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• Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods

Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on 5 May 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 30 January 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organisation, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating, and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

Table of contents

When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyse the case.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

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Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

• Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
• Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
• Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
• Open up new directions for future research

Unlike quantitative or experimental research, a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

If you find yourself aiming to simultaneously investigate and solve an issue, consider conducting action research . As its name suggests, action research conducts research and takes action at the same time, and is highly iterative and flexible. 

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience, or phenomenon.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

• Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
• Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
• Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews, observations, and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data .

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis, with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results , and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyse its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

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What Is a Case Study?

Weighing the pros and cons of this method of research

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Cara Lustik is a fact-checker and copywriter.

Verywell / Colleen Tighe

• Pros and Cons

What Types of Case Studies Are Out There?

Where do you find data for a case study, how do i write a psychology case study.

A case study is an in-depth study of one person, group, or event. In a case study, nearly every aspect of the subject's life and history is analyzed to seek patterns and causes of behavior. Case studies can be used in many different fields, including psychology, medicine, education, anthropology, political science, and social work.

The point of a case study is to learn as much as possible about an individual or group so that the information can be generalized to many others. Unfortunately, case studies tend to be highly subjective, and it is sometimes difficult to generalize results to a larger population.

While case studies focus on a single individual or group, they follow a format similar to other types of psychology writing. If you are writing a case study, we got you—here are some rules of APA format to reference.  

At a Glance

A case study, or an in-depth study of a person, group, or event, can be a useful research tool when used wisely. In many cases, case studies are best used in situations where it would be difficult or impossible for you to conduct an experiment. They are helpful for looking at unique situations and allow researchers to gather a lot of˜ information about a specific individual or group of people. However, it's important to be cautious of any bias we draw from them as they are highly subjective.

What Are the Benefits and Limitations of Case Studies?

A case study can have its strengths and weaknesses. Researchers must consider these pros and cons before deciding if this type of study is appropriate for their needs.

One of the greatest advantages of a case study is that it allows researchers to investigate things that are often difficult or impossible to replicate in a lab. Some other benefits of a case study:

• Allows researchers to capture information on the 'how,' 'what,' and 'why,' of something that's implemented
• Gives researchers the chance to collect information on why one strategy might be chosen over another
• Permits researchers to develop hypotheses that can be explored in experimental research

On the other hand, a case study can have some drawbacks:

• It cannot necessarily be generalized to the larger population
• Cannot demonstrate cause and effect
• It may not be scientifically rigorous
• It can lead to bias

Researchers may choose to perform a case study if they want to explore a unique or recently discovered phenomenon. Through their insights, researchers develop additional ideas and study questions that might be explored in future studies.

It's important to remember that the insights from case studies cannot be used to determine cause-and-effect relationships between variables. However, case studies may be used to develop hypotheses that can then be addressed in experimental research.

Case Study Examples

There have been a number of notable case studies in the history of psychology. Much of  Freud's work and theories were developed through individual case studies. Some great examples of case studies in psychology include:

• Anna O : Anna O. was a pseudonym of a woman named Bertha Pappenheim, a patient of a physician named Josef Breuer. While she was never a patient of Freud's, Freud and Breuer discussed her case extensively. The woman was experiencing symptoms of a condition that was then known as hysteria and found that talking about her problems helped relieve her symptoms. Her case played an important part in the development of talk therapy as an approach to mental health treatment.
• Phineas Gage : Phineas Gage was a railroad employee who experienced a terrible accident in which an explosion sent a metal rod through his skull, damaging important portions of his brain. Gage recovered from his accident but was left with serious changes in both personality and behavior.
• Genie : Genie was a young girl subjected to horrific abuse and isolation. The case study of Genie allowed researchers to study whether language learning was possible, even after missing critical periods for language development. Her case also served as an example of how scientific research may interfere with treatment and lead to further abuse of vulnerable individuals.

Such cases demonstrate how case research can be used to study things that researchers could not replicate in experimental settings. In Genie's case, her horrific abuse denied her the opportunity to learn a language at critical points in her development.

This is clearly not something researchers could ethically replicate, but conducting a case study on Genie allowed researchers to study phenomena that are otherwise impossible to reproduce.

There are a few different types of case studies that psychologists and other researchers might use:

• Collective case studies : These involve studying a group of individuals. Researchers might study a group of people in a certain setting or look at an entire community. For example, psychologists might explore how access to resources in a community has affected the collective mental well-being of those who live there.
• Descriptive case studies : These involve starting with a descriptive theory. The subjects are then observed, and the information gathered is compared to the pre-existing theory.
• Explanatory case studies : These   are often used to do causal investigations. In other words, researchers are interested in looking at factors that may have caused certain things to occur.
• Exploratory case studies : These are sometimes used as a prelude to further, more in-depth research. This allows researchers to gather more information before developing their research questions and hypotheses .
• Instrumental case studies : These occur when the individual or group allows researchers to understand more than what is initially obvious to observers.
• Intrinsic case studies : This type of case study is when the researcher has a personal interest in the case. Jean Piaget's observations of his own children are good examples of how an intrinsic case study can contribute to the development of a psychological theory.

The three main case study types often used are intrinsic, instrumental, and collective. Intrinsic case studies are useful for learning about unique cases. Instrumental case studies help look at an individual to learn more about a broader issue. A collective case study can be useful for looking at several cases simultaneously.

The type of case study that psychology researchers use depends on the unique characteristics of the situation and the case itself.

There are a number of different sources and methods that researchers can use to gather information about an individual or group. Six major sources that have been identified by researchers are:

• Archival records : Census records, survey records, and name lists are examples of archival records.
• Direct observation : This strategy involves observing the subject, often in a natural setting . While an individual observer is sometimes used, it is more common to utilize a group of observers.
• Documents : Letters, newspaper articles, administrative records, etc., are the types of documents often used as sources.
• Interviews : Interviews are one of the most important methods for gathering information in case studies. An interview can involve structured survey questions or more open-ended questions.
• Participant observation : When the researcher serves as a participant in events and observes the actions and outcomes, it is called participant observation.
• Physical artifacts : Tools, objects, instruments, and other artifacts are often observed during a direct observation of the subject.

If you have been directed to write a case study for a psychology course, be sure to check with your instructor for any specific guidelines you need to follow. If you are writing your case study for a professional publication, check with the publisher for their specific guidelines for submitting a case study.

Here is a general outline of what should be included in a case study.

Section 1: A Case History

This section will have the following structure and content:

Background information : The first section of your paper will present your client's background. Include factors such as age, gender, work, health status, family mental health history, family and social relationships, drug and alcohol history, life difficulties, goals, and coping skills and weaknesses.

Description of the presenting problem : In the next section of your case study, you will describe the problem or symptoms that the client presented with.

Describe any physical, emotional, or sensory symptoms reported by the client. Thoughts, feelings, and perceptions related to the symptoms should also be noted. Any screening or diagnostic assessments that are used should also be described in detail and all scores reported.

Your diagnosis : Provide your diagnosis and give the appropriate Diagnostic and Statistical Manual code. Explain how you reached your diagnosis, how the client's symptoms fit the diagnostic criteria for the disorder(s), or any possible difficulties in reaching a diagnosis.

Section 2: Treatment Plan

This portion of the paper will address the chosen treatment for the condition. This might also include the theoretical basis for the chosen treatment or any other evidence that might exist to support why this approach was chosen.

• Cognitive behavioral approach : Explain how a cognitive behavioral therapist would approach treatment. Offer background information on cognitive behavioral therapy and describe the treatment sessions, client response, and outcome of this type of treatment. Make note of any difficulties or successes encountered by your client during treatment.
• Humanistic approach : Describe a humanistic approach that could be used to treat your client, such as client-centered therapy . Provide information on the type of treatment you chose, the client's reaction to the treatment, and the end result of this approach. Explain why the treatment was successful or unsuccessful.
• Psychoanalytic approach : Describe how a psychoanalytic therapist would view the client's problem. Provide some background on the psychoanalytic approach and cite relevant references. Explain how psychoanalytic therapy would be used to treat the client, how the client would respond to therapy, and the effectiveness of this treatment approach.
• Pharmacological approach : If treatment primarily involves the use of medications, explain which medications were used and why. Provide background on the effectiveness of these medications and how monotherapy may compare with an approach that combines medications with therapy or other treatments.

