Single-Case Study — Single-Case Study Design

A single-case study is a qualitative research design that investigates one bounded instance — an organization, program, event, individual, or community — in its real-world context through multiple converging sources of evidence. Developed into a rigorous social-science method chiefly by Robert Yin and Robert Stake, it is especially powerful when the case is unique, extreme, critical, or revelatory, and when the research question begins with 'how' or 'why' rather than 'how many.'