I don't know if what Walt Wager [21 Mar 97] has the same concern about case studies is that same that I do, but too often it seems to be nothing but story telling (i.e., descriptive narrative) with no data analysis that gets past off as "qualitative research."
I can tell you that some of my colleagues in other parts of our university have commented quite sarcastically about this and it tends to debase the whole concept of qualitative research.