![Page 1: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Learn to Use Charmazian
Grounded Theory With Data From
the Southern Oral History Program
© 2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research Methods Datasets.
![Page 2: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Learn to Use Charmazian
Grounded Theory With Data From
the Southern Oral History Program
Student Guide
Introduction
This example transcript introduces Charmazian grounded theory, an analytic
approach whereby researchers develop theory from data. That is, it begins with
an inductive phase that generates codes, condensed topics applied to textual
segments. Inductive reasoning refers to adopting a data-driven approach rather
than using a predetermined theory to guide our reasoning. The initial codes,
called open codes, are later elevated to higher level categories that are treated
deductively as we examine additional data to see whether these codes fit. Hence,
we collect data and review them closely, gradually drawing conclusions from what
we observe.
What Is Charmazian Grounded Theory?
Grounded theory originated in the 1960s with the work of sociologists Barney
Glaser and Anselm Strauss, but it has since been modified to include other
approaches such as a constructivist approach, developed by sociologist Kathy
Charmaz (Charmaz, 2014). Constructivism (here defined similarly to
constructionism) is a worldview positing that reality is co-constructed among
individuals in any given encounter. That is, we are always in the midst of a fluid,
negotiated reality. Reality as a construction shifts and takes different forms in each
individual’s interaction with others. This paradigm suggests that the researcher
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 2 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 3: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
cannot be removed from the research encounter but is invariably a part of it. This
does not mean that researchers should impose their values onto an encounter
but that an attempt to listen and learn is perpetually shaped by the researcher’s
presence and analytic contribution.
Constructivist grounded theory is well suited to studies interested in actions,
processes, and interactions such as being transgender, becoming a soldier, or
becoming an immigrant. Though grounded theorists might embark on a literature
review, they do not rely on a conceptual framework to direct data collection or
analysis. Any topics gleaned from a literature review are “sensitizing concepts,”
not definitive codes (Charmaz, 2014, p. 30). Researchers are instead interested in
working inductively from the data. Inductive reasoning means that we begin with
data rather than with predetermined constructs. Constructivist grounded theory
typically involves intensive, in-depth interviewing but can be done with other
data types such as focus groups or personal diaries, as long as these data
provide rich narratives and sufficient evidence of a process. Researchers in this
tradition do not distinguish between a collection phase and analysis phase; rather,
analysis begins during early data collection with the researchers’ first thoughts and
hunches.
Grounded theorists use codes—condensed topics applied to pieces of data—to
take stock of what the data suggest about our research questions. Coding is a
generative process that focuses on a close reading of data in order to capture
the participants’ assumptions, insights, and rationales. Initially, researchers work
with open codes—inductive codes based on the language of the data—and
apply many codes to small pieces of data to identify, as best possible, the
insights and perceived world of the participant. This process may be done line
by line (for a subset of data), but researchers may choose sentences or other
contextual units as well. In making sense of process, initial codes are sometimes
gerunds—“ing” words that capture meaningful action or behavior (Charmaz, 2014)
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 3 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 4: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
such as surrendering to loss or becoming disillusioned.
In open coding, hundreds of codes might be generated across the first several
transcripts. The inquiry then moves to focused coding, a shift from an abundance
of codes to targeted precision. In focused coding, the researcher selects open
codes that best fit the explicit and implicit meaning of the data (Charmaz, 2014)
to further develop conceptually. More specifically, we discern which codes have
the most analytical “reach” and apply them to the rest of the data as they are
collected (Charmaz, 2014, p. 141). Focused codes are developed in memos
where researchers elaborate upon their theoretical implications. This is a critical
step to understanding what a topic may contribute dimensionally to other codes.
Additional data become territory that we examine with the lens of our focused
codes. We continue theorizing the data in moving from constructing focused
codes to developing what we call “theoretical categories” or concepts. Examples
of theoretical concepts are limit, range, intensity, mutual effects, reciprocity, and
mutual dependency. These categories are not necessarily applied to quotations
per se but are developed in memos that refine how they fit the data across
participants.