This section of a case study should also include information about the treatment goals, process, and outcomes.

When you are writing a case study, you should also include a section where you discuss the case study itself, including the strengths and limitiations of the study. You should note how the findings of your case study might support previous research. 

In your discussion section, you should also describe some of the implications of your case study. What ideas or findings might require further exploration? How might researchers go about exploring some of these questions in additional studies?

Need More Tips?

Here are a few additional pointers to keep in mind when formatting your case study:

• Never refer to the subject of your case study as "the client." Instead, use their name or a pseudonym.
• Read examples of case studies to gain an idea about the style and format.
• Remember to use APA format when citing references .

Crowe S, Cresswell K, Robertson A, Huby G, Avery A, Sheikh A. The case study approach .  BMC Med Res Methodol . 2011;11:100.

Crowe S, Cresswell K, Robertson A, Huby G, Avery A, Sheikh A. The case study approach . BMC Med Res Methodol . 2011 Jun 27;11:100. doi:10.1186/1471-2288-11-100

Gagnon, Yves-Chantal.  The Case Study as Research Method: A Practical Handbook . Canada, Chicago Review Press Incorporated DBA Independent Pub Group, 2010.

Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods . United States, SAGE Publications, 2017.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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• Acknowledgments

A case study research paper examines a person, place, event, condition, phenomenon, or other type of subject of analysis in order to extrapolate  key themes and results that help predict future trends, illuminate previously hidden issues that can be applied to practice, and/or provide a means for understanding an important research problem with greater clarity. A case study research paper usually examines a single subject of analysis, but case study papers can also be designed as a comparative investigation that shows relationships between two or more subjects. The methods used to study a case can rest within a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method investigative paradigm.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010 ; “What is a Case Study?” In Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London: SAGE, 2010.

How to Approach Writing a Case Study Research Paper

General information about how to choose a topic to investigate can be found under the " Choosing a Research Problem " tab in the Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper writing guide. Review this page because it may help you identify a subject of analysis that can be investigated using a case study design.

However, identifying a case to investigate involves more than choosing the research problem . A case study encompasses a problem contextualized around the application of in-depth analysis, interpretation, and discussion, often resulting in specific recommendations for action or for improving existing conditions. As Seawright and Gerring note, practical considerations such as time and access to information can influence case selection, but these issues should not be the sole factors used in describing the methodological justification for identifying a particular case to study. Given this, selecting a case includes considering the following:

• The case represents an unusual or atypical example of a research problem that requires more in-depth analysis? Cases often represent a topic that rests on the fringes of prior investigations because the case may provide new ways of understanding the research problem. For example, if the research problem is to identify strategies to improve policies that support girl's access to secondary education in predominantly Muslim nations, you could consider using Azerbaijan as a case study rather than selecting a more obvious nation in the Middle East. Doing so may reveal important new insights into recommending how governments in other predominantly Muslim nations can formulate policies that support improved access to education for girls.
• The case provides important insight or illuminate a previously hidden problem? In-depth analysis of a case can be based on the hypothesis that the case study will reveal trends or issues that have not been exposed in prior research or will reveal new and important implications for practice. For example, anecdotal evidence may suggest drug use among homeless veterans is related to their patterns of travel throughout the day. Assuming prior studies have not looked at individual travel choices as a way to study access to illicit drug use, a case study that observes a homeless veteran could reveal how issues of personal mobility choices facilitate regular access to illicit drugs. Note that it is important to conduct a thorough literature review to ensure that your assumption about the need to reveal new insights or previously hidden problems is valid and evidence-based.
• The case challenges and offers a counter-point to prevailing assumptions? Over time, research on any given topic can fall into a trap of developing assumptions based on outdated studies that are still applied to new or changing conditions or the idea that something should simply be accepted as "common sense," even though the issue has not been thoroughly tested in current practice. A case study analysis may offer an opportunity to gather evidence that challenges prevailing assumptions about a research problem and provide a new set of recommendations applied to practice that have not been tested previously. For example, perhaps there has been a long practice among scholars to apply a particular theory in explaining the relationship between two subjects of analysis. Your case could challenge this assumption by applying an innovative theoretical framework [perhaps borrowed from another discipline] to explore whether this approach offers new ways of understanding the research problem. Taking a contrarian stance is one of the most important ways that new knowledge and understanding develops from existing literature.
• The case provides an opportunity to pursue action leading to the resolution of a problem? Another way to think about choosing a case to study is to consider how the results from investigating a particular case may result in findings that reveal ways in which to resolve an existing or emerging problem. For example, studying the case of an unforeseen incident, such as a fatal accident at a railroad crossing, can reveal hidden issues that could be applied to preventative measures that contribute to reducing the chance of accidents in the future. In this example, a case study investigating the accident could lead to a better understanding of where to strategically locate additional signals at other railroad crossings so as to better warn drivers of an approaching train, particularly when visibility is hindered by heavy rain, fog, or at night.
• The case offers a new direction in future research? A case study can be used as a tool for an exploratory investigation that highlights the need for further research about the problem. A case can be used when there are few studies that help predict an outcome or that establish a clear understanding about how best to proceed in addressing a problem. For example, after conducting a thorough literature review [very important!], you discover that little research exists showing the ways in which women contribute to promoting water conservation in rural communities of east central Africa. A case study of how women contribute to saving water in a rural village of Uganda can lay the foundation for understanding the need for more thorough research that documents how women in their roles as cooks and family caregivers think about water as a valuable resource within their community. This example of a case study could also point to the need for scholars to build new theoretical frameworks around the topic [e.g., applying feminist theories of work and family to the issue of water conservation].

Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. “Building Theories from Case Study Research.” Academy of Management Review 14 (October 1989): 532-550; Emmel, Nick. Sampling and Choosing Cases in Qualitative Research: A Realist Approach . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2013; Gerring, John. “What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for?” American Political Science Review 98 (May 2004): 341-354; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Seawright, Jason and John Gerring. "Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research." Political Research Quarterly 61 (June 2008): 294-308.

Structure and Writing Style

The purpose of a paper in the social sciences designed around a case study is to thoroughly investigate a subject of analysis in order to reveal a new understanding about the research problem and, in so doing, contributing new knowledge to what is already known from previous studies. In applied social sciences disciplines [e.g., education, social work, public administration, etc.], case studies may also be used to reveal best practices, highlight key programs, or investigate interesting aspects of professional work.

In general, the structure of a case study research paper is not all that different from a standard college-level research paper. However, there are subtle differences you should be aware of. Here are the key elements to organizing and writing a case study research paper.

I.  Introduction

As with any research paper, your introduction should serve as a roadmap for your readers to ascertain the scope and purpose of your study . The introduction to a case study research paper, however, should not only describe the research problem and its significance, but you should also succinctly describe why the case is being used and how it relates to addressing the problem. The two elements should be linked. With this in mind, a good introduction answers these four questions:

• What is being studied? Describe the research problem and describe the subject of analysis [the case] you have chosen to address the problem. Explain how they are linked and what elements of the case will help to expand knowledge and understanding about the problem.
• Why is this topic important to investigate? Describe the significance of the research problem and state why a case study design and the subject of analysis that the paper is designed around is appropriate in addressing the problem.
• What did we know about this topic before I did this study? Provide background that helps lead the reader into the more in-depth literature review to follow. If applicable, summarize prior case study research applied to the research problem and why it fails to adequately address the problem. Describe why your case will be useful. If no prior case studies have been used to address the research problem, explain why you have selected this subject of analysis.
• How will this study advance new knowledge or new ways of understanding? Explain why your case study will be suitable in helping to expand knowledge and understanding about the research problem.

Each of these questions should be addressed in no more than a few paragraphs. Exceptions to this can be when you are addressing a complex research problem or subject of analysis that requires more in-depth background information.

