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Grounded Theory As an Emergent Method

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Grounded Theory As an Emergent Method CHAPTER 7 Grounded Theory as an Emergent Method Kathy Charmaz uring its 40-year history, grounded the- How does grounded theory fit the defini- ory has served as a major method for tion of an emergent method? In which ways Dconducting emergent qualitative re- does the grounded theory method advance search.1 What is an emergent method? I start the development of emergent methods? with a working definition of an emergent Grounded theory is predicated on an emer- method as inductive, indeterminate, and gent logic. This method starts with a system- open-ended. An emergent method begins atic, inductive approach to collecting and with the empirical world and builds an in- analyzing data to develop theoretical analy- ductive understanding of it as events unfold ses. The method also includes checking and knowledge accrues. Social scientists emergent categories that emerge from suc- who use emergent methods can study re- cessive levels of analysis through hypotheti- search problems that arise in the empirical cal and deductive reasoning. Grounded the- world and can pursue unanticipated direc- ory offers systematic analytic strategies that tions of inquiry in this world. Emergent combine explicitness and flexibility. methods are particularly well suited for Fundamental tenets of the grounded the- studying uncharted, contingent, or dynamic ory method include: (1) minimizing precon- phenomena. These methods also allow for ceived ideas about the research problem and new properties of the studied phenomenon the data, (2) using simultaneous data collec- to appear that, in turn, shape new con- tion and analysis to inform each other, (3) ditions and consequences to be studied. By remaining open to varied explanations and/ adopting emergent methods, researchers or understandings of the data, and (4) focus- can account for processes discovered in the ing data analysis to construct middle-range empirical world and direct their method- theories. Rather than viewing only the prod- ological strategies accordingly. uct of inquiry—the completed grounded the- 155 156 HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF EMERGENT METHODS AND INNOVATION ory—as emergent, I argue that the method it- Charmaz, 2007b). Most researchers, how- self is emergent. Thus grounded theorists ever, adopted few, if any, of Glaser and choose or create specific methodological Strauss’s (1967) specific methodological strategies to handle puzzles and problems strategies, and those who did often altered that arise as inquiry proceeds. them beyond recognition as grounded the- The publication of Barney G. Glaser and ory. Anselm L. Strauss’s The Discovery of Grounded Grounded theory is a method of explica- Theory in 1967 marked the first systematic tion and emergence. The method takes a sys- statement about how to construct emergent tematic inductive, comparative, and interac- analyses. Prior to that time, students learned tive approach to inquiry and offers several how to do qualitative research through open-ended strategies for conducting emer- an oral tradition of mentoring, as well as gent inquiry (Charmaz, 2006; Charmaz & through immersion in fieldwork (Rock, Henwood, in press). These strategies make 1979). The limited midcentury literature on grounded theory more than only inductive, qualitative methods attended to data collec- because they encourage researchers to make tion (see, e.g., Adams & Priess, 1960; Junker, conjectures and check them and therefore 1960) and attempted to answer quantitative to engage in deductive reasoning as inquiry concerns, such as achieving validity and reli- proceeds. Grounded theory strategies make ability. Scholars had scarcely addressed how the method explicit, and their open-ended to handle the analytic phases of the research qualities foster the development of emer- process. gent conceptual analyses. Grounded theory Glaser and Strauss (1967) argued that strategies prompt early analytic thinking qualitative research: (1) proceeded from a and keep researchers interacting with their different logic than did quantitative inquiry data and nascent analyses (Charmaz, 2006). and had its own rigor, (2) should be evalu- The logic of grounded theory provides a ated by different canons than those for major contribution to emergent methods quantitative research, (3) could integrate re- because grounded theory involves creative search and theory, and (4) democratized the- problem solving and imaginative interpreta- ory construction because any astute social tion.2 Grounded theory strategies prompt scientist could engage in analytic practices the researcher to reach beyond pure induc- that generated theory. Glaser and Strauss’s tion. The method builds a series of checks arguments redirected