You Can Generalize Stupid! Social Scientists, Bent Flyvbjerg, and Case Study Methodology

It is an issue of some contestation as to whether generalization is an appropriate requisite to demand of case study research in any case. The author argues that the critique is misdirected, and based on Bent Flyvbjerg’s concept of a “critical case,” ways of generalizing from case studies are indicated (Iran/Iraq War of 1980). In addition, the author illustrates that the case study is idyllic for generalizing using the brand of test that Karl Popper called “falsification.” Conversely, the author exhibits Robert Stake’s ethos that case studies need not make any claims about the generalizability of their findings but rather, what is crucial is the use others make of them—chiefly, that they feed into processes of “naturalistic generalization.”