Throughout the coding process, researchers use constant comparison. As they
proceed with coding, they review and compare quotations that seem to belong to
the same code or category. In taking on this task, we see that there are variations
within the code and are thereby able to discern its properties. This allows for
theoretical refinement but also forces us to stay close to the data, not to over-
interpret based on a still underdeveloped understanding of a code. As a mode
of rigor, constant comparison makes room for us to achieve a higher level of
abstraction (Charmaz, 2014) and can be used in generic qualitative approaches
as well. It is a means of precision and a way to avoid drift—losing our definitional
sense of a code over time because we have forgotten how it has been applied.
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 4 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 5: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Constructivist grounded theory often has a central category. Charmaz discusses
a central category as one that “made explicit what I had sensed and understood
but had not conceptualized” (2014, p. 146). The purpose of a central category
(or categories) is that it forces researchers to conceptualize what they have been
hearing across participants and across codes. It is a category that remains in
the foreground as others become supporting entities in the background. In other
versions of grounded theory, there are several primary categories but not a central
one.
Constructivist grounded theory attempts to make sense of a process from the
ground up, from the textured data to increasingly abstract theoretical codes and
categories. We do not anticipate what the theory will look like; we instead attend
to understanding how and whether the process unfolds. The data drive which
questions we ask, but examples include inquiry as to which contexts activate the
process, keep it in place, or destabilize it? These questions invite us to consider
structure, how processes and individuals are situated, and what processes look
like in motion—actions, reactions, and interactions. Because grounded theory
builds upon levels of abstraction, it uses constructed categories as provisional
concepts to be further refined by returning to the data. This means that
researchers do not just move forward into abstract territory, they also go backward
into the data itself. This is abduction—the shift from induction to deduction.
Researchers carefully examine the constructed categories and seek evidence
grounded in the data to establish links between abstractions and the data. They
also seek negative instances and incorporate these instances into more
overarching constructs. This conceptual elaboration increases the credibility and
reach of the theory. Because theory building is intended to explain a process,
researchers create products, such as diagrams, that condense their constructed
categories. A diagram helps show how the process functions across time or in
relation to types of participants.
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 5 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 6: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Theorists conclude their efforts when additional data do not offer refinement of the
theoretical categories, when additional data do not develop the category. This is
what we refer to as theoretical saturation, which signals a kind of closure, though
the theory will develop as others examine it perhaps using other methods, such
as surveys, scales, or other qualitative methods.
Illustrative Example: Being a Community Leader After a Hurricane
This example presents a constructivist grounded theory based on an interview of
a pastor, Bruce Allen, who served as a community leader after Hurricane Floyd in
Grifton, North Carolina, USA (1999). The interview activates a narrative showing
how a community leader such as Allen assists in recovery efforts in a region where
various degrees of property loss and damage were evident.
Research question: How do individuals experience living through a
hurricane?
The Data
The example uses a subset of data from the Southern Oral History Project
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: “Voices After the Deluge.”
Though this data collection was not conducted as grounded theory per se, the
interviewer does probe topics related to processes such as recovery and the
sustained aftermath of the flooding. The illustrative interview in this example
module is with Pastor Bruce Allen (May 31, 2001). In the dataset as a whole,
researchers conducted interviews (1999–2003) with numerous individuals—flood
victims, rescue workers, relief workers, ministers, farmers, farm workers, small-
business owners, environmental monitors, and political leaders. Topics include the
loss of human lives; disruptions to community; political response to the disaster at
local, state, and national levels; and public health and environmental issues.
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 6 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 7: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Analyzing the Data
In the first phase of analysis, open coding, we applied inductive codes to
fragments of the data—phrases, sentences, and other small textual units. In
this phase, we generated over 100 codes. Note that some of these codes are
somewhat theoretical, such as “secondary loss,” while others are less so. Note
also that some open codes are expressed as gerunds—“ing” words in order to
capture behavior and actions. Open codes invite us to generate many topics that
we can later review and cull as we attempt to become more focused on building
theory.
