishing -- 9.Out in the field: some ways to collect data and evidence -- Interviews -- Accounts -- Diaries -- Group interviews and focus groups -- Interrogating documents -- Questionnaires -- Observation -- Image-based methods -- Measurements and tests -- Official statistics and other numerical data -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- Further reading -- 10.A toolkit for analysing and thinking -- Constant comparative method: eliciting themes -- Systems thinking -- Drawing storyboards - the nuts and bolts -- Developing your theory -- Using narrative -- Think drama -- Being intuitive and imaginative -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- Further reading -- 11.Writing your study -- Structure -- Writing up your case study -- Some rules for writers -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- Further reading -- 12.The fancy stuff: generalisation, induction, abduction, phronesis and theory -- What can the case study tell us? -- Generalisation - is the case study really all that bad? -- Finding or regularising -- If you take only one thing from this chapter, take this ... -- ... and this - a final final thought -- Further reading -- Other reading.