Case Study Research in the Social Sciences

Case study research is one of the most important research approaches in the social sciences. However, it has received very little attention from philosophers of science. The proposed symposium aims to initiate a philosophical debate about case study research by focusing on three salient philosophical themes in the social scientific debates about case study research. The papers by Julie Zahle and Sharon Crasnow will address the issue of evidence integration in case study research, the paper by Rosa Runhardt will discuss the justification of explanatory claims, and the papers by Attilia Ruzzene and Petri Ylikoski will focus on the problem of generalization from case studies. Together these five papers aim to demonstrate that case study research is philosophical interesting and that the reflection on case study research has implications also for philosophical methodology.