the discussion of and refinements into qualitative inquiry qualitative inquiry from methods of data through an iterative process of successive collection to strategies for data analysis analytic and data collection phases of re- and challenged views about theory construc- search, each informed by the other and tion. rendered more theoretical. In short, the Prior to the work of Glaser and Strauss, grounded theory method emphasizes the midcentury theorizing had largely consisted process of analysis and the development of of grand theories about societal structure, theoretical categories, rather than focusing but these theories lacked empirical roots. solely on the results of inquiry. Glaser and Strauss’s arguments gained a re- ceptive audience among established and as- piring qualitative researchers and provided The Place of Emergence them with ready justifications for doing in Grounded Theory inductive qualitative studies. Subsequently, grounded theory became the most cited Any analysis of grounded theory as an emer- qualitative research method across diverse gent method must address the concept of disciplines and professions (Bryant & emergence and its place in the method. Grounded Theory as an Emergent Method 157 Emergence is a fundamental property of ating the new from the old require language grounded theory—both in its products and, and shared meanings. Essentially, then, we although perhaps unrecognized and some- understand the temporal dimensions of times contested, in its methodological stra- emergence through language. Individuals tegies (see Bryant & Charmaz, 2007c; define and depict emergence through draw- Charmaz, 2007b). The overriding stated ob- ing on shared meanings. Nonetheless, in- jective of using grounded theory is to gener- novations may occur as these individuals ate emergent theories from the data that ac- define and depict emergence and draw in- count for the data. ferences from their studies. Thus emer- Taking a step back and looking at emer- gence contains subjective elements, as well gence as a concept helps one to clarify its as collectively agreed-upon objective proper- divergent understandings and uses in ties. grounded theory. The concept of emergence Grounded theory starts with an inductive assumes epistemological understandings logic but moves into abductive reasoning as and a theory of time. Disputes and miscon- the researcher seeks to understand emer- ceptions about what grounded theory is and gent empirical findings. Abductive reason- should be occur at these foundational levels. ing aims to account for surprises, anomalies, Emergence is fundamentally a temporal con- or puzzles in the collected data. This type of cept; it presupposes a past, assumes the im- reasoning invokes imaginative interpreta- mediacy of the present, and implies a future. tions because the researcher imagines all In keeping with George Herbert Mead possible theoretical accounts for the ob- (1932), the present arises from the past but served data and then forms and checks hy- has new properties. These novel elements of potheses until arriving at the most plausible emergence distinguish the present from the interpretation of the observed data (see also past and make it distinctive. Emile Durkheim Charmaz, 2006; Reichertz, 2004, 2007; (1895/1982) takes the concept of emergence Rosenthal, 2004). For example, Patrick to its logical extension in his analysis of social Biernacki’s (1986) study not only employed structural change. His postulate of emergent abductive reasoning but also began because reality holds that the whole is greater than of puzzling findings that arose in an earlier and different from the sum of its parts. small study of marijuana use. Biernacki had Emergence gives rise to a new phenomenon discovered that some individuals recovered with qualitatively new properties.3 from heroin addiction without formal treat- Whether or not researchers concur with ment, something that health practitioners at Durkheim, they would agree that emergence that time believed to be impossible. What means movement, process, and change. The could account for this surprising discovery? concept of emergence takes into account Biernacki’s study reveals his search for a the- that the unexpected may occur. The past oretical explanation and the movement he shapes the present and future but does not made between detailed empirical data and make either wholly predictable. Emergent an emergent interpretation of them. methods permit pursuing what researchers Abduction allows for intuitive interpreta- could not have anticipated. Grounded theory tions of empirical observations and creative is particularly well suited to studying such ar- ideas that might account for them (Dey, eas because the method itself possesses 2004; Reichertz, 2004, 2007; Rosenthal, emergent properties. 2004). Not only are the surprising
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