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Grounded Theory

Developed by the sociologists Anselm L. Strauss and Barney Glaser at the University of California at San Francisco in the late 1960s, grounded theory (GT) has become one of the foremost research styles in qualitative and interpretative social, political, and educational research. Aiming at empirically GT generation rather than at theory testing or mere description, GT provides the researcher with a rich set of research heuristics, the so-called constant comparative method. GT is, unlike ethnography or interviewing, not a method of data generation. It is also, despite its somewhat confusing name, not a theory. Instead, it is a general model for certain types of research designs, the results of which are substantive theories of the field under scrutiny. This entry discusses the origins of GT, basic procedures, its role in political science, and recent developments.

Origins

Epistemologically, as well as in terms of social theory, the origins of GT are primarily in early American pragmatism and interactionism as represented by Strauss. At the sociology department of the University of Chicago, he was trained in the pragmatist logic of inquiry (of Charles Peirce, John Dewey, and George H. Mead), with its strong notion of reality being brought forth constantly in interactively dealing with the physical and social restraints of the “world out there.” By the same token, Strauss was influenced by the empirical fieldwork practice of E. C. Hughes, a descendent of Robert E. Park's human ecology approach. A second strand of origin lies in the Columbia School and its leanings toward the development of middle-range theories—a heritage brought into the project by Glaser, who was trained under Robert K. Merton before he worked with Strauss in San Francisco. While Strauss advocated the need of a research style that allows for creativity to be brought into the scientific process, Glaser represented the call for rigor in qualitative and interpretative research and theory development.

Developed in practice during an organizational ethnography on death and dying in hospital wards, the first monograph on GT, instead of being a method textbook, served more as a political statement against the orthodox consensus of structural-functionalist theories and logico-hypothetical methods. Published in 1967, amid the political uprising of the civil rights and student movements, The Discovery of Grounded Theory, and its methodological statement, was meant to support these new ways of thinking among young researchers. Since GT was among the first qualitative research styles spelled out in its practical details and at the same time offered a way to systematically develop empirically grounded scientific theories, it was quickly adopted by a broader group of social science researchers. While originally developed in the field of medical sociology, GT has gained a standing in most areas of sociology, psychology, education, ethnography, and social anthropology.

Basic Procedures and Heuristics

Though advocating rigor in theory development, the most basic rule of GT is that it is not to be understood as a rigid set of rules. Researchers are meant to grasp the general guidelines of GT in an interpretative and flexible manner in order to adapt its heuristics to the circumstances of practical research. Among these basic guidelines is the call for understanding the entire case—that is, instead of either comparing single items on various cases (as in quantitative research) or interpreting in depth single cases (as in hermeneutic approaches), GT developed a heuristic that integrates key features of both strategies into its constant comparative method. A second basic rule underlines not only the inevitability but also the need for and the advantage of the researchers' subjectivity and creativity. Following Dewey's notion of research as iterations of problem-solving cycles, it is the creativity of abductive processes that bridges the gap between a problem systematically laid out in processes of logical reasoning and results obtained in experimental practice. The notion of creativity goes hand in hand with the pragmatist claim that there is no universal reality to discover. Third, research is seen as a joint endeavor of a community of practice comprising not only the research team but also the scientific community. In terms of GT, this endeavor is understood as a work in progress, which gives scientific activities a down-to-earth flavor of practical day-to-day activities that need to be organized and articulated interactively among research participants. Finally, GT assumes social reality to consist of complex phenomena requiring a similarly rich theoretical understanding that primarily accounts for variation. This includes the notion of theory as a never-ending process.

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