Σύγκριση μεθόδων

	Βιογραφική Έρευνα	Έρευνα μελέτης περίπτωσης	Ανάλυση Λόγου
Πεδίο	Ποιοτικές Μέθοδοι	Ποιοτικές Μέθοδοι	Ποιοτική Έρευνα
Οικογένεια	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Έτος προέλευσης	Late 19th–early 20th century (Dilthey ~1883; Thomas & Znaniecki 1918–1920)	1984 (seminal codification)	1989 (Fairclough); 1987 (Potter & Wetherell)
Δημιουργός	Wilhelm Dilthey (hermeneutic foundations); Thomas & Znaniecki (sociological application); Norman Denzin (interpretive biography)	Robert K. Yin (systematised in Case Study Research, 1984)	Norman Fairclough; Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell
Τύπος	Qualitative research method	Qualitative research design	Method
Θεμελιώδης πηγή	Denzin, N. K. (1989). Interpretive Biography. Sage Publications.	Yin, R.K. (2018). Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods (6th ed.). Sage. ISBN: 978-1506336169	Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. Longman.
Εναλλακτικές ονομασίες	life history research, biographical method, life story research, biographical narrative inquiry	Vaka Çalışması (Case Study), case study design, case study methodology	DA, Critical Discourse Analysis, Discursive Analysis
Συναφείς	6	5	2
Σύνοψη	Biographical research is a qualitative method that examines individual lives in depth — through life-history interviews, personal documents, letters, and autobiographical narratives — to understand how personal experience intersects with social, historical, and cultural forces. Rooted in Wilhelm Dilthey's hermeneutics and made prominent in sociology by Thomas and Znaniecki's study of Polish immigrants, it treats the individual life story as a window onto broader social structures and processes. It belongs to the narrative inquiry subfamily alongside oral history and life-story research.	Case study research is a qualitative research design that investigates a specific phenomenon, individual, group, organisation, or event in depth within its real-world context. Systematised by Robert K. Yin in 1984, it supports single-case and multiple-case designs and draws on multiple data sources — interviews, observation, documents, and artefacts — to build a rich, contextualised account of a bounded unit.	Discourse analysis is a qualitative research methodology that examines how language, communication, and power shape meaning, identity, and social reality. Developed across linguistics, sociology, and psychology (particularly by Norman Fairclough and Jonathan Potter), discourse analysis goes beyond content to analyze language use as a social practice that constitutes and reflects power relations, ideologies, and social structures.