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Explanation Building
In case study research, an explanation—a good, successful, satisfactory, adequate, or acceptable explanation—is intended to act as an answer to a specific research question. What counts as an explanation depends on the interest of the researcher. Contrastive explanation is particularly valuable in case study. It shows why one thing rather than another (which might have been expected) occurred, or why one explanation of a given event is more acceptable than an alternative. One explanation of why a sports team does well over a season might be that it possesses better players than other teams; an alternative might be that the coach is so effective that he or she can get mediocre players to perform consistently at their best. Analysis of successful teams might lead to the conclusion that one explanation was comparatively better than the other.
Conceptual Overview and Discussion
The following examines the major considerations in building an explanation by addressing these questions: What is the relationship between explanation and understanding? In what sense is explanation objective? How do the questions asked influence the explanation? What is the nature of causality? How does a contrastive explanation provide benefit to a case study?
Explanation, Understanding, and Objectivity
To explain something means to contribute to fostering an understanding of it. Someone who can provide an explanation of something demonstrates that he or she understands it, but creating an explanation will also contribute to others' understanding.
Ludwig Wittgenstein's discussion of word games suggests that a major part of understanding something is that a person can accommodate it in his or her worldview, that complex of knowledge, beliefs, and values that is an individual's internal representation of what the world is. We avoid the apparent subjectivity of our individual worldviews because we have ideas in common with other people. Ideas shared with others possess objectivity. Thus we can share understanding through explanations that are related to commonly held ideas about the world. When such commonly held ideas are used explanatorily, they escape from subjectivity.
The Research Question
Posing a specific research question is fundamental to explanation building. An explanation does not exist in and of itself; it explains something. The formulation of the question identifies the interest of the researchers, the aspects of the case they are concerned with, and the direction of the research. It also suggests what would provide a satisfactory explanation.
A research question often concerns an event that occurred and that is not understood. Lack of understanding suggests that some other outcome was expected, so the question often implies an unstated “rather than something else.” For example, Why did the Soviet Union place strategic offensive missiles in Cuba (rather than directly negotiate with the United States for the removal of American missiles in Turkey)?
Causality
The question “why A?” or “how did situation A become situation B?” may invite a causal response. A scientific understanding of causality is “mechanical”: effect irrevocably follows cause. When we explain, for example, how lightning kills people, the outcome is a causal chain that is an inevitable result of the laws of physics. Such a deductive–nomological explanation is usually not feasible in human affairs because human actions are initiated by ideas and result from free will. As a result, the main mode of reasoning in explanatory case study is inferential and inductive rather than deductive, and causation is construed more broadly. We identify actions or ideas that have a strong causal influence on subsequent events as causes.
It makes sense to us to say that Hitler caused the Holocaust. In explaining how he did so, we would include the key Wannsee Conference in which the practical details of how to kill 11 million people were ironed out in what became an agenda for action. But this would not have occurred if Hitler had not become chancellor of Germany in 1933 and subsequently influenced others to accept his views and so create a society in which Jews were dehumanized and the unthinkable became unexceptional.
Contrastive Explanation
The contrastive explanation takes two forms. It may show that one explanation of a given situation is preferable to some other explanation. Alternatively, it may show why one state of affairs obtains rather than some other state of affairs.
As noted above, research questions often contain an implicit “rather than” clause. Because an anticipated or expected occurrence did not materialize, it is hypothetical or counterfactual. The explanation of what did occur is contrasted with the explanation of what might reasonably have been expected to occur.
Contrastive explanations are important because they can enable us to identify how the factors that influence the actual outcome differ from the factors that would result in some other outcome. John Stuart Mill's method of difference may be exploited when we identify that two different circumstances are the results of similar chains of causal influences and we infer that the difference in outcomes is largely due to the differences in the causal chains. Thus we recognize which factors had a particular influence on the outcome.
Not all explanations can be contrasted; they may be incommensurable. In such cases, if one explanation is to be preferred, its selection may depend on nonexplanatory factors such as the interest of the researcher. If alternative explanations are not commensurable, the acceptance of one may not require the rejection of the other.