Example of Open Coding
The following example shows how numerous open codes were initially applied to
fragments of data.
Allen: I have to rely on other people who know specifics. How to get in touch with social security, how to get
in touch with FEMA, how to get in touch with these other—I don’t know. I’ve only been here three years, and I
don’t know how to get them in touch with those specific groups of individuals who can help them in specific
ways. My way of ministering to them is, again, primarily the passive counseling, which is giving them an
opportunity. We have groups who gather together once a month at our church, and they sit around in a circle.
For a long time all they did was cry. They would cry for an hour, and we’d reach out and hold their hand and
allow them to talk about what they were talking about. After a while—when I say after a while, I mean
months—they begin to smile a little bit. Some of them began to see that they were going somewhere. What I
primarily do is give them an opportunity to talk in a way where they are affirmed and loved and welcomed
and where they, in a group session at least, realize that they are not alone. Everyone in that circle can sit
there and nod their head and say, “I know what you are going through because I am going through that as
well.” That’s primarily what I do, and that’s what I feel that I’m led to do is to help them in counseling them
and helping them emotionally deal with what they’re going through—not to give them answers because I
don’t have the answers they need. Others can give them those answers, but what I can do is give them the
comfort they need to get through emotionally.
Managing
bureaucracy
Serving as a
liaison for
social
services
Creating
space for
support
groups
Crying as
therapy
Cycles of
sadness
Witnessing
crying
Delayed
expression
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 7 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 8: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
of positive
emotions
Validating
others’
feelings
Experiencing
empathy
Experiencing
a mission
Providing
comfort, not
answers
In moving from open coding to focused coding, we selected codes that we
discerned would have the largest analytical reach. For example, codes such as
crying as therapy and providing comfort, not answers are perhaps too nuanced
to use in further coding. Other codes, such as experiencing empathy suggest a
greater analytic reach. The focused codes we decided upon were:
• acting on impulse
• active counseling
• attached to place
• avoiding burnout
• becoming desensitized to loss
• cannot undo what’s been done
• collective evaluating
• embodying loss
• empathy fatigue
• experiencing empathy
• experiencing survivor’s guilt
• gutting a house
• helplessness
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 8 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 9: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
• holistic approach
• house vs. home
• managing bureaucracy
• objects of heightened value
• pride in community
• remembering vs. trying to forget
• resilience
• secondary loss
• sensory overload
• strategies for clean-up
• stuck means wallowing in that junk
• “things are out of control”
• transformed settings
• trying to control the chaos
• turning a corner
• unacknowledged normal
• vanishing home
• “we had been told”
Note that other researchers might use a different set of focused
codes—somewhat different language than we use here—but their codes would
share characteristics with ours and would likely capture notions of dealing with
emotions and an unpredictable environment.
Example of Focused Coding
As we review additional data, we would apply focused codes constructed after
the first phase of open coding. The following is an interview with Jenny, another
survivor. Rather than starting over with open coding, we instead use the focused
codes to see whether they have “reach” in other data. However, if new data
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 9 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 10: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
suggest other topics, we would examine how they fit with the current codes.
Focused codes are typically applied more broadly, not just to a line or sentence.
Voices From the Deluge: Interview With Jenny
Memo Writing
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 10 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 11: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Memos are fertile ground for making sense of a focused code and defining
it based on nuanced accounts in the data. Memos can also be a place for
comparisons—comparing quotations, comparing transcripts, comparing codes. In
making comparisons, you will begin thinking across data. In doing so, your ideas
will become more theoretical. You will start explaining the variation in the data,
such as the different trajectories of those who lost property in the flood and those
who did not. Memos do not have to be conclusive; they are a place to sustain
inquiry and work through uncertainties as you gather more data and work toward
more solid evidence for theoretical connections.
