Employmentweb_low

EMploYMEnt, work, And hEAlth inEquAlitiEs - a global perspective
"Case studies are the preferred strategy
when ‘how’ or ‘why’ questions are being
posed, when the investigator has little
control over events and when the focus is
on a contemporary phenomenon within
some real-life context."
robert K. yin
sources as well as a varied and diverse presence of social actors and
institutions. First, we employed a direct strategy in which a search
was carried out focusing on certain places or sites where we
assumed we were likely to find valuable information on each of the
themes of interest. Exhaustive lists of websites based on subject
were compiled with regard to international and non-governmental
organisations as well as those representing workers. Second, we
exercised an indirect strategy in which a list was made of the more
important search engines on the Internet according to their topics.
In addition, a number of "metasearchers" that allow users to obtain
the maximum number of resources available on-line were selected.
Five of the eleven metasearchers identified were selected as the
most efficient and appropriate: IXQUICK, IPSELON, METACRAWLER,
SEARCH.COM, and KARTOO. To test their efficiency, the same
search words were compared with results obtained through normal
searchers such as Google, Yahoo, Altavista, and Prodigy/msn. A
large number of potentially useful documents were identified and
selected.
Other complementary sources of information
Other relevant sources of information included an inventory of case
studies, interviews, formal and informal contacts with key
informants, and information provided from a variety of narrative
sources not published through conventional channels. Knowledge
network members covered an array of backgrounds and disciplines
and were able to draw on the resources of their own networks. The
ultimate goal of compiling an inventory of case studies was to select
interesting but otherwise not very well-known examples or
experiences to be included. In doing so, we drafted a standardised
document that was widely distributed through our networks to
collect case studies. This approach provided a valuable opportunity
to gather information from grassroots and civil society groups as
well as from community experiences.
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