Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) and CAQDAS: an exercise of autobiographical research and methodological reflection

Abstract

In the first part of this paper I examine how a need to study the intellectual roots of Grounded Theory Method (GTM) emerged out of reflecting on my personal GTM reception. In the process of this I became more and more methodologically aware of the nature, that is, the genesis and development, of GTM. Following this, I argue that a similar process of ‘becoming aware of GTM’ can be traced in the writings of GLASER and STRAUSS. At the same time, the whole paper is in itself an attempt at practicing GTM, conditioned by the published versions of GTM and the process of reception in my case. I try to gain awareness of both the intellectual roots of GTM and the process of my reception of this methodology. In this paper I trace for the reader about the processual and contextual character of my GTM reception. I show how I finally reach the conclusion that the methodological principles of GTM existed before this approach was developed: they were not invented by the coiners of GTM. Moreover, I emphasise the existence of both professional and more private personal experience roots in the explicitation and genesis of GTM. In the second part of the paper, I explore the conceptual trace and historical-biographical depth of the more comprehensive debate about the particular relation between GTM and CAQDAS1. My main attention is the case of GLASER’s posture as the epicenter of the debate. I show the reader the way I proceeded in generating typologies of basic cases and processes to give context to GLASER’s posture. This contribution is composed from an autobiographical point of view and style of research throughout.