The enemy lays within

Only two moments that convinced me from Andersons last fashion show... Not sure why am I posting this.

From the reimaginig of the democratic dynamics by Chantal Mouffe to the transitional position of the State (social crisis, non-financeable, non-sustainabile) to a fully fledged delusional free market economy   mobilising global capital, thus material and human resources, to micro-regulated socio-economic-systems based on micro-financial and intellectual transaction infused by an ideological empathy. A form of capitalist anarchism? The bending of the flows?

Maybe all this post-marxist psychoanalytic tendency is getting to my head. It is true though that any form of inefficiency is counterproductive to the flows or logics of capital. Not to say that capital and its supporting institutions are super-efficient, but efficiency is one of capitalisms mantras for growth. Anything that, as nongovernmental/regulatory bodies we can do, is to change from within. Affection, sleep, charity, stroking, slowing down, all of those are effective for a counteractive action against capitalism. There is a lot that I have found inspiring in Franco Berardi Bifos What is the meaning of Autonomy Today? It is perhaps, as he concludes, and drawing on Atelier d'Architectur Autogeree, that its meaning rests on setting the parameters that allow for alternative ways of living amidst the flows of capitalism, and its self-reproducing implementation of values.

Below a compendium of what I found most attractive:

"Globalisation does indeed have a material side, because industrial labour does not disappear in the post-industrial age, but migrates towards the geographic zones where it is possible to pay low wages and regulations are poorly implemented."

"While the market was idealised as a free space where knowledges, expertise and creativity meet, reality showed that the big groups of command operate in a way that is far from being libertarian, but instead introduces technological automatisms, imposing itself with the power of the media or money, and finally shamelessly robbing the mass of share holders and cognitive labour."

 "Thus a new phase began: the groups that became predominant in the cycle of the net-economy forge an alliance with the dominant group of the old- economy (the Bush clan, representative of the oil and military industry), and this phase signals a blocking of the project of globalisation. Neoliberalism produced its own negation, and those who were its most enthusiastic supporters become its marginalized victims."

"Digital artisans, who felt like entrepreneurs of their own labour during the 90s, are slowly realizing that they have been deceived, expropriated, and this will create the conditions for a new consciousness of cognitive workers. The latter will realise that despite having all the productive power, they have been expropriated of its fruits by a minority of ignorant speculators who are only good at handling the legal and financial aspects of the productive process."

"On the other hand, productive labour increasingly inscribed in the cognitive functions of society: cognitive labour is starting to see itself as a cognitariat, building institutions of knowledge, of creation, of care, of invention and of education that are autonomous from capital."

"This is the effect of the flexibilisation and fractalisation of labour: what used to be the autonomy and the political power of the workforce has became the total dependence of cognitive labour on the capitalist organisation of the global network.This is the central nucleus of the creation of semiocapitalism. What used to be refusal of work has became a total dependence of emotions, and thought on the flow of information."

"So what? I have no answer. All we can do is what we are actually doing already: the self-organisation of cognitive work is the only way to go beyond the psychopathic present. I don’t believe that the world can be governed by Reason. The Utopia of Enlightenment has failed. But I think that the dissemination of self-organised knowledge can create a social framework containing infinite autonomous and self-reliant worlds.

The process of creating the network is so complex that it cannot be governed by human reason. The global mind is too complex to be known and mastered by sub-segmental localised minds. We cannot know, we cannot control, we cannot govern the entire force of the global mind.

But we can master the singular process of producing a singular world of sociality. This is autonomy today."

To me what its missing is that without falling into cinisism or romanticizing human kind, we need to ask, what provoked the collapse of the global mind, and what prevents it from recuperating?

1#Architecture parlante

Architecture parlante (“speaking architecture”) is architecture that explains its own function or identity.