II.  Literature Review

The literature review for a case study research paper is generally structured the same as it is for any college-level research paper. The difference, however, is that the literature review is focused on providing background information and  enabling historical interpretation of the subject of analysis in relation to the research problem the case is intended to address . This includes synthesizing studies that help to:

• Place relevant works in the context of their contribution to understanding the case study being investigated . This would involve summarizing studies that have used a similar subject of analysis to investigate the research problem. If there is literature using the same or a very similar case to study, you need to explain why duplicating past research is important [e.g., conditions have changed; prior studies were conducted long ago, etc.].
• Describe the relationship each work has to the others under consideration that informs the reader why this case is applicable . Your literature review should include a description of any works that support using the case to investigate the research problem and the underlying research questions.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research using the case study . If applicable, review any research that has examined the research problem using a different research design. Explain how your use of a case study design may reveal new knowledge or a new perspective or that can redirect research in an important new direction.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies . This refers to synthesizing any literature that points to unresolved issues of concern about the research problem and describing how the subject of analysis that forms the case study can help resolve these existing contradictions.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research . Your review should examine any literature that lays a foundation for understanding why your case study design and the subject of analysis around which you have designed your study may reveal a new way of approaching the research problem or offer a perspective that points to the need for additional research.
• Expose any gaps that exist in the literature that the case study could help to fill . Summarize any literature that not only shows how your subject of analysis contributes to understanding the research problem, but how your case contributes to a new way of understanding the problem that prior research has failed to do.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important!] . Collectively, your literature review should always place your case study within the larger domain of prior research about the problem. The overarching purpose of reviewing pertinent literature in a case study paper is to demonstrate that you have thoroughly identified and synthesized prior studies in relation to explaining the relevance of the case in addressing the research problem.

III.  Method

In this section, you explain why you selected a particular case [i.e., subject of analysis] and the strategy you used to identify and ultimately decide that your case was appropriate in addressing the research problem. The way you describe the methods used varies depending on the type of subject of analysis that constitutes your case study.

If your subject of analysis is an incident or event . In the social and behavioral sciences, the event or incident that represents the case to be studied is usually bounded by time and place, with a clear beginning and end and with an identifiable location or position relative to its surroundings. The subject of analysis can be a rare or critical event or it can focus on a typical or regular event. The purpose of studying a rare event is to illuminate new ways of thinking about the broader research problem or to test a hypothesis. Critical incident case studies must describe the method by which you identified the event and explain the process by which you determined the validity of this case to inform broader perspectives about the research problem or to reveal new findings. However, the event does not have to be a rare or uniquely significant to support new thinking about the research problem or to challenge an existing hypothesis. For example, Walo, Bull, and Breen conducted a case study to identify and evaluate the direct and indirect economic benefits and costs of a local sports event in the City of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. The purpose of their study was to provide new insights from measuring the impact of a typical local sports event that prior studies could not measure well because they focused on large "mega-events." Whether the event is rare or not, the methods section should include an explanation of the following characteristics of the event: a) when did it take place; b) what were the underlying circumstances leading to the event; and, c) what were the consequences of the event in relation to the research problem.

If your subject of analysis is a person. Explain why you selected this particular individual to be studied and describe what experiences they have had that provide an opportunity to advance new understandings about the research problem. Mention any background about this person which might help the reader understand the significance of their experiences that make them worthy of study. This includes describing the relationships this person has had with other people, institutions, and/or events that support using them as the subject for a case study research paper. It is particularly important to differentiate the person as the subject of analysis from others and to succinctly explain how the person relates to examining the research problem [e.g., why is one politician in a particular local election used to show an increase in voter turnout from any other candidate running in the election]. Note that these issues apply to a specific group of people used as a case study unit of analysis [e.g., a classroom of students].

If your subject of analysis is a place. In general, a case study that investigates a place suggests a subject of analysis that is unique or special in some way and that this uniqueness can be used to build new understanding or knowledge about the research problem. A case study of a place must not only describe its various attributes relevant to the research problem [e.g., physical, social, historical, cultural, economic, political], but you must state the method by which you determined that this place will illuminate new understandings about the research problem. It is also important to articulate why a particular place as the case for study is being used if similar places also exist [i.e., if you are studying patterns of homeless encampments of veterans in open spaces, explain why you are studying Echo Park in Los Angeles rather than Griffith Park?]. If applicable, describe what type of human activity involving this place makes it a good choice to study [e.g., prior research suggests Echo Park has more homeless veterans].

If your subject of analysis is a phenomenon. A phenomenon refers to a fact, occurrence, or circumstance that can be studied or observed but with the cause or explanation to be in question. In this sense, a phenomenon that forms your subject of analysis can encompass anything that can be observed or presumed to exist but is not fully understood. In the social and behavioral sciences, the case usually focuses on human interaction within a complex physical, social, economic, cultural, or political system. For example, the phenomenon could be the observation that many vehicles used by ISIS fighters are small trucks with English language advertisements on them. The research problem could be that ISIS fighters are difficult to combat because they are highly mobile. The research questions could be how and by what means are these vehicles used by ISIS being supplied to the militants and how might supply lines to these vehicles be cut off? How might knowing the suppliers of these trucks reveal larger networks of collaborators and financial support? A case study of a phenomenon most often encompasses an in-depth analysis of a cause and effect that is grounded in an interactive relationship between people and their environment in some way.

NOTE:   The choice of the case or set of cases to study cannot appear random. Evidence that supports the method by which you identified and chose your subject of analysis should clearly support investigation of the research problem and linked to key findings from your literature review. Be sure to cite any studies that helped you determine that the case you chose was appropriate for examining the problem.

IV.  Discussion

The main elements of your discussion section are generally the same as any research paper, but centered around interpreting and drawing conclusions about the key findings from your analysis of the case study. Note that a general social sciences research paper may contain a separate section to report findings. However, in a paper designed around a case study, it is common to combine a description of the results with the discussion about their implications. The objectives of your discussion section should include the following:

Reiterate the Research Problem/State the Major Findings Briefly reiterate the research problem you are investigating and explain why the subject of analysis around which you designed the case study were used. You should then describe the findings revealed from your study of the case using direct, declarative, and succinct proclamation of the study results. Highlight any findings that were unexpected or especially profound.

Explain the Meaning of the Findings and Why They are Important Systematically explain the meaning of your case study findings and why you believe they are important. Begin this part of the section by repeating what you consider to be your most important or surprising finding first, then systematically review each finding. Be sure to thoroughly extrapolate what your analysis of the case can tell the reader about situations or conditions beyond the actual case that was studied while, at the same time, being careful not to misconstrue or conflate a finding that undermines the external validity of your conclusions.

Relate the Findings to Similar Studies No study in the social sciences is so novel or possesses such a restricted focus that it has absolutely no relation to previously published research. The discussion section should relate your case study results to those found in other studies, particularly if questions raised from prior studies served as the motivation for choosing your subject of analysis. This is important because comparing and contrasting the findings of other studies helps support the overall importance of your results and it highlights how and in what ways your case study design and the subject of analysis differs from prior research about the topic.

Consider Alternative Explanations of the Findings Remember that the purpose of social science research is to discover and not to prove. When writing the discussion section, you should carefully consider all possible explanations revealed by the case study results, rather than just those that fit your hypothesis or prior assumptions and biases. Be alert to what the in-depth analysis of the case may reveal about the research problem, including offering a contrarian perspective to what scholars have stated in prior research if that is how the findings can be interpreted from your case.

Acknowledge the Study's Limitations You can state the study's limitations in the conclusion section of your paper but describing the limitations of your subject of analysis in the discussion section provides an opportunity to identify the limitations and explain why they are not significant. This part of the discussion section should also note any unanswered questions or issues your case study could not address. More detailed information about how to document any limitations to your research can be found here .

Suggest Areas for Further Research Although your case study may offer important insights about the research problem, there are likely additional questions related to the problem that remain unanswered or findings that unexpectedly revealed themselves as a result of your in-depth analysis of the case. Be sure that the recommendations for further research are linked to the research problem and that you explain why your recommendations are valid in other contexts and based on the original assumptions of your study.