Application
Ted K. Bradshaw's study of a military base closure provides a straightforward example of a contrastive explanation. Received wisdom was that the closure of a base would have major effects on the local economy. Lost jobs, falling house prices, and less money spent in local businesses are expected. This did not happen when Castle Air Force Base closed. The cleanup of the base itself created new jobs; jobs that had been held by family members of military personnel became available; retail sales grew (albeit more slowly than otherwise expected).
Received wisdom provided an explanation of what was expected, and suggested what data might be collected to support it. Because the data collected did not support received wisdom, the latter clearly provided an inadequate explanation. Bradshaw had to create an alternative contrastive explanation to show why the expected disbenefits did not occur.
Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow introduce their explanation of the Cuban missile crisis by identifying three models that were considered as the basis for an explanation of the crisis.
The rational actor model is a game-theoretical analysis that holds that the crisis was a game of chicken between Kennedy and Khrushchev in which one player's move is entirely determined by the other player's previous move(s). The organizational behavior model is that there are a number of semiautonomous groups within (and without) government, each with its own distinct interest in the situation, and that these groups produce decisions that are channeled upward and in turn influence presidential decisions. According to the government politics model, any government decision is a result of political bargaining between factions with different degrees of power, and in which interests are traded and favors given and called in. Each one of these models represents a particular academic discipline (game theory, organizational behavior, and political science) and shows how the interest relativity of the researcher(s) will favor a particular explanatory model.
In this well-known case, the authors demonstrate that any one explanation is not conclusively superior or preferable to others, and that they all inform aspects of the crisis. A more complete explanation than is provided by any one model is given by an aggregation of the three models, despite the interests of researchers (game theorists, organizational behaviorists, or political scientists) to provide complete explanations from their own fields. It is also possible that another explanation entirely, such as one focusing completely on the psychology of Kennedy and Khrushchev, may be more comprehensive.
Critical Summary
Explanation building is concerned with finding a robust explanation of why a particular state of affairs exists, often contrary to expectations. The expectations may be based on a theory/model or on observed previous similarities. This contrastive explanation requires the researcher to describe a hypothetical explanation and to show how actual causal influences differed from those projected by the model. A study that attempts to contrast explanations will not necessarily find that one explanation is preferable to another, but the contrasting explanation provides a methodology for case study research that will likely lead to the determination of an acceptable explanation.
Further Readings
- Case Study Research in Anthropology
- Before-and-After Case Study Design
- Agency
- Abduction
- Action-Based Data Collection
- Activity Theory
- Case Study and Theoretical Science
- Analytic Generalization
- ANTi-History
- Case Study Research in Business and Management
- Blended Research Design
- Alienation
- Bayesian Inference and Boolean Logic
- Analysis of Visual Data
- Actor-Network Theory
- Chicago School
- Audience
- Case Study as a Teaching Tool
- Case Study Research in Business Ethics
- Bounding the Case
- Authenticity and Bad Faith
- Bricoleur
- Anonymity and Confidentiality
- ANTi-History
- Colonialism
- Authenticity
- Case Study in Creativity Research
- Case Study Research in Education
- Case Selection
- Author Intentionality
- Case-to-Case Synthesis
- Anonymizing Data for Secondary Use
- Autoethnography
- Constructivism
- Concatenated Theory
- Case Study Research in Tourism
- Case Study Research in Feminism
- Case-to-Case Synthesis