The phrase was originally associated with Claude Nicolas Ledoux, and was extended to other Paris-trained architects of the Revolutionary period, Étienne-Louis Boullée, and Jean-Jacques Lequeu.^[1] Emil Kaufmann traced its first use to an anonymous critical essay with Ledoux's work as the subject, written for Magasin Pittoresque in 1852, and entitled "Etudes d'architecture en France".^[2] In Ledoux's unbuilt plans for the salt-producing town of Chaux, the hoop-makers' houses are shaped like barrels, the river inspector's house straddles the river, and an enormous brothel takes the shape of an erect phallus.-Wikipedia

What was extraordinary about Ledouxs work of the Saltworks is that it proposed a new model for living, a new hole set of politics, based on a very clear idea of the order of things.

I think works of art cannot only serve as a critique, they also have to be in the process propositive. If not they just fall into a category that mimics life as it is. Almost like Franks Stella "What you see is what you see". 

For so I feel super ambivalent towards Superflex work, which I need to further explore.

Architecture cannot embrace this unrealistic and sometimes fake idea of material chastity. the solution lays in the production of effective processees that are much more biological, this is, that are in harmony with its environment or that have engage in some sort of biomomicry. This also concerns materials and the understanding that not all processes are material. This requires a much more comprehensive understanding of the systems in which we are as living creatures embedded in.

This also has to do with a new conception of fuel or the idea of energy. It is delusory, in my opinion, the idea of sustainability, but nevertheless that doesn't mean we cant move towards an achievement of  some sort of innovation or progress, which cannot mean un any case material progress.

We need to demystify technology and promote a depolarized attitude towards substance. The contemporary panorama its confusing but not necessarily chaotic. This means that as subjects we ned to acknowledge the escalating complexity of our environment, which requires new systems of navigation and communication. Is to my opinion as well, that we are at a time of connectedness rather than of autonomous solidity. Its is therefore necessary that although we remain disciplinary/professionally circumscribed, we have a set of systems in the collaborative practices or interdisciplinarity.

For this effect we need to unlearn this solidity and start melting our brains in a process of unfolding criticality. It is true and possibly innegable that reason has its limitations, but still an inquisitive attitude should pervade.

It is hopefully a trigger rather than a totalizing view of nature that I can convey with these wounds.

Preparing my dissertation for submission, Architecture & Autonomy. I know it sounds extra lame, but I think its pretty much the foundational basis of what I want to explore in my architectural career (as soon as I have one haha). Hopefully the final dissertation will look better!

No long ago I read something I felt was very Contemporary. It was Alejandro Zaera-Polo on the oppression of the market on the practice of architecture, which currently took all the important decision from the architects hand, like the program and hired them in order to design a facade.

Today I was listening to some architectural history about Ledoux. He said back in the 18th century-"if you want to be an architect, start by being a painter*1"- to which the commentator added-"all those variations you would find in the inactive surface of a wall, that is what an artist can do when funds are limited", in reference to the act of beautifying the flat surface by means of composition.




*1Architecture 18 of 23 Claude Nicolas Ledoux The Saline of Arc et Senans available from : accessed [19 April 2014]

Since I watched a documentary on diagrams produced by the BBC, I have been obsessed with the idea of taking up the challenge of the Vitruvian Man or defining the bodies that inhabit architecture or defining our conception of the body as a carrier of a plethora of traits.

In thinking of this redefinition, I have thought of the psychological, the rational and the irrational, the conscious and the unconscious, of the more tangible like the  limbs and their reach and their implications in the psychological, the social in terms of the subject as a self-conceiving substance in continuous formation and reformation with an ability to interact, this is to reflect and absorb in relating to others and otherness. And, although I have thought of the political in the current climate of an apparent democracy, its power-domination relationships, its distribution of labour, or in short, its resources, I have never thought of the juridicial subject*1. This comes as a surprise to me, but nevertheless obvious, as we live in a regulated society, a perceptual distance (between ruled and ruler) that it is never been felt close enough. Like when we see a prison and we think of Convicts, or a tribunal an we think of the imputed or accused as the Guilty, as if there were a distance between this one-sided subject with no other life realms and us, that go trough the experience of a pure ascetic life/style.

