Blue sky or black-box topics
phenomena we haven’t studied before or we don’t quite understand yet.
Aim of grounded theory
construct new theory
Origins of grounded theory (GT)
- 1960s: Sociology in the US
- Rich tradition in qualitative ethnographic and case studies but losing ground during positivist turn to quantitative research in sociology
- “The discovery of grounded theory”: strategies for qualitative research (Glaser & Strauss, 1967)
- Glaser & Strauss’s contribution:
- Revolutionary message: systematic qualitative research can construct abstract theoretical explanations of social processes
- Moving qualitative inquiry beyond descriptive studies into the realm of explanatory theoretical frameworks
Positivism (Glaser)
- Empiricism
- Rigorous codified methods
⇒Systematic coding of data in GT
Pragmatism & field research (Strauss)
- Humans are active agents
- Social and subjective meanings are created via language and action
⇒ Symbolic Interactionism: theoretical foundation of GT
Symbolic interactionism
- Human action depends on meaning (our interpretation of things)
- Different people assign different meanings to things
- The meaning of something can change: via interaction and events
= dynamic relationship between action, meaning and events - Social processes, language and symbols play a crucial role in forming and sharing our meanings and actions
⇒ Grounded Theory studies human action and social processes via language and symbols (qualitatively)
What is Grounded Theory? Definition
- systematic (yet flexible) guidelines
- for collecting and analysing qualitative data
- to construct theories from the data themselves
- on human actions and social processes
- inductively (theory-building): ‘grounded in data’ (not based on existing knowledge or theory)
Different approaches to Grounded Theory
- classic grounded theory
- reformulated grounded theory
- constructivist grounded theory
Classic Grounded Theory (Glaser)
- Neutral researcher & emerging theories
- Positivist
Reformulated Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin)
- Generated theory is verified in the data. Researcher is not neutral but follows systematic coding phases to ensure rigorous data-analysis
- Post-positivist
Constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz)
- Theory is constructed in interaction between researcher and participant
- Interpretivist
Sampling & data-collection
- Simultaneous data-collection and data-analysis
- Theoretical sampling: continued sampling is based on the emergent theory
- Often larger samples (theory building requires some iterations), but quantity is not a criterion in itself
- Rich data: revealing participants’ view, feelings, intention and actions as well as the contexts and structures of their lives
- Sampling until theoretical saturation
Thematic/descriptive saturation
data are collected until no more patterns or themes are emerging from the data.
Theoretical saturation
the point at which gathering more data about a theoretical category reveals no new properties nor yield any further theoretical insights about the emerging grounded theory.
Coding:
= bridge between collecting data and developing an emergent theory to explain these data
= the process of defining what data are about (what’s happening; what does it mean)
= categorizing segments of data with a short name
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Open coding:
- ‘Line-by-line coding’ – staying close to the data
- ‘Grounded’ in the data, not based on what you already know
- Break the raw data (e.g., transcript) up into snippets
- Codes connect snippets together; capture concisely what they are about
Axial coding:
- Look for connections between codes: creating (higher-order) categories and subcategories (or ‘axes’)
- Purpose: sort, synthesize and organize large amount of data and reassemble codes of the previous open coding phase in new ways (around ‘axes’)
Selective coding:
- Looking for connections between (sub)categories
- Connecting different categories ⇒patterns ⇒ theory
- ‘Core category’ captures the essence of the theory; other categories are organized around it
Method of constant comparison
Coding phases (open, axial and selective) follow an iterative (back-and-forth) process:
- comparing data from different individuals,
- comparing data from individuals to their own data at different points in their narratives,
- comparing incidents with other incidents,
- comparing categories with other categories.
Memo-writing
Bridge between coding and writing down the results
- Intermediate step between data-collection and writing the research paper (a good antidote for a writer’s block
- Memos help to develop theory
- Reflect the researcher’s thinking process
- Can involve diagramming ⇒ visual model of the GT
Aim/result: A grounded theory
- A (tentative) conceptual model grounded in data
- Often a visual representation (diagram) of the new theory is provided
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