- Case Study and Theoretical Science
- Causal Case Study: Explanatory Theories
- Archival Records as Evidence
- Base and Superstructure
- Critical Realism
- Conceptual Argument
- Case Study With the Elderly
- Case Study Research in Medicine
- Case Within a Case
- Contentious Issues in Case Study Research
- Chronological Order
- Audiovisual Recording
- Case Study as a Methodological Approach
- Critical Theory
- Conceptual Model: Causal Model
- Collective Case Study
- Case Study Research in Political Science
- Comparative Case Study
- Cultural Sensitivity and Case Study
- Coding: Axial Coding
- Autobiography
- Character
- Dialectical Materialism
- Conceptual Model: Operationalization
- Configurative-Ideographic Case Study
- Case Study Research in Psychology
- Critical Incident Case Study
- Dissertation Proposal
- Coding: Open Coding
- Case Study Database
- Class Analysis
- Epistemology
- Conceptual Model in a Qualitative Research Project
- Critical Pedagogy and Digital Technology
- Case Study Research in Public Policy
- Cross-Sectional Design
- Ecological Perspectives
- Coding: Selective Coding
- Case Study Protocol
- Closure
- Existentialism
- Conceptual Model in a Quantitative Research Project
- Diagnostic Case Study Research
- Decision Making Under Uncertainty
- Ideology
- Cognitive Biases
- Case Study Surveys
- Codifying Social Practices
- Families
- Contribution, Theoretical
- Explanatory Case Study
- Case Study Research in Tourism
- Deductive-Nomological Model of Explanation
- Masculinity and Femininity
- Cognitive Mapping
- Consent, Obtaining Participant
- Communicative Action
- Formative Context
- Credibility
- Exploratory Case Study
- Case Study With the Elderly
- Deviant Case Analysis
- Objectivism
- Communicative Framing Analysis
- Contextualization
- Community of Practice
- Frame Analysis
- Docile Bodies
- Inductivism
- Ecological Perspectives
- Discursive Frame
- Othering
- Complexity
- Critical Pedagogy and Digital Technology
- Comparing the Case Study With Other Methodologies
- Historical Materialism
- Equifinality
- Institutional Ethnography
- Healthcare Practice Guidelines
- Dissertation Proposal
- Patriarchy
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: ATLAS.ti
- Cultural Sensitivity and Case Study
- Consciousness Raising
- Interpretivism
- Experience
- Instrumental Case Study
- Pedagogy and Case Study
- Ethics
- Pluralism and Case Study
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: CAITA (Computer-Assisted Interpretive Textual Analysis)
- Data Resources
- Contradiction
- Liberal Feminism
- Explanation Building
- Intercultural Performance
- Event-Driven Research
- Power
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: Kwalitan
- Depth of Data
- Critical Discourse Analysis
- Managerialism
- Extension of Theory
- Intrinsic Case Study
- Exemplary Case Design
- Power/Knowledge
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: MAXQDA 2007
- Diaries and Journals
- Critical Sensemaking
- Modernity
- Falsification
- Limited-Depth Case Study
- Extended Case Method
- Pragmatism
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: NVIVO
- Direct Observation as Evidence
- Dasein
- North American Case Research Association
- Functionalism
- Multimedia Case Studies
- Extreme Cases
- Researcher as Research Tool
- Concept Mapping
- Discourse Analysis
- Decentering Texts
- Ontology
- Generalizability
- Participatory Action Research
- Healthcare Practice Guidelines
- Terroir
- Congruence Analysis
- Documentation as Evidence
- Deconstruction
- Paradigm Plurality in Case Study Research
- Genericization
- Participatory Case Study
- Holistic Designs
- Utilitarianism
- Constant Causal Effects Assumption
- Ethnostatistics
- Dialogic Inquiry
- Philosophy of Science
- Indeterminacy
- Pluralism and Case Study
- Hypothesis
- Verstehen
- Content Analysis
- Fiction Analysis
- Discourse Ethics
- Pluralism and Case Study
- Indexicality
- Pracademics
- Integrating Independent Case Studies
- Conversation Analysis
- Field Notes
- Double Hermeneutic
- Postcolonialism
- Instrumental Case Study
- Processual Case Research
- Juncture
- Cross-Case Synthesis and Analysis
- Field Work
- Dramaturgy
- Postmodernism
- Macrolevel Social Mechanisms
- Program Evaluation and Case Study
- Longitudinal Research
- Decision Making Under Uncertainty
- Going Native
- Ethnographic Memoir
- Postpositivism
