A case study is a detailed description and analysis of a specific person, site, or project. There are two main reasons to use the case study method:

1.     Gain an in-depth, nuanced understanding of that particular case

2.     Better understand the general idea that the case is an example of

An advantage of the case study method is that it allows intense study of specific details, but a disadvantage is that it may be hard to generalize those findings to other cases.

See also: generalizability

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