Earlier in the month, the health informaticist drew attention [1] to a post by marketeer Mark Earls on the dangers of reliance on case studies to make a point [2].
Earls argues that “case studies are bad at establishing truth” because:
1. Case study thinking excludes failures, the grey mush of moderate success or indifferent performance …
2. Case studies make it seem as if the success was inevitable …
3. Case studies force things into an oversimplified narrative arc …
Personally, I’m not convinced by either of the first two points – or at least I’d see them as subsets of point three – in describing a single case study, it is easy to include in our narrative only the highlights (corresponding to Earls’ first point, perhaps) and misattributions of success to one or more factors we wish to highlight without discussing the wider circumstances (Earls’ point 2?).
And, as Lovell points out in his brief post, point three can be either a positive or a negative, depending on circumstance:
for more info examples of case study limitations
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFsijeZ_4jw&w=420&h=315]
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