V.  Conclusion

As with any research paper, you should summarize your conclusion in clear, simple language; emphasize how the findings from your case study differs from or supports prior research and why. Do not simply reiterate the discussion section. Provide a synthesis of key findings presented in the paper to show how these converge to address the research problem. If you haven't already done so in the discussion section, be sure to document the limitations of your case study and any need for further research.

The function of your paper's conclusion is to: 1) reiterate the main argument supported by the findings from your case study; 2) state clearly the context, background, and necessity of pursuing the research problem using a case study design in relation to an issue, controversy, or a gap found from reviewing the literature; and, 3) provide a place to persuasively and succinctly restate the significance of your research problem, given that the reader has now been presented with in-depth information about the topic.

Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is appropriate:

• If the argument or purpose of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize these points for your reader.
• If prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the conclusion of your paper to describe your main points and explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration of the case study's findings that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from your case study findings.

Note that, depending on the discipline you are writing in or the preferences of your professor, the concluding paragraph may contain your final reflections on the evidence presented as it applies to practice or on the essay's central research problem. However, the nature of being introspective about the subject of analysis you have investigated will depend on whether you are explicitly asked to express your observations in this way.

Problems to Avoid

Overgeneralization One of the goals of a case study is to lay a foundation for understanding broader trends and issues applied to similar circumstances. However, be careful when drawing conclusions from your case study. They must be evidence-based and grounded in the results of the study; otherwise, it is merely speculation. Looking at a prior example, it would be incorrect to state that a factor in improving girls access to education in Azerbaijan and the policy implications this may have for improving access in other Muslim nations is due to girls access to social media if there is no documentary evidence from your case study to indicate this. There may be anecdotal evidence that retention rates were better for girls who were engaged with social media, but this observation would only point to the need for further research and would not be a definitive finding if this was not a part of your original research agenda.

Failure to Document Limitations No case is going to reveal all that needs to be understood about a research problem. Therefore, just as you have to clearly state the limitations of a general research study , you must describe the specific limitations inherent in the subject of analysis. For example, the case of studying how women conceptualize the need for water conservation in a village in Uganda could have limited application in other cultural contexts or in areas where fresh water from rivers or lakes is plentiful and, therefore, conservation is understood more in terms of managing access rather than preserving access to a scarce resource.

Failure to Extrapolate All Possible Implications Just as you don't want to over-generalize from your case study findings, you also have to be thorough in the consideration of all possible outcomes or recommendations derived from your findings. If you do not, your reader may question the validity of your analysis, particularly if you failed to document an obvious outcome from your case study research. For example, in the case of studying the accident at the railroad crossing to evaluate where and what types of warning signals should be located, you failed to take into consideration speed limit signage as well as warning signals. When designing your case study, be sure you have thoroughly addressed all aspects of the problem and do not leave gaps in your analysis that leave the reader questioning the results.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Gerring, John. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007; Merriam, Sharan B. Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education . Rev. ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998; Miller, Lisa L. “The Use of Case Studies in Law and Social Science Research.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 14 (2018): TBD; Mills, Albert J., Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Putney, LeAnn Grogan. "Case Study." In Encyclopedia of Research Design , Neil J. Salkind, editor. (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010), pp. 116-120; Simons, Helen. Case Study Research in Practice . London: SAGE Publications, 2009;  Kratochwill,  Thomas R. and Joel R. Levin, editors. Single-Case Research Design and Analysis: New Development for Psychology and Education .  Hilldsale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1992; Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London : SAGE, 2010; Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research: Design and Methods . 6th edition. Los Angeles, CA, SAGE Publications, 2014; Walo, Maree, Adrian Bull, and Helen Breen. “Achieving Economic Benefits at Local Events: A Case Study of a Local Sports Event.” Festival Management and Event Tourism 4 (1996): 95-106.

Writing Tip

At Least Five Misconceptions about Case Study Research

Social science case studies are often perceived as limited in their ability to create new knowledge because they are not randomly selected and findings cannot be generalized to larger populations. Flyvbjerg examines five misunderstandings about case study research and systematically "corrects" each one. To quote, these are:

Misunderstanding 1 :  General, theoretical [context-independent] knowledge is more valuable than concrete, practical [context-dependent] knowledge. Misunderstanding 2 :  One cannot generalize on the basis of an individual case; therefore, the case study cannot contribute to scientific development. Misunderstanding 3 :  The case study is most useful for generating hypotheses; that is, in the first stage of a total research process, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building. Misunderstanding 4 :  The case study contains a bias toward verification, that is, a tendency to confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions. Misunderstanding 5 :  It is often difficult to summarize and develop general propositions and theories on the basis of specific case studies [p. 221].

While writing your paper, think introspectively about how you addressed these misconceptions because to do so can help you strengthen the validity and reliability of your research by clarifying issues of case selection, the testing and challenging of existing assumptions, the interpretation of key findings, and the summation of case outcomes. Think of a case study research paper as a complete, in-depth narrative about the specific properties and key characteristics of your subject of analysis applied to the research problem.

Flyvbjerg, Bent. “Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research.” Qualitative Inquiry 12 (April 2006): 219-245.

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The Case Study Of Vanitas Part 2 - What We Know So Far

On Aug. 6, the English-dubbed version of "The Case Study of Vanitas" arrived at Funimation's website , bringing the steampunk-styled supernatural mystery manga series to life for a whole new audience. The vampire -based anime, set in Paris of the 19th century, is very atmospheric, what with its airships, period clothing and blue-moon and crimson vampires. It starts with the young vampire Noé, who is asked by his teacher to go to Paris to look for the titular book. In an incident on the airship, he meets a girl named Amelia — who turns out to be a vampire named Florifel, who just needs her name returned to her — and blue-eyed Vanitas himself. Vanitas enlists his help in changing the "curse-bearing" vampires back to normal using the grimoire in question. 

"The Case Study of Vanitas" has aired 12 episodes of its split-cour season, which is normal for anime shows — but now leaves fans to wonder when Part 2 will happen, and what will happen going forward, since the series hasn't exactly concluded its plot. If you're one of the fans anxiously awaiting news of the second part of the first season, here's what we know so far.

When is the release date for The Case Study of Vanitas Part 2?

The @vanitas_anime Twitter account announced on Sept. 17 that the second cour (or quarter of a year) of "The Case Study of Vanitas" is coming in January 2022. This is good news, as it means fans won't have too long to wait:  Anime News and Facts is reporting that the 12 episodes in the second part of the split-cour series will air between Jan. 8 and March 26, 2022. It should be noted that these dates refer to the Japanese release, not the English one. 

However, English-speaking fans shouldn't experience too much of a delay. The initial Japanese run premiered on various channels starting July 2 ( via Anime News Network ), which means it was subtitled with the first episode dubbed by the time it released on Funimation a little over a month later. Comingsoon.com said that Funimation had released five dubbed episodes by September 17 (a paid subscription is required to access the dubbed versions of newer episodes). 

Hopefully, that means U.S. fans will be streaming at least a subtitled second part of Season 1 by springtime.

Who are the characters in The Case Study of Vanitas Part 2?

The main characters of the series include Noé Archiviste, played in the Japanese by Kaito Ishikawa, and Vanitas (not the original of the book), played by Natsuki Hanae. Supporting characters include Jeanne (Inori Minase), a vampire girl also called the "Hellfire Witch"; Luca (Shino Shimoji), a polite vampire boy ranking just below the queen, who is trying to save his brother; Dominique (Ai Kayano), the aristocratic daughter of the alien lord the Marquis de Sade; Veronica (Yoko Hikasa), Dominique's sister who hates humans; Ruthven (Toshiyuki Morikawa), Luca's uncle and the hero who brokered peace between humans and vampires. 

Others include Dante (Taro Kuichi), Johann (Koji Yusa), and Richie (Riho Kuma), Vanitas' information brokers, and Noé's unnamed teacher (Akira Ishida), the one who sent him to find the book. Vampire Naenia (Kaori Nazuka), vampire hunter Laurent (Kengo Kawanishi), Holy Knight Olivier (Tomoaki Maeno) and Noé's first friend Louis de Sade (Miyuri Shimabukuru) also appear. There's also the cat, Murr (Miyu Komaki). Not all have survived Season 1, though, so they won't necessarily appear in Part 2.