- Middle-Range Theory
- Program-Logic Model
- Mental Framework
- Document Analysis
- Informant Bias
- Ethnography
- Poststructuralism
- Naturalistic Generalization
- Prospective Case Study
- Mixed Methods in Case Study Research
- Factor Analysis
- Institutional Ethnography
- Ethnomethodology
- Poststructuralist Feminism
- Overdetermination
- Real-Time Cases
- Most Different Systems Design
- Fiction Analysis
- Interviews
- Eurocentrism
- Radical Empiricism
- Plausibility
- Retrospective Case Study
- Multimedia Case Studies
- High-Quality Analysis
- Iterative Nodes
- Families
- Radical Feminism
- Probabilistic Explanation
- Re-Use of Qualitative Data
- Multiple-Case Designs
- Inductivism
- Language and Cultural Barriers
- Formative Context
- Reality
- Process Tracing
- Single-Case Designs
- Multi-Site Case Study
- Interactive Methodology, Feminist
- Multiple Sources of Evidence
- Frame Analysis
- Scientific Method
- Program Evaluation and Case Study
- Spiral Case Study
- Naturalistic Inquiry
- Interpreting Results
- Narrative Analysis
- Front Stage and Back Stage
- Scientific Realism
- Reporting Case Study Research
- Storyselling
- Natural Science Model
- Iterative
- Narratives
- Gendering
- Socialist Feminism
- Rhetoric in Research Reporting
- Number of Cases
- Iterative Nodes
- Naturalistic Context
- Genealogy
- Symbolic Interactionism
- Statistical Generalization
- Outcome-Driven Research
- Knowledge Production
- Nonparticipant Observation
- Governmentality
- Substantive Theory
- Paradigmatic Cases
- Method of Agreement
- Objectivity
- Grounded Theory
- Theory-Building With Cases
- Paradigm Plurality in Case Study Research
- Method of Difference
- Over-Rapport
- Hermeneutics
- Theory-Testing With Cases
- Participatory Action Research
- Multicollinearity
- Participant Observation
- Hybridity
- Underdetermination
- Participatory Case Study
- Multidimensional Scaling
- Participatory Action Research
- Imperialism
- Polar Types
- Over-Rapport
- Participatory Case Study
- Institutional Theory, Old and New
- Problem Formulation
- Pattern Matching
- Personality Tests
- Intertextuality
- Quantitative Single-Case Research Design
- Re-Analysis of Previous Data
- Problem Formulation
- Isomorphism
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Regulating Group Mind
- Questionnaires
- Langue and Parôle
- Quick Start to Case Study Research
- Relational Analysis
- Reflexivity
- Layered Nature of Texts
- Random Assignment
- Replication
- Regulating Group Mind
- Life History
- Research Framework
- Re-Use of Qualitative Data
- Reliability
- Logocentrism
- Research Objectives
- Rival Explanations
- Repeated Observations
- Management of Impressions
- Research Proposals
- Secondary Data as Primary
- Researcher-Participant Relationship
- Means of Production
- Research Questions, Types of Retrospective Case Study
- Serendipity Pattern
- Re-Use of Qualitative Data
- Metaphor
- Rhetoric in Research Reporting
- Situational Analysis
- Sensitizing Concepts
- Modes of Production
- Sampling
- Standpoint Analysis
- Subjectivism
- Multimethod Research Program
- Socially Distributed Knowledge
- Statistical Analysis
- Subject Rights
- Multiple Selfing
- Spiral Case Study
- Storyselling
- Theoretical Saturation
- Native Points of View
- Statistics, Use of in Case Study
- Temporal Bracketing
- Triangulation
- Negotiated Order
- Storyselling
- Textual Analysis
- Use of Digital Data
- Network Analysis
- Temporal Bracketing
- Thematic Analysis
- Utilization
- One-Dimensional Culture
- Thematic Analysis
- Use of Digital Data
- Visual Research Methods
- Ordinary Troubles
- Theory, Role of
- Utilization
- Organizational Culture
- Theory-Testing With Cases
- Webs of Significance
- Paradigm Plurality in Case Study Research
- Utilization
- Within-Case Analysis
- Performativity
- Validity
- Phenomenology
- Practice-Oriented Research
- Praxis
- Primitivism
- Qualitative Analysis in Case Study
- Qualitative Comparative Analysis
- Quantitative Single-Case Research Design
- Quick Start to Case Study Research
- Self-Confrontation Method
- Self-Presentation
- Sensemaking
- Sexuality
- Signifier and Signified
- Sign System
- Simulacrum
- Social-Interaction Theory
- Storytelling
- Structuration
- Symbolic Value
- Symbolic Violence
- Thick Description
- Writing and Difference
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