The role of civil society in promoting greater social justice for forced migrants living in the inner city of Johannesburg

APPENDIX I: CASE STUDIES

A. Sources of Evidence for a Case Study

Yin (1994) identifies six main sources of evidence for a case study research, namely:

documentation, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant observation, and physical artefacts (Tellis, 1997). These sources are essential in every case but should not necessarily be used at the same time. In this report, I used only two sources: interviews and participant observations.

Based on Tellis (1997) model, the following table presents the strengths and weaknesses of both interviews and participant observations:

Source of Evidences Strengths Weaknesses

Interviews ^{- Targeted - focuses on}

case study topic

- Insightful - provides perceived causal

- Bias due to poor

questions

- Response bias

inferences - Incomplete recollection

Participant Observations - Reality - covers events in real time

- Contextual - covers event context

- Insightful into interpersonal behaviour

- Reflexivity - interviewee

expresses what interviewer wants to hear

- Time-consuming

- Selectivity - might miss facts

- Reflexivity - observer's presence might cause change

- Cost - observers need time

- Bias due to investigator's actions

Fig. Strenghts and weaknesses of Interviews and participant observation (after Tellis, in

http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR3-3/tellis2.html. Cited 08 August 2006.

B. Application and Procedures of Case Study

According to Yin (1994), there are four different applications for the case study research

model. The case-stud y model aims (Tells, 1997):

1. To explain causal links in real-life interventions;

2. To describe the real-life context in which the intervention has occurred;

3. To describe the intervention itself, and;

4. To explore those situations in which the intervention being evaluated has no clear set of outcomes.

With regarding to the procedures to be followed, Yin (1994) advises researchers to have some skills including: «the abilit y to ask good questions and to interpret the responses, be a good listener, be adaptive and flexible so as to react to various situations, have a firm grasp of issues being studied, and be unbiased by preconceived notions. The investigator must be able

to function as a "senior" investigator» (Tellis, 1997).