Grounded theory and grounded theorizing : pragmatism in research practice

433 Pages·2017·4.06 MB·English

by  Bryant

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Grounded Theory and Grounded Theorizing
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Grounded Theory and Grounded
Theorizing
PRAGMATISM IN RESEARCH PRACTICE
Antony Bryant
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bryant, Antony, 1953– author.
Title: Grounded theory and grounded theorizing : pragmatism in research
practice / Antony Bryant.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2017]
Identifiers: LCCN 2016023441 | ISBN 9780199922604 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Grounded theory. | Social sciences—Research.
Classification: LCC H61.24 .B79 2017 | DDC 300.72—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016023441
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Not Another Book on Grounded Theory ix
PART ONE Research and Research Methods
1. Research: Why (Do) Research? 3
2. Research Methods 13
PART TWO The Grounded Theory Method in Practice
3. 1967 And All That 63
4. The Grounded Theory Method: An Overview 83
PART THREE Grounded Theorizing: The Gerunds of the Grounded
Theory Method
5. Coding: Terminology and Clarification 117
6. An Example of Coding and a Coding Exercise 133
7. An Abbreviated Example: Research Pitching 141
8. Process and Procedure: Getting Started and Moving Forward 147
9. Coding Strategies: Tales from the Front Line 175
10. Reflecting and Recording: Memoing and Reflective Research 197
11. Moving On: Later Sampling, Coding, and Analyzing 217
12. Getting to an End- point: Theoretical Saturation 249
13. Abduction—No Longer an Alien Concept 265
PART FOUR Grounded Theory— Themes and Variations
14. A Grounded Theory of Grounded Theory Journal Articles 283
15. Another View of The Grounded Theory Method: Another Way of Modeling 299
16. It’s All in the Big Data: Data, Big Data, and the Grounded Theory Method 317
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17. The Grounded Theory Method and Pragmatism: Instrumental Theorizing 335
18. Grounded Theory as a Guide to Good Research Practice:
A Method for Enacting Abstraction and Abduction 353
19. Four Accounts of Grounded Theorizing 365
20. Charles Darwin: The Survival of the Grounded Theorist 383
References 389
Index 401
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
You read the pragmatists and all you know is: not Descartes,
not Kant, not Plato. It’s like aspirin. You can’t use aspirin to give
yourself power, you take it to get rid of headaches. In that way,
pragmatism is a philosophical therapy. It helps you stop asking the
unhelpful questions. (Richard Rorty)
My first encounter with the writings of Glaser and Strauss came during my
undergraduate studies in social and political sciences in the 1970s. But the
main point of discussion was their substantive work on dying, with little or
little or no attention to the innovative methodological aspects. In the 1990s,
as a member of various university research committees, I was occasionally
confronted with PhD proposals referring to Grounded Theory, which usually
went on to use this as the justification for an absence of clear research aims
or questions, also a brief or non- existent literature review. On most occasions
my colleagues and I gave short shrift to such submissions, and requested that
the proposal be revised and resubmitted. At one point, however, one of my
own PhD students, Kobus Smit, proposed to use grounded theory, and when
challenged on these issues responded with a clear and cogent account of the
method, justifying his starting point and overall strategy. This prompted me
to undertake a closer scrutiny of the topic and resulted in my paper ‘Re-
grounding grounded theory’. Soon after it appeared I came across the work of
Kathy Charmaz, whose insights and experience of the method far outweigh
mine, and from that date have benefitted enormously from her collaboration
and friendship.
Our collaboration has been marked in particular with the The Sage
Handbook of Grounded Theory which broadened my familiarity with the
method, and gave me the opportunity to work with many of the leading writers
on grounded theory and qualitative methods in general. Prior to the prepara-
tion of that book I participated in a grounded theory event hosted by Barney
Glaser, and later I attended one of his workshops where I was fortunate enough
to see him in action, offering guidance and support to an international range
of grounded theory researchers including doctoral candidates and highly expe-
rienced professional practitioners. I am fairly sure that there will be parts of
the chapters that follow with which he will disagree, but I hope he will also
appreciate my attempt to adhere to Rapoport’s Four Rules, and also to note
the many points on which we do agree and where I express my admiration for vii
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viii Acknowledgments
the pioneering work that he and Anselm Strauss, together with Jeanne Quint,
began in the 1960s.
My wife, Griselda Pollock, and I can attest to the ‘grab’ and ‘fit’ of their
early studies with our experience caring for my mother in the last few years of
her life. In the months leading up to her death at the age of 97, through various
stays in hospital and care homes, her awareness was virtually non-e xistent, but
my wife and I both found comfort in our understanding of what was going
on derived from Barney and Anselm’s insights. In many cases we were several
stages ahead of the medical and nursing staff, and able to cope with develop-
ments accordingly.
In the past twenty years or so I have supervised many PhD students, and
since 2000 a significant number of them have used the grounded theory method
in their research. I am sure they all learned a great deal about the method, but
I know that I have learned even more in guiding and supporting them, in
discussing their work as it progressed, and in gaining deeper insights from
their innovative research strategies. I have drawn on many of their insights and
findings in this book, and am particularly grateful to Andrea Gorra, Premila
Gamage, Transmissia Semiawan, and Stella Walsh for preparing such eloquent
overviews of their experiences. The work of these four, together with that of
Gerhard Drexler and Ibraheem Jodeh, provided a rich source of examples to
illustrate many key points in the chapters that follow.
This book was in preparation for several years, initially in response to
an invitation from Patricia Leavy to contribute a short volume of around five
chapters to a series on qualitative research methods. When I finally submitted
a far longer text to OUP, both she and Abby Gross were fully supportive in
continuing with publication, and Abby and her colleagues have provided guid-
ance and insight as this has progressed. Courtney McCarroll saw through the
initial stages of preparation, and Susan Hannan produced a thorough copy-
edited version. My thanks to all at OUP; any errors or ambiguities that remain
are entirely my responsibility.
Tony Bryant
July 2016
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Introduction
NOT ANOTHER BOOK ON GROUNDED THEORY
The twentieth century mathematician and systems theory pioneer. Anatol
Rapoport offered a set of four rules regarding how to write a successful critical
commentary on an opponent’s work.
1. First, he said, you must attempt to re-e xpress your opponent’s position
so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your opponent says “Thanks, I wish
I’d thought of putting it that way.”
2. Then, you should list any points of agreement (especially if they are
not matters of general or widespread agreement),
3. Third, you should mention anything you have learned from your
opponent.
4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or
criticism.1
If you have got this far, or are just idly looking through this book in a shop, or
library, or online, you may well be thinking, “Not another book on grounded
theory!” Indeed, many other potential readers, having had the same thought,
may not have bothered getting even this far. So, why persevere with this partic-
ular book? First of all it needs to be stressed that the various books and articles
on grounded theory do not exist as some disordered, amorphous resource;
there are various patterns and relationships between the various items—
books, articles, Web sites, and the like; in many cases, they were written as
rejoinders or restatements in the light of other sources. The grounded theory
method (GTM) itself first came to researchers’ attention in the 1960s when
Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss published their initial detailed grounded
theory study Awareness of Dying (1965), soon followed by the more generic,
methods- oriented book The Discovery of Grounded Theory (1967). They
supplemented this with a further, related study Time for Dying (1968). These
three volumes have come to be seen as the core texts for the method and are
referred to throughout this book in abbreviated form as the trilogy, Awareness,
Discovery, and Time.
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