The English dub cast of the series includes Stephen Fu as Noe, Zeo Robinson as Vanitas, Marianne Bray as Murr, Ian Sinclair as Dante, and Hayden Daviau as Amelia. 

What is the plot of The Case Study of Vanitas Part 2?

As the first part of the first season ended, the Beast of Gévaudan has resurfaced, so Noé and Vanitas go to investigate sightings of it. The beast will likely figure largely in the events of the second part of the season, as will Vanitas' relationship with Noé. Viewers may also finally learn the intentions of the secret organization Charlatan because of the big reveal in the end-credits scene. As viewers know, Ruthven figures largely in the plotting that's been going on, and he has hypnotized Noé with Jeanne's unwitting help, which could all blow up in Part 2. Meanwhile, Roland is going through a crisis of faith because he has learned that not all vampires are bad, and the show will no doubt explore the ramifications of that.

"The Case Study of Vanitas" will feature 12 episodes in Season 1 Part 2, making up a total of 24 episodes in the first season. The anime has been rapidly catching up to the manga:  Monsters and Critics predicts that by the 24th episode, the anime will be up to Chapter 43 of the manga. The manga is expected to publish Chapter 61, which means season 2 might be a more difficult sell than the first. 

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School-Age Case Study: Part 2

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Driver cpc part 2 test: case studies.

You can book the part 2 case studies test of the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence ( CPC ) as soon as you’ve got your provisional licence. You do not need to have passed the Driver CPC part 1 theory test.

If you’re requalifying as a heavy goods vehicle ( HGV ) or bus driver by taking parts 2 and 4 of the test, you cannot book your test online. You have to book by phone instead.

Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency customer services Telephone: 0300 200 1122 (choose option 01) Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm Find out about call charges

What to take to your test

You must bring one of the following:

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If you do not have a photocard driving licence, bring your paper licence and a valid passport.

Your test will be cancelled and you’ll lose your fee if you do not bring the right documents.

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How the test works

The test is made up of 7 case studies you work through on a computer. The case studies are short stories based on situations that you’re likely to come across in your working life.

You’ll be asked between 6 and 8 multiple-choice questions on each case study.

The test lasts for 1 hour and 15 minutes, and the pass mark is 40 out of 50.

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Cancel Culture, Part 2: A Case Study

Hosted by Michael Barbaro, produced by Andy Mills and Neena Pathak, and edited by Lisa Tobin and Lisa Chow

A progressive Twitter user tried to stem one wave of social-media outrage — and found himself co-opted into another.

From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.”

If I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself. Because man, you see how woke I was? I called you out. [LAUGHTER]

I’ve been canceled. I’ve been canceled before they had cancel culture.

The only thing that has changed is the people getting held accountable are folks who always thought they were untouchable. And now they realize they’re not.

Yesterday, my colleague Jonah Bromwich explained how cancel culture has emerged as a political and cultural force in 2020.

One of their political weapons is cancel culture, driving people from their jobs.

Today: Jonah returns with a case study. It’s Tuesday, August 11.

You may not even remember me from high school because you were in my brother’s grade.

And you were one of my brother’s friends.

No. I remember you. Yeah. But we didn’t talk that much. Yeah.

You were always someone he spoke extremely highly of in terms of what he liked to do, which was talk and argue and stuff. So I was, like, very aware of you. [LAUGHS]

So Jonah, tell me about your friend.

So Zeeshan Aleem is someone that I originally got to know in high school. And I didn’t know him as well as I knew of him. And that’s because he was three years older than me, in the same grade as my brother. And my brother, who loves to argue and loves to figure out what he thinks about things, would go to Zeeshan when he wanted to talk about something serious, when he wanted to talk about politics, when he wanted to talk about something he didn’t know quite that well. Zeeshan was that guy for him.

I think it’s just for me personally — and you know, this makes me sort of very out of touch with internet culture and just what it’s like to live in 2020 — but I tend to think very slowly about things. And I’m not saying that’s a virtue. But that’s just sort of the way I am. And I’m often skeptical of my own opinions on things and disagree with myself while articulating things. But I was —

And I really wanted to be like that as well.

I mean, I know what I’m scared of. Which is, like, anytime I tweet, I’m worried about what people are going to think about it. And you know, I panic. And so fast forward to adulthood.

I mean, like you, for the longest time, I was sort of terrified of making a joke that would be misinterpreted.

And I’m running into him in New York. We’re both in media. And one of the things we talk about when we run into each other is both kind of how abysmal we are at Twitter and specifically, how that kind of conversation, the kind that my brother liked to have with Zeeshan, is actually really difficult on Twitter. And so we’re both a little timid. We’re both a little shy.

But then, earlier this year, I start to see that Zeeshan, despite me thinking I related to him on this, is actually really starting to talk about the subjects that interest him. And one of the subjects he starts talking about is cancel culture.

And I was like, oh, here we go. This is someone who is very much like me thinking kind of in similar ways about this thing. But he’s going to talk about it in public where I can see it. So I was excited to see that.

Well I’m glad that you see some kind of growth. I only continue to feel that I totally fail at this medium and am continually overwhelmed by it.

And where does this story with Zeeshan, this encounter with cancel culture, where does it begin?

So it’s helpful to know that Zeeshan’s a progressive political writer. So he writes a lot about activism and power, the political left. And he’s engaging with those topics in his work, but also on Twitter.

Do you remember kind of when you came across that phrase or when you started to think about it as something that might actually be worth looking into?

When I initially saw the term kind of get traction, I mean, I did find it to resonate with me to some extent. You know, at least in social media culture, there seemed to be a tendency to sort of look at things through sort of a good versus bad binary — casting people out or exiling them by the sort of larger culture online to be somebody who is no longer, you know, with it, or moral, or an upstanding citizen of Twitter culture, which I didn’t necessarily consider to be the worst thing in the world. But it was odd and intrigued me. And I was curious if this kind of culture would continue to grow over time.

So just to be clear, it’s not that Zeeshan doesn’t agree that a lot of people being held to account on Twitter have done something wrong, or have said something racist. He cares about the underlying issues that sit at the heart of the encounters. But he’s also kind of questioning, especially when these things that we label as cancellations happen, like, what is that energy being put to use for?

So a lot of, I think, the primary energy that it makes sense to sort of focus on is focusing on how to dismantle the systems that give rise to this behavior in the first place, which involves things like addressing institutional racism, which manifests in things like housing or in education or wealth inequity or mass incarceration. There’s all kinds of ways that historically grounded material racism has helped produce the kind of behavior that we’re seeing today. And I’d say, of course, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t work to be done on the level of dealing with personalities and interpersonal behavior. And of course, there’s a huge debate today —

So in other words, he wants to be involved in substantive conversations about the actual issues that sit at the heart of these encounters. Right? Like, he doesn’t want to be talking about the people and the fighting that result from them. He wants to talk about the issues.

So you know, I remember it being a slow summer day in July and logging on to Twitter and then sort of seeing this video.

We are six feet away from you.

You’re harassing me.

I’m not harassing you. You are infecting us.

I feel threatened.

You’re coming close to me.

(SCREAMING) I feel threatened!

Surfacing over and over again in my feed.

(SCREAMING) Back off! Threaten me again!

This man in Florida at a Costco’s had a belligerent outburst in response to being asked by a customer to put a mask on.

Back the [EXPLETIVE] off! Put your [EXPLETIVE] phone down!

And this video, which is about 17 seconds long, really caught the attention of a lot of people because of the level of aggression of the person involved in the video. The man clenched his fists and walks towards the phone in kind of a sort of menacing way, saying, “back off,” and “I feel threatened.” And probably most notably, he’s wearing a bright red shirt that says “Running the World Since 1776.”

What did the 1776 shirt, what did that say to you about the person wearing it?

The shirt seemed to me to evoke a certain kind of political world view, probably somebody who has right wing politics and kind of a “Make America Great Again” attitude.