In this realisation there is, we might argue, an overarching framework, that of regulatory codes and forms of law. The body is not subjective anymore and a relatively free moving entity, but an enclosed body within a regulatory practice; society.

Kant says that our world, which can only be subjective, goes as far as our consciousness or that that we are aware of. For so, the Vitruvian Man cannot be an all-reaching principle, but an intersubjective becoming. An aura shaped by forces that deterritorialise and territorialise in a game of push-pulling vectorial forces (yes, Deleuze and Guattari). Because the world is as we perceive it and as we know it, it can't be a shared one. It has to be personal, full of perceptual haecceities. Although haecceity might be a problematic concept-the variations between the idea and the particular or the differing between the ideal and the sensible (in the platonic sense)-we might stop thinking of a formulation that has or posits a base that can be gradually incremented or of an additive nature. The Vitruvian man is therefore all that the flowing substance comprehends and is familiar with.

Here the problem of the unconscious arises, as there is manifestation of the inexplicable or inapprehensible, for not everything that we don't know doesn't exist or part-take in our lives.

Finally there should be a system or a set of parameters that could be set in this endeavour, which could provide for a growing cell or ever-expanding conception. Also lets strip off of all naivety this enterprise, which is not the achievement of a descriptive model for the contemplation or erudition of the general public, but as the Le Corbusier's Modulor, to arrive at a substantial conception of the body, or better put, a conception of the inhabiting body for the generation of an all encompassing architecture, which not only deals with the phenomenological subject, but also with the physical, jurisdictional, historical(composed of memories), etc. subject. As Koolhaas' architecture of direction and promenade, of visual connection and positioning in relation to the urban or the BIG, the architect is not a unidirectional substance, it deals with it internal and external forces; gosh I have to shit or Oh gosh I have to speak, I have to relate or I have to inter-relate. For the subject cannot be conceived as a man in nature, with an out in the air hanging-willy (to follow the masculine conception of history and its representation, for which efforts are being made to challenge and also because a pendulum seems to be more graphically powerful than a static clam)*2 but as a subjected form, to the workings of the practice of architecture, in which physical inanimate substance shape their most direct environment, specifically within the urban context or the metropolis (not equivalent though).

It is important here to notice that the Vitruvian Man has to be conceived within society and not outside of it, for this position to arise will require a relocation or repositioning that I am in no condition to acquire; that of exile. For the rules of the times of Newton might have been those of nature or concededly of physics-hence the apple falling on to his head-for the contemporary man in the western world or more specifically in the Europe, is that of the from-above-falling-Constitution and the rules that govern what is acceptable or unacceptable. If the world of the Vitruvian Man was that of earth or the geocentric conception, currently we could argue we are more immersed in a dynamic heteromorphic constellation subjected to an apparent prevalence of contingency, wether this is real or apparent you will have to ask the market, he (yes He) will give you an answer.




*1 The Ledoux Effect: Emil Kaufmann and the Claims of Kantian Autonomy, from  Osman, M. et al. (eds) (2002) Perspecta 33, Mining Autonomy, The Yale Architectural Journal, Connecticut: Herlin Press. p.21 

*2 My own deviations

which are the limits of architecture?


which are the limitations of architecture?


which are the limitations of the discipline of architecture?


which are the limitations of the practice of architecture?


which are the limitations of the practice of architecture in producing change?


which are the limitations in the practice and production of architecture in stimulating social change?

what is the discipline capable of? and what is the discipline incapable of?

post-materialism

post-industrial

post-capitalist

post-critical

All of this within a digital/cultural workings of indexation...

Architecture as a self-contained profession that deals with the conception and definition of the material.

In this process of conception and definition it liaises with the fields of cultural phenomena that might influence a priori or a posteriori the definition of the specific forms, this is to be decided by the architect, who chooses between isolation or exposure. Danger lies in becoming completely oblivious to reality or to reproduce reality. Where does criticality lie then? I think this is the conflict which I hope to elucidate. Obviously lets think of an in between, or a gradation. But how do we put this into practice? It is for me urgent to practice and to study at the same time. Action research embedded into practice? How can we inject this criticality into the realm of direct actin/involvement? Is the answer in the social sciences? Is the answer in philosophy? In phsyclogy? In psycoanalyisi? In short, is the answer in interdisciplinary practice? if so, towards what? resistance? resistance to what?... and so on and so forth.

