- if you wish to take a grounded theory or an ethnographic approach to the case study you are recommended to consult the respective section below. Each of these approaches has particular concerns which you should bear in mind and which take precedence over the fact that your study concerns a particular case. Neither of them is likely to devalue the importance of context central to case study.
This section focuses on case studies which are neither exclusively ethnographic nor grounded theory studies. Box 14.5 provides a varied set of such studies where the account gives details of the approach to analysis. Note that NUD*IST has specific tools for dealing with cases.
The Miles and Huberman approach.
Miles and Huberman (1994) provide an invaluable general framework for conceptualizing qualitative data analysis. It is particularly useful in case studies, but can be used more widely. The intention here is to provide sufficient detail for you to appreciate their approach and terminology so that you can see whether it is likely to be appropriate for your purposes. If that seems to be the case, you are strongly advised to refer directly to their text for the analysis. Don't be put off by its size; it should be used selectively as a sourcebook.
-philosophically, their position is firmly entrenched in realism, hence permitting a consistency of the realist view through from design (as discussed in chapter 6 ) to analysis. Their approach can across as heavily structured. It forms a safe haven for quantitatively oriented researchers who accept the necessity of 'going analitative' but are concerned that they will have to leave their scientific principles behind if they do so.
Those from qualitative traditions, while accepting that in the current research climate their procedures may need greater codification, can find the Miles and Huberman language unsympathetic and aversive. You are urged nevertheless to give them a fair trial; many of the things they suggest can translate into practices with which you are already familiar. However, the approach is not for everyone, and it may be that there are procedures within the grounded theory and ethnographic sections which you find more congenial.