Grounded Theory: some reflections on paradigm, procedures and misconceptions

Abstract

There has been ongoing debate within the social sciences over the nature of epistemological claims made by both positivist and interpretivist researchers. Within the interpretivist paradigm there are numerous methodologies for constructing knowledge, each of which have their own underlying philosophies, practices, and methods of interpretation. Grounded theory is one such methodology. However, it is a methodology which is sometimes perceived as pseudo positivistic, defiling the canons of humanistic research which emphasises the subjective experience of the other. This paper discusses grounded theory, the missing methodology on the interpretivist agenda, and argues that it is an extension of the methods used by the symbolic interactionists. It discusses the underlying philosophy of the methodology and proceeds to present the key concepts associated with its application. Finally,the paper reviews and addresses some of the major criticisms of grounded theory in order to explicate it as a humanistic and interpretivist method of enquiry. This paper is an early version of a chapter for a proposed book on grounded theory. It extends the discussion of grounded theory published in two academic papers by the author:

Goulding, C. (1998) Grounded Theory: the missing methodology on the interpretivist agenda Qualitative Market Research: an international journal 1(1) Goulding, C. (forthcoming) Consumer Research, Interpretive Paradigms, and Methodological Ambiguities European Journal of Marketing 33(7/8)