مقایسهٔ روش‌ها

	مطالعه موردی ابزاری	پژوهش مطالعه موردی	قوم‌نگاری
حوزه	کیفی	کیفی	کیفی
خانواده	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
سال پیدایش	1995	1984 (seminal codification)	c. 1922 (Malinowski's Argonauts of the Western Pacific)
پدیدآور	Robert E. Stake	Robert K. Yin (systematised in Case Study Research, 1984)	Bronisław Malinowski (modern ethnography); rooted in 19th-century anthropology
نوع	Qualitative research method	Qualitative research design	Qualitative fieldwork tradition
منبع بنیادین	Stake, R. E. (1995). The Art of Case Study Research. Sage Publications. ISBN: 978-0803957671	Yin, R.K. (2018). Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods (6th ed.). Sage. ISBN: 978-1506336169	Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P. (2019). Ethnography: Principles in Practice (4th ed.). Routledge. ISBN: 978-1138504462
نام‌های دیگر	instrumental case research, theory-building case study, illustrative case study, issue-driven case study	Vaka Çalışması (Case Study), case study design, case study methodology	Etnografi, participant observation, fieldwork, ethnographic research
مرتبط	6	5	5
خلاصه	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.	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.	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.