"Let the Fear Go and Trust the Process" - Experiencing Grounded Theory Over a Lifetime: Odis E. Simmons in Conversation With Astrid Gynnild

Odis SIMMONS war einer der ersten Studierenden, die die Methode der Grounded Theory (GTM) direkt von deren Begründern GLASER und STRAUSS erlernten. Abgesehen von GLASER selbst ist SIMMONS wahrscheinlich derjenige, der die Methode den meisten Studierenden weltweit vermittelt hat. In diesem Interview gibt SIMMONS wichtige Einblicke in das Erlernen, Durchführen, Lehren und Anwenden der klassischen Grounded-Theory-Methodologie. Mit seinem doppelten Hintergrund als Therapeut und Hochschullehrer geht SIMMONS auf Ängste ein, die Studierende während des Forschungsprozesses haben könnten, und wie sie überwunden werden können. Er erläutert die Ideen, die hinter seinen eigenen Ansätzen der Grounded Action und Grounded Therapy stehen, die lange Zeit im GTM-Hintergrund angesiedelt waren, aber allmählich immer mehr Verbreitung finden. Im Interview bringt er auch neue Erkenntnisse zu den divergierenden Perspektiven von GLASER und STRAUSS ein, die seiner Meinung nach von Anfang an bestanden. Er erläutert, warum die klassische GTM und die konstruktivistische GTM als zwei verschiedene Methoden betrachtet werden sollten, und fordert Lehrende auf, die Unterschiede offen zu diskutieren.Odis SIMMONS was among the first students who learned grounded theory method (GTM) directly from the co-founders GLASER and STRAUSS. Except for GLASER himself, SIMMONS is probably the grounded theorist who has taught the method to most students globally. In this interview SIMMONS provides key insights into learning, doing, teaching, and applying classic grounded theory (GT) as a general research method. With his double background as a therapist and a teacher in higher education, SIMMONS elaborates on fears that students might have during the research process and how they are overcome. He explains the ideas behind his own approaches to grounded action and grounded therapy, which for a long time resided in the GTM background but are gradually getting more widespread. In the interview, he also brings new knowledge on the diverging perspectives of GLASER and STRAUSS which, according to him, existed from the beginning. He argues, in an including manner, why classic GTM and constructivist GTM should be considered two different methods and urges educators to openly discuss the differences

Adopting a mojo mindset: Training newspaper reporters in mobile journalism

Due to the visual turn in journalism and the emergence of mobile journalism, many newspaper journalists have had to change the way they work and learn to use new tools. To face these changes, traditional news organizations apply different strategies to increase staff competencies in using new production tools and creating innovative content in new formats. In this paper, we investigate how a specific training arrangement was experienced by a group of 40 print editors and journalists in a German regional publishing house. The journalists were introduced to audio-visual storytelling and reporting with smartphones in a 2-week training course. The training arrangements were studied using participant observation and in-depth interviews, followed by a thematic analysis of the data. The study indicates that for print journalists and editors, the transition from the print to the mojo mindset depends on three dimensions: (i) mastering mojo skills, (ii) adopting visual thinking and (iii) integrating ethical and legal awareness.publishedVersio

Editorial

To provide new knowledge is a basic aim of academic research. This task seems to be so self-evident that underlying cognitive aspects of knowledge acquisition are often taken for granted. Nevertheless, in order to produce credible, relevant and unbiased research results, the greatest challenge of any researcher is probably that of handling one’s own preconceptions. When grounded theory was generated by Glaser and Strauss 45 years ago, they aimed to provide an inductive methodology that cut across preformed research investigations and the testing of irrelevant hypotheses with little grounding in empirical data. In grounded theory literature, getting open to what the data tells you and implicitly how to minimize personal and professional preconceptions, is a recurring topic. And yet we know from everyday life and from research in general how easy it is to slip into forming opinions beforehand without adequate evidence

The Strength of a Solution Seeking Approach - Editorial

Why do PhD candidates choose grounded theory as their methodological approach? Many novice grounded theorists obviously grapple with this question while working on their dissertations. The Grounded Theory Review constantly receives papers from novice GT researchers that discuss and share experiences when following the tenets of the methodology. In this issue, we are happy to present the first chapter of an upcoming reader by Barney G. Glaser on choosing GT for their dissertation work. As dr. Glaser points out, we know much about the many variables that influence a GT trajectory, but less about the initial drive to choose the GT method. Even though choosing a grounded theory approach may seem like an immediate firm decision, dr. Glaser emphasizes that its firmness varies with the learning curve of the researcher. Usually, the firmness increases with productive, conceptual GT training. This observation is surely supported by two short format papers in this issue

Growing Open: The transition from QDA to Grounded Theory

Doing a PhD can principally be carried out in three ways; firstly by applying existing theories on new data, secondly by theoretically comparing existing theories and thirdly by generating a new theory. Choice of approach of course depends on awareness and accessibility of alternatives. In essence, most PhD studies are exploratory journeys in a jungle of descriptive methodologies based on very uniform data. In this paper, the author elaborates the exploratory research process that subconsciously, and later consciously, required a shift from the initial QDA approach to grounded theory. The cutting point was discovering the multifaceted implications of the all-is-data dictum in GT

Book Review: Beneficial Applicability of Grounded Theory

Glaser, B. (2014). Applying grounded theory: A neglected option. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press. For what good is grounded theory? How can it be applied? Who finds it useful, and are there specific issues that ought to be considered before, or during, deliberate application of grounded theories? These are but some of the issues that are raised in Barney G. Glaser’s latest book, which deals with applying grounded theory. In this 190 page book, which is actually a reader, Dr. Glaser’s new theorizing in the field is coupled with reprints of previously published material. In the first three chapters, Dr. Glaser contextualizes applying aspects of grounded theory in relation to previous literature and the variety of ways that grounded theories are implicitly used by researchers and laymen. Next, chapters from three of his earlier books are reprinted and thus recontextualized. The latter section of the book provides four reprint chapters on applying grounded theory provided by contemporary grounded theorists

Celebrating 50 Years of Grounded Theory: Onward and Forward Editorial

Welcome to this very special issue of the Grounded Theory Review. In this issue we celebrate 50 amazing years of grounded theory during which it has become one of the fastest growing methods in the global research world. Five decades after The Discovery of Grounded Theory was first published, the seminal work of founders Barney G. Glaser and Anselm Strauss is cited more than 94,000 times on Google Scholar alone. We celebrate that after 50 years of researching, teaching, defending, explicating and clarifying grounded theory as a principally inductive approach to theorizing, co-founder Barney G. Glaser still produces books on grounded theory at an incredible pace

Remote Female Fixation—A Grounded Theory on Semi-Illegal Sharing of Nude Imagery Online

In this article, we present the classic grounded theory of remote female fixation, which provides new knowledge on the illegal sharing of sexualized images of young girls in networked communities on the internet. This sharing occurs without consent and usually without the girls even knowing about it. In our study, we identified the main concern and action strategies of the anonymous users of a large online forum for the sharing of nude images. The data were gathered from 20 different online comment sections of the Norwegian branch of a global, anonymous community with a reputation for extensive sharing of nude images of young women. By carefully analyzing the data, we found that the forum's users had an ongoing need to master their own female fixations, which they satisfied through the process of remote female fixation. In this process, forum users engaged in the following four interdependent strategies: continuous competition, loyalty-based inclusion, irregular rewarding, and tactical negotiation. By identifying the forum users' shared concern, this theory may help explain the increasing presence of sexual abuse in digital environments

The first wave of drone journalism : From activism tool to global game changer

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Drones, teaching and the value of the explorative player-coach

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