Grounded Theory in ICT4D: A Missed Opportunity? - PowerPoint Presentation

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Grounded Theory in ICT4D: A Missed Opportunity?

Professor Cathy Urquhart

c.urquhart@mmu.ac.ukSlide2

Overview

Introduction

What is Grounded Theory Method (GTM)?

Defining GTM

Two examples of use in ICT4D

Assessing the potential for GTM in ICT4D

ConclusionSlide3

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My background in grounded theory and ICT4D

Strong interest in qualitative data analysis, especially grounded theory, since 1995

Wrote a chapter on grounded theory in 2001 directed at postgraduate students which is widely used

Started researching in ICT4D in 2004

Have just written a commissioned book for Sage (Grounded Theory For Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide)

Senior Editor of

MIS Quarterly

, the top journal in information systems. MISQ has an impact factor of 4.83Slide4

What is Grounded

Theory

Method?

A qualitative research method.

Co-originators sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss (1967).

An inductive approach to generating substantive theory that is ‘grounded’ in the data.

Has clear directives on coding data.

There are disputes about application and also the method.

Many adaptations in many fields.Slide5

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Defining Grounded Theory 1Dey 1999, Cresswell 1998

The aim of grounded theory is to generate or discover a theory.

The researcher has to

set aside theoretical ideas

in order to let the substantive theory emerge.

Theory focuses on how individuals interact with the phenomena under study.Slide6

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Defining Grounded Theory 2Dey 1999, Cresswell 1998

Theory asserts a plausible relationship between concepts and sets of concepts

Theory is derived from data acquired from fieldwork interviews, observation, and documents.

Data Analysis is systematic and begins as soon as data is available.Slide7

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Defining Grounded Theory 3Dey 1999, Cresswell 1998

Data analysis proceeds through identifying categories and connecting them.

Further data collection (or sampling) is based on emerging concepts.

These concepts are developed through

constant comparison

with additional data.Slide8

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Defining Grounded Theory 4Dey 1999, Cresswell 1998

Data collection can stop when no new conceptualisations emerge.

Data analysis proceeds from open coding (identifying categories, properties and dimensions) through selective coding (clustering around categories), to theoretical coding.

The resulting theory can be reported in a narrative framework or a set of propositions.Slide9

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CONCEPT 1

CONCEPT 2

Relationship

Theories are built from ConceptsSlide10

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Coding as Theory Building

Codes, or categories, are CONCEPTS

Theories are built by naming concepts and the relationships between them

Eg a tentative theory about personal ads – Sports loving men (category 1) are more likely to advertise for blonde women (category 2). What is the relationship? It could be that sports loving men have more conventional expectations of women?

You could ground this in data, by proving that there are many instances of these two linked categories. How you theorise about this relationship is up to you, but relate to current theoriesSlide11

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CONCEPT

CONCEPT

The wall of theory

CONCEPT

CONCEPT

CONCEPT

CONCEPT

CONCEPT

CONCEPT

CONCEPT

CONCEPT

Relationships

Relationships

Relationships

RelationshipsSlide12

© C.Urquhart 2000

Using Grounded Theory

Hughes and Howcroft 2000

Constant comparative analysis

Theoretical samplingSlide13

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Two strands of grounded theory

Most people think that Strauss and Corbin (1990) is the definitive book on grounded theory

In fact, it was the cause of a major split between Glaser and Strauss, and Glaser wrote a rejoinder in 1992

The two originators evolved two different versions

Dispute was about use of coding paradigms to help analyse the data – Strauss proposed just one, as opposed to

Glasers

18 coding families! In the most recent book, Corbin and Strauss 2008, the coding paradigm has been de emphasisedSlide14

Evolving Coding Procedures

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Mariyam Suzy Adam - IT Capacity Building in the Maldivian Tourism industry: a knowledge and social capital perspective

Antonio Díaz Andrade – Interaction Between Existing Social Networks and ICT Tools: Evidence from the Rural Andes

Both PhD theses can be downloaded from

https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/1

Examples of GTM in ICT4D

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46 interviews in total - an embedded case study design, covering resorts (small, medium, large), plus stakeholders,- government, training providers, and tourism promotersInterviews analysed using grounded theory method

Mariyam spent three months in the MaldivesAdam

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Organisational Capacity IT Building and Industry Capacity Knowledge Processes the two key themesInteresting findings in both themes. Problems of ‘

islandness’ inhibited capacity building. A clash of Muslim culture vs Western style tourism affected knowledge processesFindings integrated with initial preliminary framework using knowledge and human capital theories

Adam – Key Findings

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Adam M, Urquhart C (2009) No Man is an Island: Social and Human Capital in IT Capacity Building in the Maldives, Information and Organization

, Volume 19, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 1-21Adam, M, Urquhart C (2007) IT Capacity Building in Developing Countries: A Model of Maldivian Tourism Sector, Information Technology for Development, 13, 4, pp 315-335, 2007

Publications from the thesis

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Four month study of ICT use in northern rural PeruLooked at the use of

infocentros in rural communitiesEthnographic approach – Antonio lived in the communitiesGrounded theory used to build a substantive theory of ICT use in rural communitiesSubstantive theory then engaged with preliminary theoretical framework using human capital, social capital, and institutional theory

Díaz

Andrade

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Individual exploitation of ICT themeComplementing existing networks with ICT theme

Relationship between the two themes – certain individuals spread their ICT derived information in their networks freelyThus human capital very closely intertwined with social capitalTheorised that these ‘activators of information’ spread their knowledge because of 500 year old institutions of communal peasant work

Díaz

Andrade – Key Findings

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Díaz Andrade, A. & Urquhart, C. (2009). The Value of Extended Networks: Information and Communication Technology Intervention in Rural Peru.

Information Technology for Development – Special Issue: Development and the Promise of Technological Change, 15(2), pp. 108-132.Díaz Andrade, A. & Urquhart, C. (2010). The Role of Social Connectors in Seeking Computer-mediated Information in Rural Societies. Human IT, 11(1), pp. 1-28.

Publications from the thesis

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Provides a systematic way of analysing data, and provides a chain of evidenceAvoids the ‘nice story’ accusation sometimes levelled at qualitative research

Provides a way of building the theory out into other areas using theoretical samplingEnables the building of a substantive theory which can then be engaged with larger theoriesGenerally yields good publications

Comments on using GTM in ICT4D research

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Majority of theories used in ICT4D are ‘meta theories’, eg

Sen, actor network theory, policy studies, econometrics etcLike information systems, ICT4D is an applied area with many reference disciplines and little indigenous theoryAdvantage of GTM is that it is good for areas where no theory exists, and is built from the ‘ground up’

Should we be imposing theories from the developed world on the developing one?

GTM also provides a clear route for engaging with higher level theories – this is useful if we are using high level theories

Concluding thoughts

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References

Urquhart C (2012),

Grounded Theory For Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide,

Sage: London, see

http://www.uk.sagepub.com/books/Book232280

Urquhart C, Lehmann H and Myers M (2010), Putting the Theory Back into Grounded Theory: Guidelines for Grounded Theory Studies in Information Systems,

Information Systems Journal

, 20, 4, pp 357-381

Urquhart C and Fernandez W, Grounded Theory Method: The Researcher as Blank Slate and Other Myths,

Proceedings of the

Twenty Seventh International Conference on Information Systems,

Milwaukee 2006

Charmaz

K (2006),

Constructing Grounded Theory

, Sage Publications