Interpretive Single Case Study — Bounded Interpretive Inquiry

An interpretive single case study is a qualitative research design that examines one bounded instance — a person, organisation, event, programme, or community — in depth, with the explicit goal of understanding what that case means to the people within it. Drawing on Stake's notion of the intrinsic case and an interpretivist epistemological stance, the approach treats meaning as socially constructed and context-dependent, making rich, contextual understanding its primary output.