Moving From Focused Codes to Categories
In developing theory, we construct increasingly abstract concepts that capture a
coherent theory. One technique to accomplish this is to elevate focused codes
to categories. A category is a higher level concept that helps tie together other
codes. Here is an example on a code memo for becoming desensitized to loss.
Memo Excerpt: Becoming Desensitized to Loss
When Allen cleans out the first house, he cries “long and hard.” By the
third house, he becomes so immune that he does not cry anymore.
Allen says that after a while you have to “harden yourself to a point, but
hopefully not so much that you get where you don’t care.” In dealing
with other volunteers, he comments on how they have to deal with
“sorrow and junk … seven days a week, far too many hours during the
day—I could look into their eyes and tell that they were shell-shocked.”
This sensory overload is related to becoming desensitized—a process
in which individuals reduce or eliminate undesirable emotional reactions
to the emerging chaos. The volunteers’ attempts to care too much has
led to burnout. Non-volunteers have a perhaps different path to
desensitization. One man says, “You know what, these people drive by
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 11 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 12: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
this stuff all day long.” He said, “After a while … you just sort of look over
it.” When the landscape has been transformed into a region with trailers
still laying on their sides and homes that have been abandoned for
over a year, scars still evident after almost eighteen months, individuals
become accustomed to a new reality. Becoming desensitized to loss
seems to follow a trajectory from becoming aware of desensitization to
resisting the desensitization or surrendering to it. Allen resists burnout
because “there’s just something in me. I need to be involved. I want to
be involved in whatever way I can.” While others look “over” the chaos,
Allen continues to look “at” it.
In addition to elaborating on the code becoming desensitized to loss, the memo
allows us to build more theoretical ideas, such as becoming aware of
desensitization, resisting desensitization, and surrendering to desensitization. In
other words, we begin to see not just the meaning of a code but a trajectory that
we can further theorize.
In revisiting focused codes, researchers can move to grouping codes into clusters
to understand more fully the conceptual link among them. Clustering can show
relationships among attitudes and actions, contexts and actions, and actions and
consequences. For example, those who were not “flooded out” have a different
experience from those who were, but both groups experience a kind of emotional
saturation. Those who still have their homes might transition to feeling
desensitized whereas those who lost their homes might need to tell their story
over and over in order to reach acceptance of loss. Meanwhile, caregivers and
volunteers have their “batteries recharged” by active community engagement.
Theoretical Sampling
As we construct categories in our analysis, we might need further evidence for
how they fit a theory. For this reason, we would typically move to theoretical
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 12 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 13: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
sampling, a form of sampling where we collect additional data to refine a category,
rather than sampling for a demographic characteristic. In this study, for example,
we would be interested in sampling for the category desensitized to the loss of
others and explore how and why others stop assisting in clean-up efforts. Our
objective here is to further elucidate the trajectory from sensitized to desensitized
to see whether and how individuals accepted loss and resolved their
circumstances.
Theoretical Coding
Theoretical codes elevate focused codes to a higher conceptual level. For
example, when we think more fully about desensitization and the repeated
attempts of clean-up, we see the routinization of a number of actions. For
example, when one survivor tells Allen that he wants to “‘show you the
photographs,’ and he told the story, and I know it was the thousandth time he
told that story,” he is aware that individuals do not just act, they perform the
same actions over and over. Hence, routinization of recovery becomes a possible
theoretical code. It is not a code that can be applied to a particular quotation.
Rather, it is a more abstract concept inscribed in the text. As Allen discusses
evidence of desensitization to loss and destruction and his own efforts to resist
desensitization, we see the change over time of how individuals—caregivers
as well as others—manage difficult emotions. As actions are repeated with
systematic regularity, we see the routinization of recovery efforts, such as the
monthly “Flood Talks.”
