Alternatives to Grounded Theory

1. Ethnography Unbound
Power and Resistance in the Modern
Metropolis
Michael Burawoy et al.

2. “In the face of commodification through money
and administration through power, everyday life
loses it autonomy and shared purpose.”
Page 2

3. Glaser and Strauss
“In short, our focus on the emergence of
categories solves problems of
fit, relevance, forcing, and richness. An effective
strategy is, at first, literally to ignore the
literature of theory and fact on the area under
study, in order to assure that the emergence of
categories will not be contaminated by concepts
more suited to different areas.”
quoted in Burawoy et al. page 10

4. Grounded theory
• Glaser and Strauss approach social
phenomena from the standpoint of their
generality
• Each case study is a potential exemplar of
some general law or principle
• Move from substantive theory to formal
theory
• Theory emerges from the field

5. Grounded theory
• Glaser and Strauss are concerned to develop
– Concepts
– Categories
– Dimensions
– Sampling
• Grounded in the data
• Reflecting the data’s complexity and richness

6. Extended Case Method
• Trys to include more phenomena under a single
covering law
• Elaborates the effects of the macro on the micro
• Specifies some particular feature of the social
situation that requires reference to external
forces
• Looks for the unexpected
• Treats social phenomena as counter instances of
some old theory

7. Extended Case Method
• Instead of an exemplar the social situation is
viewed as an anomaly
• Lays out what is expected in the study site before
entry
• Discovers the unexpected and then turns to
existing bodies of theory that might shed light on
the anomaly.
• The shortcomings of theory become grounds for
reconstruction
• What is interesting in the field emerges from our
theory

8. Karl Popper
• Verification & Induction are flawed strategies and
lead to infinite regress
– No matter how many white swans we find it does not
prove that all swans are white
• It is better to proceed by
– Conjecture and refutation
– Falsification – if we look for not white swans in places
they are likely to be (if they exist) and fail to find them
then we reject the theory that not white swans exist.
It does not prove that all swans are white but it builds
confidence in the theory

9. Extended Case Method
• Do not forsake a theory because it faces falsification –
improve theories by turning anomalies into exemplars
• Counterinstances are seized upon to reconstruct our
theories
• Other kinds of theoretical failure
– Internal contradictions (Gouldner’s study of bureaucracy)
– Theoretical gaps or silences
• Reconstruct theory by a running exchange between
field notes and analysis
• The conjectures of yesterday’s analysis are refuted by
today’s observations and then reconstructed in
tomorrow’s analysis