Case Studies in Safety Research

Abstract

Many, if not most, of the concepts, models and theories in organisational safety science have their origins in high-quality case studies. In this chapter, we consider the role of case studies in safety science. We see case studies as important opportunities for generating both rich empirical accounts of the production of safety and theoretical development by means of an interplay between data and concept development. A high-quality case study, however, is dependent on a high-quality design. From the literature on case study methodology, we present different case strategies that we believe are important for safety researchers, and discuss how safety science can benefit from future case studies. We highlight two case design approaches that we believe have potential to generate new theoretical knowledge within safety science: studies that lie at the intersection between existing theories, and comparative studies that treat context as an independent “variable.” Finally, we discuss how political and practical constraints can influence the leverage for designing and conducting high-quality case studies.