Do not indadvertedly conflate:


architect as expert


architecture as profession

architecture as practice

architecture as product

CAPITALISM

+

WAR

1#Designing systems diagrams

briefly
When planning a project a ‘systems’ diagram is essential. This will allow you to show your thinking regarding your idea(s) and whether or not they will answer the design problem. It also allows you to think systematically and logically about the design problem and how it can be solved. Above all, it keeps you ‘on track’ and does not allow you to wander too far away from the original design problem. A systems diagram is similar to a flow chart although on first sight it is much simpler and more precise. The diagram is usually part of either, the ideas or development sections. However, do not restrict yourself to these two areas, if you feel it is necessary, use this type of diagram wherever you like in the design process.-Technologystudent.com

Systems diagrams are used to show the inputs that are evaluated and summed to obtain the emergy (available energy) of a resulting flow or storage. The purpose of the system diagram is to conduct a critical inventory of processes, storages and flows that are important “drivers” of the system (all flows that inflow across the system boundary) and are therefore necessary to evaluate.-Wikipedia

extensively

System diagrams are powerful tools that help you to understand how complex systems work. Systems analyzed may be anything from businesses, through biological population models, to the impact of social policy, etc.

System diagrams are particularly helpful in showing you how a change in one factor may impact elsewhere. They are excellent tools for flushing out the long term impacts of a change. Importantly, a good system diagram will show how changing a factor may feed back to affect itself!

Drawing a system diagram is a good way of starting to build a computer model. The technique helps you to map out the structure of the system to be modeled. It shows the factors and relationships that are important, and helps you to start quantifying the linkages between factors.

Relationships Between Factors

At the heart of the use of system diagrams is the idea of linking factors to show a relationship between them.

For example a company may link the factors of product quality and customer satisfaction. It believes that as the quality of its goods change, so will customers' happiness with them. We show this as an arrow linking the two factors:

The S shows that the factors move in the Same way – as quality improves, so will the happiness of customers. The arrow shows the direction of the relationship: raising customer happiness does not necessarily raise the quality of the goods!

These relationships can also work the other way. The company may link price with the customers' perceptions of the 'good value' of its goods. This is shown below:

The O shows that the relationship works in the opposite way: in this case as you raise price, customers' perceptions of good value reduce.

Feedback Loops

Feedback is an important concept in the use of system diagrams – in very many cases changing one factor will impact on another factor, which will then affect the first.

Feedback will either reduce the impact of the change, or will amplify it.

Balancing Loops

Where feedback reduces the impact of a change, we call this a Balancing Loop. The example below shows an example of a balancing loop, where an under-resourced service company is trying to raise quality:

In this situation, improving the quality of service leads to improved customer satisfaction, which leads to an increase in demand for the company's service. In trying to meet this demand, the company has less time to devote to individual customers, which reduces its ability to improve quality further.

Note the small circular arrow in the middle of the loop. This shows which way round the loop is running. In complex diagrams with many loops, this arrow will be labeled and will identify loops.

The graph below shows how quality of service might vary with time in the example above:

Reinforcing Loops

Where feedback increases the impact of a change, we call this a Reinforcing Loop. The example below shows an example of a theatre trying to improve its profitability by investing more in productions.

As more investment is put into a production, the theatre is able to put on more lavish plays with more famous actors. Better plays should bring better reviews, and therefore higher ticket sales. This should lead to higher profitability, and therefore more money available to invest in future productions.

A graph showing how ticket sales might vary against time is shown below:

Note that this assumes that investment is increasing as time goes on. It also ignores some important facts: firstly that there are only a certain number of seats in the theatre, and secondly that external factors such as competition and market saturation will eventually limit growth. On a system diagram showing the way that the theatre operates, these factors would be shown as balancing loops impacting on this reinforcing loop.

