An Introduction to Grounded Theory

This paper is an attempt to introduce Grounded Theory (Glaser and Strauss 1967; Glaser 1992), which is among the most important qualitative research traditions. It will not only refer to techniques used in this method, but it will also analyse its underlying epistemological orientations (Schwandt 2000; Schweizer 1998). It will mainly focus on two different version of Grounded Theory, namely the positivist and the social constructivist (Charmaz 2000). Finally, it will situate grounded theory within the social turn movement (Gee 2000) in the social sciences / humanities and will argue for its application in a number of sociolinguistic areas of research.