What was your immediate reaction to that? Like, how did you feel about it?

Well, I thought the way that the man was behaving was sort of unhinged. The behavior was obviously very aggressive. It was inappropriate. Most importantly, it was extremely unsafe. You know, there’s a pandemic going on. He wasn’t wearing a mask. And he’s almost spitting on the person he’s talking to. So you know, I thought it was definitely, you know, inappropriate behavior.

You are infecting us.

And Zeeshan says that he started seeing this video —

(SCREAMING) Threaten me again!

— going viral.

You’re harassing me and my family.

You’re coming close —

(SCREAMING) Back off! Back the [EXPLETIVE] off. Put your [EXPLETIVE] phone down.

I’m not harassing you.

This was, like, kind of the summer of viral video of fights over masks.

I’m just going to show my 3,000 follower Instagram feed. It’s mostly liberals.

Hi everyone, I work for Costco. And I’m asking this member to put on a mask because that is our company policy.

And I’m not doing it because I woke up in a free country.

(SCREAMING) You can’t harass me for not wearing a mask! You guys are violating several laws. You get that? Get that on camera.

Did you think, oh, I should tweet this video? Or I should tweet my outrage about this video? Or were you not interested in it in that way yet?

I was just trying to kind of size it up and figure out what was going on. The video was so short that I was curious if there’s any other information to be obtained about this situation. So what I started doing was actually just looking through the replies. And I’m going through them and sort of seeing the mockery and criticism and condemnations.

And one thing in particular kind of caught my eye, which is that one Twitter user seemed to be sort of spearheading a search campaign to try to identify who this guy was and figure out more about him. In particular, it seemed that the idea was to try to figure out where he worked and to try to get him fired.

So Zeeshan says that he goes and looks into the Twitter user who seems like he’s really kind of leading the charge to get the guy in the 1776 shirt fired. And he finds out a couple of things about this guy. So he finds out that the guy is in marketing. That he looks like he’s like an influencer of some kind. He’s appeared on a 30 under 30 list. To Zeeshan, he’s really appearing to be kind of a type.

All right. So you know, you saw the clip of the 1776 shirt guy in Costco. And maybe he didn’t seem like the kind of guy you’d necessarily want to be friends with. But then how did you feel now about seeing the marketer gunning for this guy’s job?

I was sort of confused about it, I suppose. There is basically a 17-second clip here. And the idea of immediately playing the role of judge, jury, executioner in terms of taking a person’s job seemed to me sort of a hasty conclusion to come to and not something that, given the time span, could have necessarily been sort of well thought out. I also wasn’t sure whether or not the idea of trying to identify someone random on the internet was a good idea. There’s a number of documented cases of people identifying the wrong person based off of who they think they found on a photograph or a video. And then, you know, the wrong person getting doxxed or getting fired or getting threatened by random people on the internet. And so I think targeting jobs is a bad idea.

Right. And at the risk of asking you something that may seem incredibly obvious, why do you think targeting jobs is a bad idea?

Well, I think there’s a lot to say about this. First is the issue of this sort of severity of this sentence. In American society, when you lose your job, you’re not only losing your income, but you’re also losing your health insurance. And if you are the earner in a family, that could also potentially mean that your family also loses their health insurance.

And then of course, you have to take into account that we have a very weak social safety net, thanks to policies that have sort of gutted the welfare state for decades in American society. So what that basically means is that when someone loses their job, if they don’t happen to sort of immediately get another one, you’re potentially condemning them to extremes for material deprivation. And you also have to take into account the fact that when people lose their jobs in these ways, they might become radioactive on the labor market and become unhireable in many situations.

And of course, all this stuff is sort of done without deliberation, without broader context. We don’t even know who is whipping up these sort of job firing campaigns. I mean, it could potentially be a group of teenagers who are going for a joy ride online. And the other issue is —

So Zeeshan is thinking and thinking about this issue. And eventually he decides he’s going to take those thoughts and he’s going to put them together into a thread, which is kind of how he does things on Twitter. And in this thread, he actually mentions the marketing guy that he sees leading the campaign to get the 1776 guy fired.

So I think I tweeted at him a couple of times. And I also tagged him when I sort of wrote this critique, saying that I thought that this is something that is sort of out of line with progressive values. And I found his response to sort of be dismissive. He sort of dodged my argument saying, well, are you saying that this behavior is OK or acceptable? And I said no, not at all. All I’m saying is that this specific mode of punishment doesn’t seem to be the right way to deal with this situation at this moment. And then when I said that, he responded by dismissing me. And it didn’t really go any further than that.

Do you remember how he dismissed you?

Yes. He responded, “Calm down, sir. It’s a thread.”

I mean, did it bother you?

I was just surprised that someone who had just sort of gathered a pack of vigilantes to take someone’s job down, and apparently played a pretty successful role in that, genuinely did not seem to have any rationale for the ethics of what he was doing.

So Zeeshan’s a little frustrated with the marketer’s response. And he steps away from his computer. And he goes about his life. But meanwhile, the thread is still there. It’s just kind of floating on Twitter. And it’s picking up a like here and it’s picking up a retweet there. And it’s slowly kind of growing in popularity. And I’m kind of tracking this, kind of along with all the other things I’m doing. And then the thread gets the kind of retweet you really don’t want to get.

So I think I was making some tea over in my kitchen when I received a text message, popped up on my phone. Opened up the text, and my friend sends me a screenshot of the tweet thread that I’d sent out. And two things stood out to me immediately. One, it had seemed to start going viral. It was going to the hundreds of retweets. And secondly, it showed that I’ve been retweeted by Jack Posobiec.

And I was immediately shocked by this news.

[CHANTING MUSICALLY] Bill Clinton is a rapist. Bill Clinton is a rapist!

So Jack Posobiec is, like, the king troll of alt-right Twitter.

— Comet Pizza was really only about 30 minutes from where I live here at the —

He’s someone who propagated the Pizza Gate conspiracy.

This alleged pedophile activity going on. You would kind of sense it —

The minute he’s retweeting you, you know that a certain section of the pretty far right is going to be interested in what you have to say. And it’s going to be pretty unpleasant.

— social media. A lot of news is not paying attention to this. A lot of news is not bringing it out. Go look at my Twitter. I’ve just put up all of the pictures. I’ve just put up all —

And Zeeshan starts to see that right-wing Twitter is coming in droves to his thread.

It was one of those things where, when I first saw it, I was really shocked and surprised. But then, over time, I sort of was able to figure out what was going on. I mean, basically the reason that it was being retweeted was because what I was saying was critical of something that a progressive had done. But the reason that it struck me as sort of absurd is the substantive points I was making were all coming from a progressive or left perspective of criminal justice, and being a less punitive society and the gutting of the welfare state and, you know, our employment system.

None of them are really kind of digging into the points that Zeeshan’s making. And instead, they’re actually really focused on Zeeshan’s characterization of the marketing guy and what the marketing guy was up to. And they’re actually going directly after the marketing guy.

All of a sudden, a lot of people who had swarmed over from sort of the Trump sphere start attacking him and criticizing him, start saying things that sound threatening, or you know, cruel. And they end up digging up a number of tweets that are sort of unseemly, potentially racist, definitely compromising or hypocritical for somebody who has a #BlackLivesMatter in their bio.

Mhm. And they dig up all this old and, yeah, offensive stuff that the marketing guy has said in the past. And they’re using that to, like, come right back at him and try and quote, unquote “cancel him.”

He seems to become, basically, the sort of victim of a new job targeting campaign and appears to have the barrel of his own gun pointed back at him, which was really remarkable.

So it’s like a ricochet?

So Zeeshan, who is really just looking to play this role as a commentator, trying to help people and figure out what’s going on in the culture, gets pulled into this drama. And so he’s not only a commentator, he arguably actually causes the whole second wave, because his thread is the incentive for all these Jack Posobiec followers to go after the marketer.

Did you feel used?

[LAUGHS] I saw what was happening as a sort of latest example of how online discourse is so incredibly bad faith, and how so much of the way people boost what other people say is not necessarily ideologically sincere. But as long as it’s tactically advantageous, it will sort of be pushed forward.

