`How many cases do I need?'

Abstract

Today, ethnographers and qualitative researchers in fields such as urban poverty, immigration, and social inequality face an environment in which their work will be read, cited, and assessed by demographers, quantitative sociologists, and even economists. They also face a demand for case studies of poor, minority, or immigrant groups and neighborhoods that not only generate theory but also somehow speak to empirical conditions in other cases (not observed). Many have responded by incorporating elements of quantitative methods into their designs, such as selecting respondents `at random' for small, in-depth interview projects or identifying `representative' neighborhoods for ethnographic case studies, aiming to increase generalizability. This article assesses these strategies and argues that they fall short of their objectives. Recognizing the importance of the predicament underlying the strategies — to determine how case studies can speak empirically to other cases — it presents two alternatives to current practices, and calls for greater clarity in the logic of design when producing ethnographic research in a multi-method intellectual environment.

A Taste of Inequality: Food's Symbolic Value across the Socioeconomic Spectrum

“…I recruited families primarily using purposive sampling (Small 2009). At the time of recruitment, families were told that they would be participating in a study about High 8 7 5 5 25 Middle 8 7 5 5 25 Low 5 8 6 5 24 Total sample 21 22 16 15 74 families and food that involved interviews with parents and adolescents.…”

The Organic Food Philosophy: A Qualitative Exploration of the Practices, Values, and Beliefs of Dutch Organic Consumers Within a Cultural–Historical Frame

“…The purpose of this approach is to understand the case and its theoretical significance (Small 2009;Yin 2003). For theory development, a cross-case analysis involving about ten individuals may provide a good basis.…”

Making Friends in Violent Neighborhoods: Strategies among Elementary School Children

“…We did not seek to select a set of children that was representative of Chicago school children, nor do we attempt to make inferences about the distribution of characteristics in the larger population of children based on our findings, an effort for which our data would be inappropriate (Small 2009a). Instead, our article is motivated by the need to bring to light an ambiguity in the literature on the relationship between violence and the process of friendship formation.…”

“…The final product is the result of this dialectical process of analysis and reanalysis (Becker 1998). In-depth, open-ended interviews are ideal for questions in which the researcher attempts to understand actors' perceptions of their circumstances, reactions to those perceptions, and ensuing decisions (Lamont 1992;Weiss 1995;Small 2009a). Because our study is based primarily on interviews rather than participant observation, it will generate rich data to meet our objectives: to understand how actors perceive and make decisions about their circumstances.…”

“…Instead, our article is motivated by the need to bring to light an ambiguity in the literature on the relationship between violence and the process of friendship formation. Our design explicitly called for sampling for range, following a standard practice in qualitative analysis (Weiss 1995;Small 2009a). Because it was important for us to interview children who were both new and not new to the school, we sought sufficient numbers of boys and girls who were newly and not newly registered in each of the two schools.…”