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Grounded Theory Methodology—Narrativity Revisited

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Abstract

This article aims to illuminate the role of narrativity in Grounded Theory Methodology and to explore an approach within Grounded Theory Methodology that is sensitized towards aspects of narrativity. The suggested approach takes into account narrativity as an aspect of the underlying data. It reflects how narrativity could be conceptually integrated and systematically used for shaping the way in which coding, category development and the presentation of results in a Grounded Theory Methodology study proceed.

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Notes

  1. If one follows authors such as Schütze (1987), narratives can be differentiated from other forms of text, such as description or argumentation, since they represent meaningful structures of varying length, whose component parts (e.g., the beginning and the end of a story) are more or less loosely connected with one another implying at least some kind of temporal order.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their critical thoughts and valuable advice and are grateful for Carolin Demuth’s tremendous commitment as editor of this special issue.

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Correspondence to Paul Sebastian Ruppel.

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Ruppel, P.S., Mey, G. Grounded Theory Methodology—Narrativity Revisited. Integr. psych. behav. 49, 174–186 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-015-9301-y

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