External Factors

The system diagrams we have looked at so far completely ignore the impact of these external factors on them.

In our balancing loop example above we assumed that demand was raised only as customers became more satisfied. In reality demand is just as likely to be affected by the state of the economy. This is shown in the modified diagram below:

We show an external factor as a labeled relationship arrow pointing to the appropriate part of the system diagram.

Gaps

In our reinforcing loop example above we related sales of theatre seats to investment in productions. What we were not able to build into the model was the fact that there is a limited number of seats in the theatre.

Inevitably this will cap the growth of ticket sales as the theatre will seriously upset customers if it sells more tickets than it has seats available!

We build this into our model with the idea of a gap. There is a gap between the number of seats available (an external factor we have not yet built into our model), and the number of seats used (tickets sold).

As the theatre sells more tickets, the size of this gap reduces. At a particular point it cannot sell any more tickets. Increases in investment beyond this point may not yield any more profit.

We show this by modifying our diagram to both show both the external factor of the limit of the number of seats, and to show the gap:

When all seats are sold, i.e. when seats available – seats bought = 0, then profit will not rise any higher unless other factors are brought into the system.

Note that it is very important to get the gap definition correct for your model.

Delay

The impact of delay is the final area we need to consider in our system diagrams.

Ideally when we make a change to a system it should adjust immediately to its new state. In reality there is almost always a delay before other factors adjust. This delay may occur in a mechanical system simply as a result of inertia and friction. In a human system it will occur as people take time to communicate, get used to new ideas, and implement change.

We can show this delay in a simple model using antelopes and cheetahs. As the number of antelopes rises, more food is available for the cheetahs. More cheetahs will therefore survive, and will be able to breed.

One part of the delay within this system is given by the length of time it takes for a cheetah to be born and grow to maturity. The other part occurs as starving cheetahs take time to die.

Feedback occurs as cheetahs kill antelopes. The higher the number of cheetahs, the greater will be their impact on the antelope population.

The system below shows this:

Note the double slash on the line showing the relationship between the antelope and cheetah populations. This shows that some form of delay is slowing the change of the related factor.

If there was no delay within the system, we might expect to see a graph showing the number of cheetahs over time like the one below:

Here adjustment would be immediate. Any change in the antelope population would be instantly matched by an increase in the cheetah population. These additional cheetahs would eat the additional antelopes, and then die immediately.

The delay in the system causes it to behave in a different way:

• Firstly the cheetah population will take time to increase
• Next, the large population of cheetahs will continue to breed as food starts to become scarce.
• This number of cheetahs will cause a big reduction in the number of antelopes.
• This will then lead to a crash in cheetah population as animals starve.
• The antelope population will then recover as there will be fewer cheetahs to restrict their numbers.

If nothing else has any impact on this system, then cheetah numbers may oscillate as shown below:

This occurs as the cheetah population continually over-adjusts, first in growth, and then in decline. In this system, the longer it takes for a cheetah to breed and starve – i.e. the greater the delay – the greater will be the variations in cheetah populations.

Improving the Systems Model

The models we have looked at so far have been simple – they have ignored many possible impacts on each system. For example, in our model of antelopes and cheetahs, we have ignored the impact of disease, drought, human activity, etc.

We improve the model by building in as many of these external factors as we can think of. We can then simplify it by eliminating those factors that have a negligible impact.

External factors might be:

• Natural – weather, natural resources, disease, environmental change, etc.
• Technological – new technologies, changes in technology, etc.
• Human – psychological, emotional, ambitions, expectations, etc.
• Political – ideology, corruption, effectiveness, interest, etc.
• Social – values, social inertia, traditions, philosophies, etc.
• Financial – state of the economy, capital available, etc.

Ultimately you may end up with a model made up of a number of reinforcing loops, balancing loops and external factors. The example below shows a more sophisticated diagram of the antelopes and cheetahs system:

Note: This diagram is an example only and does not necessarily reflect how antelope and cheetah populations operate in real life.

