Towards a dialogical methodology for single case studies

Abstract

This special issue has explored a range of means of ‘generalising’ or ‘re-situating knowledge’ through the intensive, dialogical, examination of single cases. The papers elaborate aspects of the methodology of dialogical case studies without asking the traditional question: ‘of what is this a case?’ In this concluding article, we look across the papers to draw out methodological considerations for dialogical single case studies, comparing how the papers deal with four key dialogically informed methodological concerns: the primacy of self-other interdependencies; dynamics; ethics; and modes of writing. We then turn to the question of generalising, or re-situating, knowledge. Across the papers, three different, but overlapping, approaches to re-situating knowledge are taken, implying alternative possible questions: (i) How does the case participate in epistemic or narrative genres? (ii) How does the case contribute to a genealogy? (iii) In what ways is the case generative? We offer these concepts and questions as methodological prompts for case study researchers to conceptualise their knowledge-making as a dialogical endeavour.