Case Studies

What Is Case Study? Definition and Characteristics

While the nature of case study is elusive and resists strict definition, its essence lies in the term case. The word case comes from the Latin casus, meaning an occasion or opportunity. In the fields of sociology and anthropology, a “case” is generally regarded as something bound in unity by time and/or place. A case is a unique phenomenon of interest: a person, situation, community, event, locale, neighborhood, network, organization, culture, and so forth. A researcher may investigate one person in order to, say, study the trajectory of music therapy. Similarly, a neuropsychologist may study the pattern of impairment of music perception in an individual who has suffered a stroke in their right hemisphere. Or, a researcher may investigate the nature and aims of El Sistema in Argentina. In this regard, the case under consideration may involve an actor or multiple actors, but the “case” is still bound as a unit.

Whether a case exists objectively or is subjectively interpreted is a matter of debate among experts, and where one aligns in terms of this debate depends upon one's epistemological foundation. Case study investigations are applicable and carried out in a variety of settings—medicine, education, business, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the arts. Case study methodology is most appropriate and valuable when the researcher seeks to understand a contemporary phenomenon in its real-life context. The researcher uses and draws from multiple forms of data collection and analysis tools.

Purpose and Rationale of Case Study

As with any research methodology, both the problem to be investigated and the specific purpose of an investigation drive the organization, data collection tools, and duration of the study. The research question anchors, directs, centers, and delimits a case study. Typically, a case study attempts to answer what, how, and why questions. “What” questions warrant exploratory/descriptive case studies (e.g., what is X?). “How” and/or “why” questions warrant explanatory case studies (e.g., how and why is X doing what it is doing?).

For example, a researcher may want to explore, understand, and uncover what, how, and why questions and details about performing funeral music in New Orleans. In this case, the researcher would be seeking to investigate thoroughly one case of New Orleans funeral music in situ primarily from an observational perspective. To use another example, a music therapist may seek to understand (again, primarily from an observational perspective) why and how music making in a specific hospital context alters the hospital's environment for both patients and caregivers. The researcher would seek to explain the relationships between people, music, and the hospital environment in situ.

Additionally, case study has been particularly important for scientists seeking to understand relationships between music and the brain-body-mind. The work of cognitive scientists, neurologists, neuropsychologists, psychologists, and medical researchers has propelled the understanding of the many ways music interacts and transacts with and for those suffering from brain injuries. Preliminary case studies in such areas has given way to further descriptive and experimental research which has, in turn, made great strides in assessing the nature of the brain, its plasticity, and the ways in which the brain-body-mind act and react to and with music.

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