ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on RELOCAL’s rationales and approach to comparative, multiple case-study-based research, offering concrete insights into the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of this major undertaking. The authors share with the reader the reasoning behind our choices of particular localities and actions for study, and the solutions that were found for balancing the obvious necessity for context sensitivity in our qualitative case studies with the need to compare them with more generalizable conclusions. We will also elaborate on RELOCAL’s especially reflective and interactive approach, which guided the research process, focusing on how it was achieved, and the benefits it provided. Beyond these methodological aspects, this chapter sheds light on the similarities of and differences between the cases in our sample along various parameters, providing context and orientation for detailed analyses of selected actions in this book’s subsequent chapters.
