this "grounded theory has been busted for the nonsense that it is" sounds suspiciously like what i termed methodological ideology. If it isn't ideological, perhaps it is just a form of methodological orthodoxy. I'm not going to say that grounded theory is good or great personally, as i've only read a few texts and never used it, it does seem to be one of the major theories that frames qualitative analysis. I think the key to grounded theory is to realize that is designed to discover theories, which is a problematic concept in some ways. if you aren't in the process of 'theory development' then it might not be the model for you. in any case, there is a ton of dissertations, and related 'quality' scholarship in using grounded theory that to the casual observer indicates that it has some usefulness. i'd propose suspending judgement until sufficient citations are provided. There are many ways of thinking and analyzing the world that would be antagonistic toward grounded theory. i can imagine if one is a practice-turn ethnographer that the facility for theory discovery seems less necessary in the face of the brute facts of the experiences that you describe. But, I don't know. i think the best way to think of methods is methodological pluralism, which in my mind argues that there are many ways to access knowledge and that the knowledge generated is always the same sort about the same thing, but in the end the application of one suite of methodoligical tools to its appropriate data is as valuable as another suite and that any given analysis is likely to be limited by the methods used. On Aug 10, 2006, at 4:11 AM, Denise N. Rall wrote:
Dear Ulla et al.-
Thanks for the framing theory. I was going to recommend *anything but* grounded theory - as Georgina Born said recently in Masterclass (sorry but she's cool) - "grounded theory has been busted for the nonsense it is" but unfortunately I forget who said this. She's an ethnographer so there might be some bias built in there.
Cheers, Denise
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