Systems Diagrams as the Basis of Computer Models

Once you have established the relationships between factors on your diagram, you can look to see if you can put numbers to the relationships. In the example above you may find that if drought halves the amount of grass available to antelopes, that the antelope population reduces by one third.

You can build this relationship into a computer model. A useful way of starting this with simple and moderately complex models is to build the model on a spreadsheet.

You can use this model to make predictions by changing factors within it. This would allow you to assess the likely impact on your system of external changes, and investigate the effect of changes you might make within the system.-mindtools.com

2#Drawing systems diagrams

                  water quality simulator

systems diagram of a city support structures

1#Designing an ideogram

An ideogram is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarity with prior convention; others convey their meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object, and thus may also be referred to as pictograms..-Wikipedia



2#Drawing an ideogram

 Illustration of genes and their relation to disease

Representation of human chromosomes

Changes in chromosomes found in a study

1#Designing an economic system
An economic system is a system of production and distribution of goods and services as well as allocation of resources in a society. It includes the combination of the various institutions, agencies, entities (or even sectors as described by some authors) and consumers that comprise the economic structure of a given community.

The study of economic systems includes how these various agencies and institutions are linked to one another, how information flows between them, and the social relations within the system (including property rights and the structure of management).

Among existing economic systems, distinctive methods of analysis have developed, such as socialist economics and Islamic economic jurisprudence. Today the dominant form of economic organization at the global level is based on capitalist market-oriented mixed economies.^[1].-Wikipedia

2#Drawing an economic system

From Wikipedia

                        

The evocative power of the everyday, obviously in the eyes of the beholder(?)…

Godard Coffee scene

Thought this was kind of pornographic. Many of their projects seem to follow a logics of flow.

Water Garden Project by RUR Architects, quite beautiful I must say.

On critical thinking and decision making processes

1#Decision-Making process overview

2#Decision-Making applied to current project (not very successful i.e. lack of clarity, not very concise answers, not fully abiding to analytic processess)

Homothetic transformation.

I am hoping to learn more about maths. Surely should start from the basics, but I feel like already finding too many obstacles in understanding these terms like the percentile. 

On researching and case study analysis

1#Introduction, What Are Case Studies For?

1.1 Bring an understanding of a complex issue. 
1.2 To explore its context and their specific relationships. 
1.3 They can be structured as following:

• a) pursue a research question

• b) relevant case study selection, data gathering and analysis techniques

• c) plan the collection of data

• d) field-work

• e) analyse data in relation to research question

• f) findings showcase

a) Pursue a research question

The first step in case study research is to establish a firm research focus to which the researcher can refer over the course of study of a complex phenomenon or object. The researcher establishes the focus of the study by forming questions about the situation or problem to be studied and determining a purpose for the study. The research object in a case study is often a program, an entity, a person, or a group of people. Each object is likely to be intricately connected to political, social, historical, and personal issues, providing wide ranging possibilities for questions and adding complexity to the case study. The researcher investigates the object of the case study in depth using a variety of data gathering methods to produce evidence that leads to understanding of the case and answers the research questions.
Case study research generally answers one or more questions which begin with "how" or "why." The questions are targeted to a limited number of events or conditions and their inter-relationships. To assist in targeting and formulating the questions, researchers conduct a literature review. This review establishes what research has been previously conducted and leads to refined, insightful questions about the problem. Careful definition of the questions at the start pinpoints where to look for evidence and helps determine the methods of analysis to be used in the study. The literature review, definition of the purpose of the case study, and early determination of the potential audience for the final report guide how the study will be designed, conducted, and publicly reported.

