Other assignments might ask you to apply or to test theories against a particular case. The ‘case’ is a particular event or issue that you are studying. Here, you think about quite abstract theories and see what they can help you to say about the case. In other words, with a case study you analyse the case with the help of some theory.

It can be useful to think of the theory here as a lens.

When you use a magnifying glass everything that you look at appears bigger. If you use a red glass everything will look red in colour.

In just the same way, the theory we use makes the world appear a certain way. If we apply a different theory the world looks different.

The question becomes, then, what does this theory help you to say about the case that you are studying? How does the world look through this lens? What are you able to notice that you would not have done if you had not applied that theory? And how can you then link that very particular event or issue to wider issues and broader themes?

Let’s think about an example. You might wish to look at the Black Lives Matter movement as your case study. And you might decide to examine this using Critical Race Theory. Here, you will see what Critical Race Theory says and see what light it sheds on the Black Lives Matter Movement. What links can you see? What would this theory ‘say’ about this case? What does this theory offer? Is there anything that the theory cannot explain about this movement? What happens if you look at the case with a different theory?

All of this helps you to examine events, activities and issues. But it also helps you to test the ideas that exist in the literature. You might hear people talk about the explanatory power of a theory. What does this mean? Theories are supposed to help us explain things that happen in the world. That is their job. They are abstract sets of ideas that help us to look at events or issues as linked or patterned. So, the explanatory power of a theory is its power to help us explain or understand something.

When you apply theory to your case, then, you are evaluating that theory. You’re saying this theory is useful or valuable in this instance. Or, you might want to say this theory does not help us to understand this thing – we need a different theory.