The epistemological thrust of qualitative research is case oriented. R
egardless of qualitative methodology or sample size, qualitative resea
rch is quintessentially about understanding a particular in the all-to
gether. Regardless of the kind of analytic technique employed, qualita
tive analysts are obliged, first and foremost, to make sense of indivi
dual cases. Looking at and through each case in a qualitative project
is the basis from which researchers may make idiographic generalizatio
ns and move to cross-case comparisons to construct aggregations, synth
eses, or interpretations of data from and faithful to individual cases
. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.