b) Relevant case study selection, data gathering and analysis techniques
During the design phase of case study research, the researcher determines what approaches to use in selecting single or multiple real-life cases to examine in depth and which instruments and data gathering approaches to use. When using multiple cases, each case is treated as a single case. Each cases conclusions can then be used as information contributing to the whole study, but each case remains a single case. Exemplary case studies carefully select cases and carefully examine the choices available from among many research tools available in order to increase the validity of the study. Careful discrimination at the point of selection also helps erect boundaries around the case.
The researcher must determine whether to study cases which are unique in some way or cases which are considered typical and may also select cases to represent a variety of geographic regions, a variety of size parameters, or other parameters. A useful step in the selection process is to repeatedly refer back to the purpose of the study in order to focus attention on where to look for cases and evidence that will satisfy the purpose of the study and answer the research questions posed. Selecting multiple or single cases is a key element, but a case study can include more than one unit of embedded analysis. For example, a case study may involve study of a single industry and a firm participating in that industry. This type of case study involves two levels of analysis and increases the complexity and amount of data to be gathered and analyzed.
A key strength of the case study method involves using multiple sources and techniques in the data gathering process. The researcher determines in advance what evidence to gather and what analysis techniques to use with the data to answer the research questions. Data gathered is normally largely qualitative, but it may also be quantitative. Tools to collect data can include surveys, interviews, documentation review, observation, and even the collection of physical artifacts.
The researcher must use the designated data gathering tools systematically and properly in collecting the evidence. Throughout the design phase, researchers must ensure that the study is well constructed to ensure construct validity, internal validity, external validity, and reliability. Construct validity requires the researcher to use the correct measures for the concepts being studied. Internal validity (especially important with explanatory or causal studies) demonstrates that certain conditions lead to other conditions and requires the use of multiple pieces of evidence from multiple sources to uncover convergent lines of inquiry. The researcher strives to establish a chain of evidence forward and backward. External validity reflects whether or not findings are generalizable beyond the immediate case or cases; the more variations in places, people, and procedures a case study can withstand and still yield the same findings, the more external validity. Techniques such as cross-case examination and within-case examination along with literature review helps ensure external validity. Reliability refers to the stability, accuracy, and precision of measurement. Exemplary case study design ensures that the procedures used are well documented and can be repeated with the same results over and over again.

c) Plan the collection of data
Because case study research generates a large amount of data from multiple sources, systematic organization of the data is important to prevent the researcher from becoming overwhelmed by the amount of data and to prevent the researcher from losing sight of the original research purpose and questions. Advance preparation assists in handling large amounts of data in a documented and systematic fashion. Researchers prepare databases to assist with categorizing, sorting, storing, and retrieving data for analysis.
Exemplary case studies prepare good training programs for investigators, establish clear protocols and procedures in advance of investigator field work, and conduct a pilot study in advance of moving into the field in order to remove obvious barriers and problems. The investigator training program covers the basic concepts of the study, terminology, processes, and methods, and teaches investigators how to properly apply the techniques being used in the study. The program also trains investigators to understand how the gathering of data using multiple techniques strengthens the study by providing opportunities for triangulation during the analysis phase of the study. The program covers protocols for case study research, including time deadlines, formats for narrative reporting and field notes, guidelines for collection of documents, and guidelines for field procedures to be used. Investigators need to be good listeners who can hear exactly the words being used by those interviewed. Qualifications for investigators also include being able to ask good questions and interpret answers. Good investigators review documents looking for facts, but also read between the lines and pursue collaborative evidence elsewhere when that seems appropriate. Investigators need to be flexible in real-life situations and not feel threatened by unexpected change, missed appointments, or lack of office space. Investigators need to understand the purpose of the study and grasp the issues and must be open to contrary findings. Investigators must also be aware that they are going into the world of real human beings who may be threatened or unsure of what the case study will bring.
After investigators are trained, the final advance preparation step is to select a pilot site and conduct a pilot test using each data gathering method so that problematic areas can be uncovered and corrected. Researchers need to anticipate key problems and events, identify key people, prepare letters of introduction, establish rules for confidentiality, and actively seek opportunities to revisit and revise the research design in order to address and add to the original set of research questions.

