Wednesday, 20 May 2015

The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research,
Barney G Glaser and Anselm L Strauss, Aldine, 1967, page 10

Glaser and Strauss bemooan, in their day, the stress placed on verification of theory, rather than the generation of theory:

Verification of theory is the keynote of current sociology ... as this shift in emphasis took hold, the discovery of new theorise became slighted and, at some universities, virtually neglected. Those who still wished to generate theory had to brook the negative, sometimes punitive, attitudes of their colleagues or professors.

Why on earth should this have been?

Part of the trend towards empasising verification was the assumption by many sociologists thet our "great men" forefathers had generated a sufficient number of outstanding theories on enough areas of social life to last for a long while.

So much so that mastering and testing 'current' theories became the thing and questioning one of the "great men" became unthinkable. Many students were limited by this attitude. Grounded Theory Method became a tool to break this stranglehold on research and enable research to move forward again.

Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Comment -

A more sceptical observer might suggest that the purpose of sociology theory is to say what everyone knows in language that nobody else understands!

Posted By Timothy Butlin 08:17am