Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5613/rzs.41.2.1
Visual Grounded Theory: A Methodological Outline and Examples from Empirical Work
Krzysztof Tomasz Konecki
; Institute of Sociology, University of Łódź, Poland
Abstract
Grounded theory has not usually been associated with the extensive use of visual data. The author of the paper wants to present a basic introduction to methodological concepts and procedures, which allow researchers to incorporate visual data in their analyses while designing their research projects within the framework of grounded theory. The author also discusses the different approaches of visual data analysis that use the name of grounded theory but do not in fact perform the analysis according to its basic principles. At the outset, the author describes some inspirations that have come from a few researchers who have used the visual data in constructing theories in the grounded theory methodology style of analysis. The status of visual data and a methodological model of visual data analysis in grounded theory (multislice imagining) is also described. The multislice imagining is a grammar of visual narrations analysis that accents the following stages: a) an act of creating pictures and images (analysis of context of creation); b) participation in demonstrating/communicating visual images; c) the visual product, its content and stylistic structure; d) the reception of an “image” and visual aspects of presenting/representing something. Next, procedures of analyzing the visual data to generate categories on visual processes (transcription, open coding and memo writing) are presented. The presentation is based on examples from the author’s two research projects on a visualization of yoga practice and on a visualization of homelessness. The author also presents a selective coding of visual cases and empirical materials together with theoretical memo examples and comparative analysis. The last described procedure is a theoretical sampling indicating how and where to look for visual data to generate the properties of the category. The paper will end with conclusions and some remarks on future prospects of visual grounded theory.
Keywords
visual grounded theory; visual studies; visual ethnography; visual data; qualitative research; qualitative data analysis
Hrčak ID:
71352
URI
Publication date:
31.8.2011.
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