d) Field-work
The researcher must collect and store multiple sources of evidence comprehensively and systematically, in formats that can be referenced and sorted so that converging lines of inquiry and patterns can be uncovered. Researchers carefully observe the object of the case study and identify causal factors associated with the observed phenomenon. Renegotiation of arrangements with the objects of the study or addition of questions to interviews may be necessary as the study progresses. Case study research is flexible, but when changes are made, they are documented systematically.
Exemplary case studies use field notes and databases to categorize and reference data so that it is readily available for subsequent reinterpretation. Field notes record feelings and intuitive hunches, pose questions, and document the work in progress. They record testimonies, stories, and illustrations which can be used in later reports. They may warn of impending bias because of the detailed exposure of the client to special attention, or give an early signal that a pattern is emerging. They assist in determining whether or not the inquiry needs to be reformulated or redefined based on what is being observed. Field notes should be kept separate from the data being collected and stored for analysis.
Maintaining the relationship between the issue and the evidence is mandatory. The researcher may enter some data into a database and physically store other data, but the researcher documents, classifies, and cross-references all evidence so that it can be efficiently recalled for sorting and examination over the course of the study.

e) Analyse data in relation to research question
The researcher examines raw data using many interpretations in order to find linkages between the research object and the outcomes with reference to the original research questions. Throughout the evaluation and analysis process, the researcher remains open to new opportunities and insights. The case study method, with its use of multiple data collection methods and analysis techniques, provides researchers with opportunities to triangulate data in order to strengthen the research findings and conclusions.
The tactics used in analysis force researchers to move beyond initial impressions to improve the likelihood of accurate and reliable findings. Exemplary case studies will deliberately sort the data in many different ways to expose or create new insights and will deliberately look for conflicting data to disconfirm the analysis. Researchers categorize, tabulate, and recombine data to address the initial propositions or purpose of the study, and conduct cross-checks of facts and discrepancies in accounts. Focused, short, repeat interviews may be necessary to gather additional data to verify key observations or check a fact.
Specific techniques include placing information into arrays, creating matrices of categories, creating flow charts or other displays, and tabulating frequency of events. Researchers use the quantitative data that has been collected to corroborate and support the qualitative data which is most useful for understanding the rationale or theory underlying relationships. Another technique is to use multiple investigators to gain the advantage provided when a variety of perspectives and insights examine the data and the patterns. When the multiple observations converge, confidence in the findings increases. Conflicting perceptions, on the other hand, cause the researchers to pry more deeply.
Another technique, the cross-case search for patterns, keeps investigators from reaching premature conclusions by requiring that investigators look at the data in many different ways. Cross-case analysis divides the data by type across all cases investigated. One researcher then examines the data of that type thoroughly. When a pattern from one data type is corroborated by the evidence from another, the finding is stronger. When evidence conflicts, deeper probing of the differences is necessary to identify the cause or source of conflict. In all cases, the researcher treats the evidence fairly to produce analytic conclusions answering the original "how" and "why" research questions.

f) Findings showcase
Exemplary case studies report the data in a way that transforms a complex issue into one that can be understood, allowing the reader to question and examine the study and reach an understanding independent of the researcher. The goal of the written report is to portray a complex problem in a way that conveys a vicarious experience to the reader. Case studies present data in very publicly accessible ways and may lead the reader to apply the experience in his or her own real-life situation. Researchers pay particular attention to displaying sufficient evidence to gain the readers confidence that all avenues have been explored, clearly communicating the boundaries of the case, and giving special attention to conflicting propositions.
Techniques for composing the report can include handling each case as a separate chapter or treating the case as a chronological recounting. Some researchers report the case study as a story. During the report preparation process, researchers critically examine the document looking for ways the report is incomplete. The researcher uses representative audience groups to review and comment on the draft document. Based on the comments, the researcher rewrites and makes revisions. Some case study researchers suggest that the document review audience include a journalist and some suggest that the documents should be reviewed by the participants in the study.



This text is mostly been copied from this website to which I have made very few changes. The rights and the production of content are from Sue Soy and cited as required:
Soy, Susan K. (1997). The case study as a research method. Unpublished paper, University of Texas at Austin.