Grounded and Indigenous Theories and the Politics of Pragmatism

Grounded theory (GT): the writing is direct, and immediate, subversive, no big words. To wit: The grounded theorist thinks abstractly, critically, flexibly … Theory is the basis for social action. (Strauss and Corbin 1998:7, 9–11)The special emphasis is on how to develop theory through qualitative analysis, through codes, memos, sequences, theoretical sampling, comparative analysis, and diagrams (Strauss 1987:iii). I call here for a dialog between grounded, critical, pragmatic, and indigenous theories of social structure. I seek a form of sociological theorizing and practice that advances the goals of justice and equity. I locate my arguments in a decolonizing, post-colonial, performance space that draws inspiration from the just ended Decade of Indigenous Peoples (Denzin and Lincoln 2008). I begin with GT, arguably the most influential model of theory construction used by qualitative researchers in the social sciences today (Charmaz 2005).