STV9023 ¨C Case Study Research Methods

Course content

The central goal of the course is to enable students to create and critique methodologically sophisticated case study research designs in the social sciences. To do so, the course will explore the techniques, uses, strengths, and limitations of case study methods, while emphasizing the relationships among these methods, alternative methods, and contemporary debates in the philosophy of science. The research examples used to illustrate methodological issues will be drawn primarily from international relations and comparative politics. The methodological content of the course is also applicable, however, to the study of history, sociology, education, business, economics, and other social and behavioral sciences.

The course will begin with a focus on the philosophy of science, theory construction, theory testing, causality, and causal inference. With this epistemological grounding, the course will then explore the core issues in case study research design, including methods of structured and focused comparisons of cases, typological theory, case selection, process tracing, and the use of counterfactual analysis. Next, the course will look at the epistemological assumptions, comparative strengths and weaknesses, and proper domain of case study methods and alternative methods, particularly statistical methods and formal modeling, and address ways of combining these methods in a single research project. The course then examines field research techniques, including archival research and interviews.

Learning outcome

The students will acquire:

• Knowledge of the main current case study methods in social science, including their critiques and justifications.
• An ability to apply different designs for single and comparative case studies in their own research.
• An understanding of how case studies may be combined with other methods, such as statistics and/or formal modeling.

Admission to the course

The course is open for PhD students in social anthropology, philosophy, political science, sociology, law and other related disciplines.

There is no participation fee.

PhD candidates at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Oslo: apply for the course in Studentweb

Other PhD candidates: Application form

All candidates accepted for admission will be registered as guest students at the University of Oslo.

Application deadline: 1 March 2025

Applicants will be notified about the outcome of their application as quickly as possible after the application deadline.

Teaching

The teaching will involve a combination of lectures and seminar discussions and will take place over 5 days at the University of Oslo. The students will also give presentations, which will provide the basis for group discussions.?

Obligatory activities:

• Read the assigned literature in advance
• Participate actively in discussions during the course
• Give a presentation during the course

Course holder: Andrew Bennett

Examination

Submit an essay based on the presentation. The essay must be between 3000-4000 words.

The submission will be done in Canvas

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• How to use AI as a student
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.