Case study research

One of the objectives of this research is to study in detail the problems and challenges faced by the Malay Muslim community in Malaysia today, including economic, educational, political and social concerns (notably integration). It seeks to study events in these categories and the process involved tackling ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions. Therefore, a case study is seen as an appropriate research design to apply in this study. This becomes clear when the design is examined in more detail.

Case study research is a study of a single case or small number of cases which investigates at a certain period of time and records the results at the end.⁶¹⁶ It is an in-depth, intensive and

616 Beverly R. Dixon, Gary D. Bouma and B.J. Atkinson, A Handbook of Social Science Research, Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 1987, p 110 and Keith F. Punch, Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, p 150.

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detailed study, using all kinds of appropriate methods.⁶¹⁷ The general objective of case study research, according to Punch, is “…to develop as full an understanding of the case as possible.”⁶¹⁸ Meanwhile, its aim is to seek description, i.e., what had happened to the focus or subject⁶¹⁹ and to study it “…in its natural setting, recognizing its complexity and its context.”⁶²⁰ Hence, a case study employs a holistic approach, which means an attempt to preserve the social context of its study, connecting the different sections of the case with the whole, and to understand and maintain the wholeness or completeness, unity and integrity of the case.⁶²¹ Consequently, it raises questions on the boundaries and in describing the characteristics of a case.⁶²² In studying the case, usually there are boundaries which are not clearly manifest between a contemporary phenomenon and its context.⁶²³ These boundaries thus, need to be clear, precisely to identify what things are to be studied and what are not, within the case itself.⁶²⁴

A case or ‘site’ may be defined as a phenomenon or incident of something which is happening in a bounded context whose events, processes and outcomes are being studied.⁶²⁵ Hence, a variety of things can be the subject of a case study. It could be a case study of an individual,

617 Keith F. Punch, Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, p 150, George Payne and Judy Payne, Key Concepts in Social Research, London: Sage Publications, 2004, p 31, Bob Matthews and Liz Ross, Research Methods: A Practical Guide for the Social Sciences, England: Pearson Education Limited, 2010, p 128.

618 Keith F. Punch, Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, p 150

619 Gary D. Bouma and G.B.J. Atkinson, A Handbook of Social Science Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995, p 110

620 Keith F. Punch, Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, p 150

621 Keith F. Punch, Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, p 150.

622 W. Lawrence Neuman, Social Research Methods, p 33.

623 Robert K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1984, p 23

624 Bob Matthews and Liz Ross, Research Methods: A Practical Guide for the Social Sciences, p 128

625 Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis: A Sourcebook of New Methods, London: Sage Publications, 1984, p 28 and Keith F. Punch, Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, p 152

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an organization, a situation, a small group, a community, a nation or a country.⁶²⁶ It could also be a study on a decision, a policy, a process, a certain incident or event, a movement, a geographical unit or some other possibility⁶²⁷ and its results could be used to test scientific or other abstract theories or models for practical use.⁶²⁸

There are several kinds of case study research. According to Yin, case study research can be divided into single and multiple case designs.⁶²⁹ Within the single-case design, there are

‘critical’, ‘unique’ or ‘extreme’ and ‘revelatory’ cases. A critical case is applied in testing or challenging a specified hypothesis or well-formulated theory.⁶³⁰ Hence a case is chosen “…on the ground that will allow a better understanding of the circumstances in which the hypothesis will or will not hold,”⁶³¹ or whether the theory is connected to the evidence or it is more relevant to provide an alternative way of clarifying the case.⁶³² A critical case could also refer to certain changes which allow a researcher to study further what has occurred as a result of the research.⁶³³

626 Keith F. Punch, Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, p 152

627 Ibid., W. Lawrence Neuman, Social Research Methods, Boston: Pearson Education, 2003, p 33, Bob Matthews and Liz Ross, Research Methods: A Practical Guide for the Social Sciences, p 128.

Hence, these characteristics are the main features of a case study. Punch concludes that there are four main characteristics of this type of research design; first, it has boundaries or is a ‘bounded system’, second, it is a case of something, third, it sustains the wholeness, unity and integrity of the subject and fourth it uses multiple sources of data and data collection methods (Punch, 1998: 153)

628 Martyn Shuttleworth, ‘Case Study Research Design’, Experiment-Resources.Com, 2008, see http://www.experiment-resources.com/case-study-research-design.html (accessed February 9, 2012)

629 Robert K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, pp 42-50

630 Ibid, p 42 and Alan Bryman, Social Research Methods, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, p 48

631 Alan Bryman, Social Research Methods, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, p 48.

632 Robert K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, pp 42-43

633 Bob Matthews and Liz Ross, Research Methods: A Practical Guide for the Social Sciences, p 128

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Meanwhile, an extreme or unique case is a type usually found in clinical studies. It concentrates on a certain group or situation that is seen to be different from most others and focuses on its uniqueness or rareness.⁶³⁴ Hence, it is chosen at the level of the researcher’s interests, for example, a clinical study of an unusual case to shed light on what is normal such as “…studying the brain-damaged to explore the psychology of memory.”⁶³⁵ Third, revelatory cases give the researcher a chance to “…observe and analyze a phenomenon previously inaccessible to scientific investigation.”⁶³⁶ Hence, this kind of case study creates new ideas and provides fresh access to the research topic.⁶³⁷

Furthermore, there is the multiple case study which is also referred to as the comparative or collective case study.⁶³⁸ It usually focuses from within and through cases and is extended from a single case study to the study of several other cases, to learn further regarding the phenomenon, population or general condition of the cases.⁶³⁹

634 Ibid

635 Geoff Payne and Judy Payne, Key Concepts in Social Research, London: Sage Publications, 2004, p 33

636 Robert K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, p 43

637 Geoff Payne and Judy Payne, Key Concepts in Social Research, p 33 and Bob Matthews and Liz Ross, Research Methods: A Practical Guide for the Social Sciences, p 128. Apart from these types of case study, Bob Matthews and Liz Ross add two more kinds which are the representative or typical case and the longitudinal case. According to them, representative or typical cases, as opposed to unique cases, are perceived as representative and similar to many other cases (on the basis of ‘everyday’ and ordinary cases) and selected for this reason. Longitudinal cases involve many case studies and can be carried out in “… successive studies over period of time”. (Matthews and Ross, 2010: 128). Meanwhile, Stake classified types of case study as the intrinsic case study, the instrumental case study and the collective case study. For details, see Bob Matthews and Liz Ross, Research Methods: A Practical Guide for the Social Sciences, p 128 and Robert E. Stake, The Art of Case Study Research, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1995, pp 3-7

638 Keith F. Punch, Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, p 152

639 Ibid.

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The above definitions suggest that a critical case study design is the most appropriate to be employed in the present research. Here, the purpose of using a critical case study is to explore the possibility of applying the theory of ‘Aṣabiyyah within the context of the Malay Muslim community in Malaysia. This should test the theory and challenge it to fit in the context of this community by studying in detail the background of this community, its present problems and challenges in the aspects stated in the research objective, via library and fieldwork research, which will be discussed further in section 4.8 of this chapter, below.