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Qualitative Methods for Policy Analysis: Case Study Research Strategy

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Agricultural Policy Analysis

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Abstract

Many policy researchers are predisposed to use either quantitative or qualitative research methods regardless of the research questions at hand, leading to varying degrees of gaps in their findings and policy recommendations. Qualitative approaches effectively address why and how types of research questions to complement the answers for who, what, where, how many, and how much research questions, obtained using quantitative research methods, enabling researchers to make policy outcomes meaningful and contextually relevant. This chapter introduces the case study as an appropriate research strategy for accommodating qualitative and quantitative methods, followed by a brief account of qualitative research methods.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a lucid example for selecting a geographical boundary of a case study, see Kodithuwakku (1997) and Kodithuwakku and Rosa (2002) in which the authors selected a Sri Lankan village to explore entrepreneurial behaviour of rural farmers. Similarly, Leach (1967) drew conclusions on his fieldwork in just one village to counter some interpretations from an extensive survey conducted by Sakar and Tambiah (1957) in 57 villages on land ownership in Sri Lanka.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

    Sarath S. Kodithuwakku

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  1. Sarath S. Kodithuwakku
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

    Jeevika Weerahewa

  2. Policy Analyst, Technical Assistance to the Modernisation of Agriculture Programme Sri Lanka (TAMAP), Colombo, Sri Lanka

    Andrew Jacque

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Kodithuwakku, S.S. (2022). Qualitative Methods for Policy Analysis: Case Study Research Strategy. In: Weerahewa, J., Jacque, A. (eds) Agricultural Policy Analysis. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3284-6_7

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