Comparar métodos

	Estudio de caso instrumental	Investigación-acción	Etnografía	Teoría Fundamentada
Campo	Cualitativa	Investigación cualitativa	Cualitativa	Investigación cualitativa
Familia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Año de origen	1995	1946	c. 1922 (Malinowski's Argonauts of the Western Pacific)	1967
Autor original	Robert E. Stake	Kurt Lewin; expanded by Kemmis, McTaggart, Reason & Bradbury	Bronisław Malinowski (modern ethnography); rooted in 19th-century anthropology	Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss
Tipo	Qualitative research method	Method	Qualitative fieldwork tradition	Method
Fuente seminal	Stake, R. E. (1995). The Art of Case Study Research. Sage Publications. ISBN: 978-0803957671	Lewin, K. (1946). Action research and minority problems. Journal of Social Issues, 2(4), 34–46.	Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P. (2019). Ethnography: Principles in Practice (4th ed.). Routledge. ISBN: 978-1138504462	Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine.
Alias	instrumental case research, theory-building case study, illustrative case study, issue-driven case study	Participatory Action Research, PAR, Collaborative Inquiry	Etnografi, participant observation, fieldwork, ethnographic research	GT, Grounded Theory Approach
Relacionados	6	1	5	3
Resumen	Instrumental case study is a qualitative research design, formalised by Robert E. Stake (1995), in which a specific case is studied primarily to gain insight into an external issue or theoretical question — not because the case itself is intrinsically important. The case serves as an instrument for understanding something broader: a policy problem, a theoretical proposition, or a generalised phenomenon. One or several cases are selected because they are expected to illuminate the issue particularly well, and the researcher moves fluidly between the case and the issue throughout the study.	Action research is a collaborative research methodology in which researchers work with practitioners and community members to investigate a problem, implement change, and evaluate outcomes, cycling through reflection, action, and learning. Developed by Kurt Lewin (1946), action research bridges research and practice, aiming simultaneously to produce knowledge and practical improvement.	Ethnography is a qualitative research tradition in which a researcher immerses themselves in a social group or community over an extended period — typically three to six months or longer — to study its culture, values, and behaviours in their natural setting. Originating in social and cultural anthropology, and consolidated as a rigorous method by Bronisław Malinowski in the early twentieth century, ethnography produces rich, contextualised accounts of how people live, work, and make meaning together.	Grounded Theory (GT) is a systematic qualitative research methodology in which theory emerges directly from data through iterative analysis, rather than being imposed before data collection. Developed by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss in 1967, GT prioritizes generating explanatory frameworks grounded in evidence.