So in this situation, what I was saying was things that people on the right are actively hostile to — about having better health care and better protections for the unemployed — but the reason they were boosting it was because the fact that, at least on a surface level, it was criticizing the idea that progressive activists are doing things that are inappropriate, and was an indictment of the left and an example of the fact that Trump’s America is persecuted.

And so it’s this really remarkable phenomenon where people are not necessarily engaging with the substance or the specifics of what anyone else is saying. But instead, are merely trying to sort of advance their own specific narrative or their own specific political goal by scoring points in this sort of really shallow or cheap way. Because the funny thing is that if any of Jack Posobiec followers had read through what I said, they’d actually be exposed more to progressive ideas. But the reality is people just see the first thing I say and say, oh, this is a great example of how the left has just gone crazy.

Right. And they were using your identity, too. I mean, some people were saying, look, even this progressive guy thinks that this has all gone too far.

Yeah, definitely.

But do you think you should have been surprised by this? Like, when in history of Twitter being what it is right now have things like this gone well on Twitter?

Yeah. I mean, there’s probably a general rule that when something goes viral enough, nothing good can come of it. But, yeah, I mean, there’s constant, constant context collapse online. And what that means is that intentions and the specific kind of broader background behind any specific set of actions just sort of vanishes when it’s presented to certain crowds, and can so quickly be used as fodder in another political battle that, I mean, it’s just genuinely astonishing.

In a way, both these guys got canceled, right? The 1776 guy got canceled. And then the marketer got canceled. But what they did, and who was doing the canceling, and the result it had, was completely different. And so for Zeeshan, who is actually in the middle of all this, kind of seeing how different each context is, and how they’re just completely collapsed by the term “cancel culture,” I think that’s really eye opening for him.

I should add, by the way, that the final chapter of this story involves me receiving an email, the subject line of which said, “Cancel Culture Canceler.” Which, you know, basically said that I was no better than anyone else in this situation. So I end up being accused of basically being a part of the culture that I was decrying in some ways. But it was a pretty fitting end to the saga.

Right. So it’s actually, like, a triple cancellation.

It’s an attempted triple cancellation. I think I’m not yet canceled.

[LAUGHS] Got it.

We’ll be right back.

So Jonah, you walked us through a complicated tale of cancellations where one person’s job was under threat, another person had his history dug up on Twitter. And your friend Zeeshan, despite his best intentions, found himself playing a role in all of this. And I wonder how this experience has affected how he’s thinking about all this.

Yeah, you know, it’s interesting. Zeeshan is trying to use Twitter in this way that I never really have figured out how to do. And obviously in this case, it didn’t work out that well. I mean, he immediately got dragged into this thing.

I don’t think that Twitter rewards asterisks and ums and skepticism, ambivalence, questions. I think Twitter rewards absolute claims, simple sort of black and white, good and evil allegories and binaries, and strong declarations of truth that leave little room for interpretation.

Yeah. So I mean, does it make you just more cynical about your ability to kind of do what you set out to do, which is argue and persuade and think through problems in a way that’s serious and that you clearly kind of mean to be helpful and good?

I think there’s a great deal about the very infrastructure of social media that are explicitly designed to incentivize this kind of behavior, to encourage people to be adversarial towards each other. But I don’t think all is necessarily lost. I think it is still possible to create, you know, at least subcultures online in these platforms and in other places that are at least more encouraging of open debate. And this really does also exist across the political spectrum, I would say, of people trying to engage with each other in a way that is actually with a real desire to be productive, I think.

So it’s interesting, actually. Zeeshan is not giving up this very sensible, logical, by the books way of tweeting at all. It did make him reconsider one key part of the message that he sent.

It did change my mind about using the term “cancel culture.” I’m pretty sure that tweet thread is the last time that I have used it. And there’s a couple of reasons for that.

One is there’s a coherence problem. Which is the fact that cancel culture is something that some people have called kind of a suitcase term, which is that people will end up packing a whole variety of completely disparate terms and ideas into this one phrase. And at this point in time, it can refer to things that are quite different. Everything from having a sort of adversarial civil society online — you know, people just being mean to each other.

It can refer to the idea of ousting people from organizations for saying or doing bigoted or sexist or racist things in the past. It can refer to boycott campaigns. It can be used for, as we discussed, the idea of campaigning to get someone fired from their own job. And the reason this is a problem is because when people debate cancel culture, it’s a moving target. And it’s hard to know what someone’s referring to when someone else is talking about it. People can be using different definitions. And then, in effect, be either intentionally or unintentionally strawmanning each other by using different definitions.

And so a lot of people will use more mild instances of what’s commonly understood as cancel culture to sort of say it’s not a big deal. And then certain people emphasize the sort of harsher elements of it to say that this represents its true essence. And it just becomes very difficult to refer, to discuss in a way that really advances debate.

And so I think now Zeeshan thinks that the term itself, like the term “cancel culture,” even though he’s still concerned about some of the behavior that it refers to, is obstructing his ability to talk about that behavior. Right? The term is preventing him from talking about what the term is supposed to refer to, because it’s such a distraction. It turns even these progressive points that he lays out so, so carefully into fuel for alt-right Twitter. I mean, that’s the power of this term. But also why it’s become totally meaningless for him.

I think specificity is the path to enlightenment. And I think going forward, the idea is to just lay out the specific things that bother you. And I —

So it’s more than a semantic debate. It’s about how language gets used.

Yeah. I mean, let’s think about what happened in 2016, right? There’s actually a very similarly loaded phrase.

It is 9:00 p.m. on the East Coast. And the moment of truth has arrived. Welcome to the first debate night of the 2016 presidential campaign. I’m Megan Kelly.

So you’ll remember that President Trump, in 2016, took political correctness and really made it kind of a weapon.

You’ve called women you don’t like “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs” and “disgusting animals.” How will you answer the charge with Hillary Clinton, who is likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?

The big problem this country has is being politically correct. I’ve been — [CHEERING]

So political correctness also can refer to so many different kinds of things. But polls show that the phrase “political correctness” — the actual words “political correctness” — is just viewed overwhelmingly as negative. People have a negative response to whatever they think political correctness is. And recently a Politico poll found that something really, really similar is happening with the phrase “cancel culture.” So it found that a quarter of Americans had not even really heard of it. They hadn’t formed an opinion on it. But if you’re familiar with the phrase “cancel culture,” what this poll found is that you probably think it’s a negative thing and that it has a negative impact on society.

So owning a phrase like that — owning a phrase that for people is just this big blast of, “oh, I don’t like that” — that’s an incredibly powerful thing. And to be able to take that phrase and then put it on your opponent and say my opponent is associated with cancel culture, that’s even more powerful. You’re taking this phrase that means so many different things to so many people. But they all don’t like it. And you’re associating it with someone who is your political enemy. That can be an astonishingly powerful political tactic.

So Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker has this quote that I’ve been thinking about a lot recently that I think applies to this situation. So the quote is actually talking about the Mueller report. But it actually really does work perfectly here. So the quote is: “Simplicity rarely loses to complexity in battles in the public square.”

Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities. Many of these people have no idea why they’re doing this. But some know exactly what they are doing.

So then it really should be no surprise, given that we know cancel culture’s this incredibly complex and difficult-to-understand thing, but also that it’s a negative thing that Americans don’t like, that heading into the 2020 election, the president has recognized these features of the phrase “cancel culture.” And it’s become, for him, a new favorite weapon.

One of their political weapons is cancel culture — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitariatism and it is completely alien to our culture and to our values. And it has absolutely no place in the United States of America. [CHEERING]

Jonah, thank you, once again. We appreciate it.

Thanks, Michael.

Here’s what else you need to know today.

[SPEAKING ARABIC]

On Monday, the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Hassan Diab and members of his cabinet resigned amid rising public anger at the government there over the massive explosion last week that killed more than 150 people and wounded more than 6,000.

In a televised speech, Diab said that he stood with the people of Lebanon and blamed widespread corruption for the explosion, which occurred at a site where thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored for years, despite repeated requests that the government remove it.

