With its unique modelling and mapping of social processes, investigative research offers an alternative approach to social research. This book guides you through the theoretical grounding and rules you need to effectively combine the evidence-based explanations of social behaviour and distinctive strategies of data collection associated with investigative research. It helps you answer key investigative questions like: • How are models and maps of social reality crucial to the formulation of research problems and questions? • What are the main phases, challenges, and theories of investigative research? • How does investigative research compare with other research approaches, like surveys, case studies, grounded theory, and mixed methods? • How can you control the quality and validity of your investigative research? With its clear focus on investigative research exploration, description, and explanation, this book gives you the solid building blocks needed to manage and integrate the theoretical and practical issues in your work.

Case Studies and Mixed Methods

Case Studies and Mixed Methods

In this chapter I again draw on, and refer to, the research dimensions outlined at the beginning of Chapter 2. I first examine case study research, but I do not take a wide-angled perspective on it – this is not an attempt to summarize the topic as a whole. Rather, I focus on Yin’s (2009) influential version of case study research, which, while possessing all its essential characteristics, also contains individual emphases and elements that are of especial interest for IR. The chapter then turns to ‘mixed-methods’ approaches and draws upon a wider array of authors. However, with both case studies and mixed methods, the discussions are specifically tailored to explore how IR is positioned in relation to ...

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