Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Two illustrations
- 3 Codes and coding
- 4 Seminar on open coding
- 5 Memos and memo writing
- 6 Team meetings and graphic representations as memos
- 7 Excerpts that illustrate common problems
- 8 Integrative diagrams and integrative sessions
- 9 Integrative mechanisms: diagrams, memo sequences, writing
- 10 Presenting case materials: data and interpretations
- 11 Grounded formal theory: awareness contexts
- 12 Reading and writing research publications
- 13 Questions and answers
- 14 Research consultations and teaching: guidelines, strategies, and style
- Epilogue
- Appendix Discovering new theory from previous theory
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
Appendix - Discovering new theory from previous theory
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Two illustrations
- 3 Codes and coding
- 4 Seminar on open coding
- 5 Memos and memo writing
- 6 Team meetings and graphic representations as memos
- 7 Excerpts that illustrate common problems
- 8 Integrative diagrams and integrative sessions
- 9 Integrative mechanisms: diagrams, memo sequences, writing
- 10 Presenting case materials: data and interpretations
- 11 Grounded formal theory: awareness contexts
- 12 Reading and writing research publications
- 13 Questions and answers
- 14 Research consultations and teaching: guidelines, strategies, and style
- Epilogue
- Appendix Discovering new theory from previous theory
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
Discovering new theory from previous theory
Throughout this book, the data analyzed have been gathered by researchers “in the field,” whether in the form of interviews, fieldnotes, or other documents. For the most part, grounded theorists, when developing substantive theory, have tended not to begin their researches by following through the implications of previous theory. Perhaps they have been overcautious in looking at other people's theories, once the lineaments of their own have begun to evolve. Yet, as mentioned in the first chapter, there is no reason not to utilize extant theory from the outset – providing only that it too was carefully grounded in research – to direct the collection of new data in the service of discovering a new (and probabl/ more encompassing) theory. Using the familiar techniques of coding, theoretical sampling, comparative analysis, and with the usual emphasis on variations associated with dimensions, conditions, consequences, interactions, the extant theory then acts as a springboard for laying out potential lines of research work. The analyst can thereafter choose which lines to pursue, in which directions to begin, following through with a potentially effective and personally interesting research project.
So, it is entirely feasible to begin with someone else's theory, if entry into the research field follows immediately, or at least before a commitment is made to the research project: in order to see if the project is feasible, if data are really available, and the deduced lines of work are really relevant to the substantive area under scrutiny.
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- Information
- Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists , pp. 306 - 311Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987