[PROTESTORS SHOUTING]

But the resignations did little to quell the growing demonstrations in Beirut, where protesters are now calling for the country’s president to resign as well. And —

What occurred in our downtown and surrounding communities was abject criminal behavior, pure and simple.

Between Sunday night and Monday morning in Chicago, hundreds of people broke into stores and clashed with police in the city’s downtown, in what Mayor Lori Lightfoot described as an unprovoked crime spree.

This is not legitimate first amendment protected speech. These were not poor people engaged in petty theft to feed themselves and their families. This was straight up felony criminal conduct.

The crowds smashed windows and looted businesses, prompting city officials to briefly raise the bridges to and from downtown to try to stop the unrest. The Times reports that the confrontation may have been a response to a police shooting of a city resident and to misinformation about that encounter that spread online. By Monday morning, Chicago police had arrested more than 100 people.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

• April 24, 2024   •   32:18 Is $60 Billion Enough to Save Ukraine?
• April 23, 2024   •   30:30 A Salacious Conspiracy or Just 34 Pieces of Paper?
• April 22, 2024   •   24:30 The Evolving Danger of the New Bird Flu
• April 19, 2024   •   30:42 The Supreme Court Takes Up Homelessness
• April 18, 2024   •   30:07 The Opening Days of Trump’s First Criminal Trial
• April 17, 2024   •   24:52 Are ‘Forever Chemicals’ a Forever Problem?
• April 16, 2024   •   29:29 A.I.’s Original Sin
• April 15, 2024   •   24:07 Iran’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel
• April 14, 2024   •   46:17 The Sunday Read: ‘What I Saw Working at The National Enquirer During Donald Trump’s Rise’
• April 12, 2024   •   34:23 How One Family Lost $900,000 in a Timeshare Scam
• April 11, 2024   •   28:39 The Staggering Success of Trump’s Trial Delay Tactics
• April 10, 2024   •   22:49 Trump’s Abortion Dilemma

Listen and subscribe to our podcast from your mobile device: Via Apple Podcasts | Via Spotify | Via Stitcher

Yesterday on “The Daily,” the New York Times reporter Jonah Bromwich explained how the idea of cancel culture has emerged as a political and cultural force in 2020. In the second of two parts, he returns with a case study.

On today’s episode:

Jonah Engel Bromwich , who writes for the Styles section of The New York Times, spoke with Zeeshan Aleem, a freelance political reporter and publisher of What’s Left , about his experience of cancel culture.

Background reading:

Here’s the first episode in this two-part series exploring cancel culture’s origins and political power.

There’s an emerging class of people canceled for bad, conservative or offensive opinions. Cancellation is bringing many of them together .

For teenagers, cancellation on social media is not a new phenomenon. Here are some of their experiences with being canceled.

Tune in, and tell us what you think. Email us at [email protected] . Follow Michael Barbaro on Twitter: @mikiebarb . And if you’re interested in advertising with “The Daily,” write to us at [email protected] .

Jonah Engel Bromwich contributed reporting.

“The Daily” is made by Theo Balcomb, Andy Mills, Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Annie Brown, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Larissa Anderson, Wendy Dorr, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, Kelly Prime, Julia Longoria, Sindhu Gnanasambandan, M.J. Davis Lin, Austin Mitchell, Neena Pathak, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Daniel Guillemette, Hans Buetow, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Bianca Giaever, Liz O. Baylen and Asthaa Chaturvedi. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Mikayla Bouchard, Lauren Jackson, Julia Simon, Mahima Chablani, Nora Keller and Desiree Ibekwe.

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Case study definition

Case study, a term which some of you may know from the "Case Study of Vanitas" anime and manga, is a thorough examination of a particular subject, such as a person, group, location, occasion, establishment, phenomena, etc. They are most frequently utilized in research of business, medicine, education and social behaviour. There are a different types of case studies that researchers might use:

• Collective case studies

• Descriptive case studies

• Explanatory case studies

• Exploratory case studies

• Instrumental case studies

• Intrinsic case studies

Case studies are usually much more sophisticated and professional than regular essays and courseworks, as they require a lot of verified data, are research-oriented and not necessarily designed to be read by the general public.

How to write a case study?

It very much depends on the topic of your case study, as a medical case study and a coffee business case study have completely different sources, outlines, target demographics, etc. But just for this example, let's outline a coffee roaster case study. Firstly, it's likely going to be a problem-solving case study, like most in the business and economics field are. Here are some tips for these types of case studies:

• Your case scenario should be precisely defined in terms of your unique assessment criteria.

• Determine the primary issues by analyzing the scenario. Think about how they connect to the main ideas and theories in your piece.

• Find and investigate any theories or methods that might be relevant to your case.

• Keep your audience in mind. Exactly who are your stakeholder(s)? If writing a case study on coffee roasters, it's probably gonna be suppliers, landlords, investors, customers, etc.

• Indicate the best solution(s) and how they should be implemented. Make sure your suggestions are grounded in pertinent theories and useful resources, as well as being realistic, practical, and attainable.

• Carefully proofread your case study. Keep in mind these four principles when editing: clarity, honesty, reality and relevance.

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2024 April UE Institute - Case Study Series: Focus on Bone (Part 2) - Humeral Fracture/Radial Nerve Palsy Injuries and Terrible Triad Elbow Injuries

Session Title:   2024 April UE Institute - Case Study Series: Focus on Bone (Part 2) - Humeral Fracture/Radial Nerve Palsy Injuries and Terrible Triad Elbow Injuries

Presenters:   Romina Astifidis, MS, PT, CHT & Heather Weesner OTR/L, CHT

Moderator:   Kerry Demers, OTR/L, CHT

Learning Objectives: At the end of the presentation, participants will be able to:

• Understand anatomy of the radial nerve as it relates to the humerus
• List functional muscles related to the radial nerve
• Identify treatment techniques for shoulder/elbow/hand stiffness

Duration:    One hour 15 minutes

CE Credit:   1.25 continuing education hours, or 0.125 CEUs

Recommended Resources:

Below are the recommended resources for this course :

Astifidis, R. (2020). UE Institute: Clinical mechanics of the elbow. Retrieved from asht.org https://education.asht.org/system/files/materials/11718/2020_ue_insitute_february_elbow_presentation_final.pdf

Instructions on how to access UE Institute e-Community

Featured Event

Negative pressure manual therapy and mechanical vibration for edema management.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

This article is part of the research topic.

Rewilding in Practice

Developing guidelines and a theory of change framework for rewilding application based on an empirical study of rewilding practice Provisionally Accepted

• 1 University of Cumbria, United Kingdom
• 2 University of Leeds, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

There remain a number of debates and conflicts about the concept of rewilding which can be barriers to its application. Some of these conflicts stem from the variety of contextual interpretations of rewilding, leading to conflict between rewilding theories and approaches.Conclusions have also been drawn about rewilding based on limited case studies, so that emergent rewilding theories aren't applicable to all rewilding projects, limiting their support in the field. Past theories have distinguished different types of rewilding, encouraging debate over the proposed methods, although in practice these approaches often share similar goals and use similar interventions. One barrier to achieving consensus in the practice of rewilding is that there are no clear guidelines for rewilding, and there are limited broad-scale studies focusing on how rewilding is practiced. This paper addresses this by offering the first broad study of rewilding guidelines and interventions, using data sourced from rewilding organisations, case studies, and research. Drawing from these data, the paper offers three tools to guide rewilding practitioners: (1) an overview of guidelines for rewilding practice, (2) a list of interventions used in rewilding, considering them against rewilding goals, (3) a theory of change framework to guide rewilding application. The tools presented here will inform work towards IUCN rewilding guidelines and suggests several areas that require further consideration. We hope that this initial study of application can improve agreement and collaboration among the rewilding community.

Keywords: rewilding, Adaptive co.management, Theory of change (ToC), Transformative conservation, Rewilding and Restoring

Received: 09 Feb 2024; Accepted: 23 Apr 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Hawkins, Convery and Carver. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Dr. Sally Hawkins, University of Cumbria, City of Carlisle, United Kingdom

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