Another theoretical code is experiencing liminal spaces. Though Allen is a pastor
and has offered his church as a shelter, the spaces he describes evocatively
are the homes of those who are flooded out. These are spaces transitioning
from houses to increasingly vacant spaces. The house is a physical space where
objects no longer stay put. In flooded houses everything floats. “A chair that may
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 13 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 14: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
have been in the bedroom might be all the way down the hall, and the refrigerator
might be against the back door. It’s amazing how everything floats. So there’s no
guarantee that you’ll find what someone was looking for where it should be.” In
addition to the destabilized atmospherics, the objects in these settings take on a
new meaning. When everything but a single Christmas ornament has been ruined,
it takes on special value. “It just—that was her only possession except the clothes
on her back. It was horrible.” Even those who have built back their homes call it
their “house” but no longer their “home” because their home is gone. “Their home
is gone because their friends are gone and the community is gone.”
Presenting Results
The data from “Voices After the Deluge: Oral History Investigations of the Great
North Carolina Flood” at the Southern Oral History Program provide detailed
accounts on recovery efforts from numerous individuals who lived through
Hurricane Floyd in Eastern North Carolina. The example interview activates a
wide array of topics, including being attached to one’s home, collective grieving,
conflicted emotions, embodying loss, and what it means to stay stuck or to move
beyond one’s loss. However, the final report would theorize on the most relevant
topics by virtue of a central or core category and related theoretical categories. A
grounded theory analysis might also present a diagram of the theory. A diagram
is a visual product of the analysis that highlights a process in terms of the
constructed theoretical categories.
The following is an example of a condensed grounded theory report based on
the example interview. A fully developed theory would incorporate analyses of
additional transcripts in order to solidify the focused codes and refine categories
after reaching theoretical saturation, the point at which conceptual relationships
among categories have been sufficiently demonstrated. It would not be unusual
to interview 30–50 participants for a fully developed grounded theory study. If you
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 14 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 15: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
happen to take issue with any of the claims in the following report, note what kind
of data you would need to collect to solidify these claims. This would point to the
path of theoretical saturation.
Coping With Ontological Insecurity: A Constructivist Grounded
Theory Analysis
Liminality is the quality of disorientation that occurs between states or settings,
such as when one setting is transitioning to another. To occupy a liminal space is
to seemingly inhabit both sides of a boundary or to be between what once was
and what will become. In the context of flooding after a hurricane, the liminality is
not only disquieting, it makes physical reality itself seem unstable. The following
diagram shows how coping with ontological insecurity is evident in liminal spaces
where a reliable setting has become an ambiguous one, a place imbued with the
tension between one’s control and environmental chaos.
For example, one woman said she slept with her clothes on all night “because
she couldn’t bear to get undressed. She said, ‘I know it’s going to flood again. I
know it’s going to flood again.’” This kind of hypervigilance suggests concern that
a once-reliable world is transitioning to one that is increasingly unpredictable. For
those who lost possessions or who were entirely flooded out, telling their story
over and over is important, as if they are trying to nail down a reality that has been
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 15 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 16: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
destabilized. Of a man who shows Allen his photographs, the minister says, “I’m
sure he told the story to everyone he saw.”
In one encounter, Allen picks up a jewelry box that falls apart in his hands.
That was very difficult to handle—to try your best to hold something
together and it fell apart. That was a very difficult thing for me to deal
with. Other than photographs that was the most difficult thing for me was
putting those rings in that box and just picking it up and having the box
fall apart.
That Allen lingers on this moment is telling—objects themselves are no longer
functioning as one would expect. These cumulative accounts suggest an
experience of ontological insecurity—how reality itself seems to no longer be
reliable. Floors buckle when walked upon, furniture disintegrates, and hats stored
under beds are submerged in water. Allen has little to say about the
unacknowledged normalcy that preceded Floyd. It is almost as if he was unaware
of his surroundings, as if pre-Floyd is a now distant reality, and the new surreal
liminality has left survivors scrambling to take control of destabilized settings.
