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1 results

  • 10 - Positive Deviance Cases: Their Value for Development Research, Policy, and Practice

  • from Part III - Putting Case Studies to Work: Applications to Development Practice
  • Edited by Jennifer Widner, Princeton University, New Jersey, Michael Woolcock, Daniel Ortega Nieto
  • Book:
    The Case for Case Studies
    Published online:
    05 May 2022
    Print publication:
    26 May 2022, pp 219-238
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  • Summary

    Political scientist Cammett considers the use of positive deviant cases – examples of sustained high performance in a context in which good results are uncommon – to identify and disentangle causal complexity and understand the role of context. Although the consensus view on the role of deviant cases is that they are most useful for exploratory purposes or discovery and theory building, Cammett suggests they can also generate insights into the identification and operation of causal mechanisms. She writes that “analyses of positive deviant cases among a field of otherwise similar cases that operate in the same context … can be a valuable way to identify potential explanatory variables for exceptional performance.” The hypothesized explanatory variables can then be incorporated in subsequent quantitative or qualitative studies in order to evaluate their effects across a broader range of observations. The chapter discusses how to approach selection of positive deviant cases systematically and then works through a real example.