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Grounded Theory in ICT4D: A Missed Opportunity?

Grounded Theory in ICT4D: A Missed Opportunity?. Professor Cathy Urquhart c.urquhart@mmu.ac.uk. Overview. Introduction What is Grounded Theory Method (GTM)? Defining GTM Two examples of use in ICT4D Assessing the potential for GTM in ICT4D Conclusion.

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Grounded Theory in ICT4D: A Missed Opportunity?

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  1. Grounded Theory in ICT4D: A Missed Opportunity? Professor Cathy Urquhart c.urquhart@mmu.ac.uk

  2. Overview • Introduction • What is Grounded Theory Method (GTM)? • Defining GTM • Two examples of use in ICT4D • Assessing the potential for GTM in ICT4D • Conclusion

  3. 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 4.83

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. Theories are built from Concepts CONCEPT 1 CONCEPT 2 Relationship

  10. 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 theories

  11. The wall of theory CONCEPT CONCEPT CONCEPT Relationships CONCEPT CONCEPT Relationships CONCEPT CONCEPT CONCEPT Relationships CONCEPT CONCEPT Relationships

  12. Using Grounded TheoryHughes and Howcroft 2000 Constant comparative analysis Theoretical sampling

  13. 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 emphasised

  14. Evolving Coding Procedures

  15. Examples of GTM in ICT4D • 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

  16. Adam • 46 interviews in total - an embedded case study design, covering resorts (small, medium, large), plus stakeholders,- government, training providers, and tourism promoters • Interviews analysed using grounded theory method • Mariyam spent three months in the Maldives

  17. Adam – Key Findings • Organisational Capacity IT Building and Industry Capacity Knowledge Processes the two key themes • Interesting findings in both themes. Problems of ‘islandness’ inhibited capacity building. A clash of Muslim culture vs Western style tourism affected knowledge processes • Findings integrated with initial preliminary framework using knowledge and human capital theories

  18. Publications from the thesis • 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 1-21 • Adam, 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

  19. Díaz Andrade • Four month study of ICT use in northern rural Peru • Looked at the use of infocentrosin rural communities • Ethnographic approach – Antonio lived in the communities • Grounded theory used to build a substantive theory of ICT use in rural communities • Substantive theory then engaged with preliminary theoretical framework using human capital, social capital, and institutional theory

  20. Díaz Andrade – Key Findings • Individual exploitation of ICT theme • Complementing existing networks with ICT theme • Relationship between the two themes – certain individuals spread their ICT derived information in their networks freely • Thus human capital very closely intertwined with social capital • Theorised that these ‘activators of information’ spread their knowledge because of 500 year old institutions of communal peasant work

  21. Publications from the thesis • 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.

  22. Comments on using GTM in ICT4D research • Provides a systematic way of analysing data, and provides a chain of evidence • Avoids the ‘nice story’ accusation sometimes levelled at qualitative research • Provides a way of building the theory out into other areas using theoretical sampling • Enables the building of a substantive theory which can then be engaged with larger theories • Generally yields good publications

  23. Concluding thoughts • Majority of theories used in ICT4D are ‘meta theories’, egSen, actor network theory, policy studies, econometrics etc • Like information systems, ICT4D is an applied area with many reference disciplines and little indigenous theory • Advantage 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

  24. 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 theTwenty Seventh International Conference on Information Systems, Milwaukee 2006 • Charmaz K (2006), Constructing Grounded Theory, Sage Publications

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