Different trajectories are evident in this liminal space of ontological insecurity.
Those who were not flooded out decide whether to be passively or actively
involved in relief efforts. As a community leader, Allen is dynamically involved,
but his emotional labor is palpable (“I cried long and hard as I cleaned out the
first house”). To manage the challenging terrain of counseling, he uses strategies
for helping others as well as himself, such as distinguishing between active and
passive counseling. His own trajectory moves from heightened sensitivity to a
wiser state of acceptance. He realizes that cleaning out a house is really “gutting”
it, not only a way of moving forward but a way of creating order out of the liminal
uncertainty. He moves through heightened sensitivity and displays of emotion in
the immediate aftermath of the flooding to a more sustainable empathy after he
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 16 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 17: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
sees that the community has “turned a corner.” “I cried somewhat after the second
house. By the third house, I had become so immune to it I didn’t cry anymore.” His
sense of pride in his church, volunteer network, and community is evident as is his
sense of empowerment.
Some people in the community stop being involved in relief efforts, while others
have no choice but to work through the chaos of their new reality. Those who
“drive by this stuff all day long” become desensitized to the turmoil. The
routinization of their new lives is now geared toward pragmatics—trying to forget
rather than inhabiting the reverent space of remembering and incremental healing.
The emotional labor involved in engaging the loss of others is not easily
sustainable, but it is what Allen attempts to do in his long-term efforts to cope with
the ontological insecurity of post-Floyd.
Review
Constructivist grounded theory focuses on building theory regarding a process
from qualitative data, often interview data, but other types of data can be used.
It is an abductive endeavor. This means that we begin working in an exploratory
fashion in an open coding phase, but after we determine focused codes and
higher-level categories, we begin working deductively to see whether and how
these categories fit other data. The product of a grounded theory can include a
diagram showing the theory’s components, how they work together, and how they
account for variation of the process under examination.
You should know:
• How constructivist grounded theory is used
• How open coding and focused coding are used
• How to report the results of a constructivist grounded theory
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 17 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 18: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Reflective Questions
1. The paragraph below is from another transcript, Jenny’s interview.
Begin using open codes to generate topics specific to her account.
Jenny: Hands have been the biggest asset that anybody—if you’ve
ever been flooded, hands are what a person needs. They need
financial stuff, too. But in the very beginning those hands--. You don’t
even know what you need financially but you know you need hands
because your mind is working so much faster than your hands can
keep up. And it was like every morning when we left here, we left this in
a mess. We had no vehicle. We didn’t have time to go buy a vehicle. I
was driving my nephew’s car. And we finally-. For weeks—I don’t know
how many weeks after—we finally went to see if we could get Aaron a
truck. I know the man from Safeway Chevrolet. Aaron called him and
he let us use that little white truck. And then we went back down and
bought this little red truck that was their parts truck. As a matter of fact,
we went that morning to buy me a car. And I was just overwhelmed.
And I said, “Aaron, I don’t need a car. You need a truck.” So we bought
the little truck Safeway had let us use. And when Aaron came from
around the back of the shop, he was grinning from ear to ear. And I
said, “What is it, Aaron?” And he said, “I bought two trucks.” He said,
“They’re going to sell this little parts truck here. And I bought it, too.”
2. Review the open codes that you have just applied to text. Which of
these codes seem to have the most potential for application to other
data?
3. Are your data suitable for constructivist grounded theory? That is, were
your data collected in such a way that participants could elaborate on
their rationales and feelings regarding a process?
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 18 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program
![Page 19: Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the](https://reader031.vdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022020707/61fdddb10dac4f36ef64809b/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
4. How can you maximize an inductive frame of mind—suspending your
assumptions and biases as you begin the open-coding phase?
Reference
Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: SAGE.
SAGE
2019 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
SAGE Research Methods Datasets Part
2
Page 19 of 19 Learn to Use Charmazian Grounded Theory With Data From the Southern
Oral History Program