What role can the analysis of a single, or perhaps only just a few, case(s) play in a systematic social science? More particularly, what role can the study of a handful of comparative cases (based upon individuals or social groupings of one sort or another) play in discovering causal relationships between designated causes and effects with a view to furnishing explanations and perhaps even modest predictions? These questions may perhaps be more precisely expressed by replacing the term “cases” with the term “observations”. Causal inferences can with caution be broached by gathering repeated longitudinal observations pertaining to a single case/unit of analysis, or just a few cases/units of analysis. However, single case studies are rarely based upon the collection of repeated data (i.e. time series). They more often than not, embrace chronologically ordered sequences (or even parallel sequences) of multiple types of events, actors, actions and forbearances amongst which various causal connections, generating an unfolding story or narrative may be sought.