ABSTRACT
The concepts intensive and extensive have been used to denote different methodological approaches in social science. The way in which the intensive and extensive procedures relate to qualitative and quantitative methods can be described thus: the intensive empirical procedure contains substantial elements of data collecting and analyses of a qualitative kind. An intensive empirical approach is characterized by focusing on a particular case or just a few cases, including investigating how those involved in the cases experience and interpret the event or process. In the practical research process, very often both an intensive and an extensive approach are needed in the search for answers to the fundamental questions of generative mechanisms. The intensive approach focuses on generative mechanisms. In an intensive design, one can explain a particular occurrence or a particular object, as well as a larger social phenomenon. Interdisciplinarity research in combination with intensive and extensive research designs can produce the most detailed outcome of the research possible.
