Forging a path of discovery using Visual Grounded Theory (VGT): values and attributes.

Description

Title: Forging a path of discovery using Visual Grounded Theory (VGT): value and attributes.
Abstract:
Background: Employing visual imagery as the preferred tool for data collection amongst grounded theory researchers has been slow to develop, apart from some noticeable exceptions (Suchar, 1997; Clarke, 2005a; Schubert, 2006; Konecki, 2009; Konecki, 2011). A perspective that changed around the turn of the twenty-first century signaled by a number of researchers interested in what visual technologies, methodologies and representations could bring to the field (Rose, 1996; Harrison, 2002; Pink, 2013).
Aim: To validate the use of a modified version of Constructivist Grounded Theory, employing Visual Research Methods known as Visual Grounded Theory (VGT).
Methodology: VGT incorporates the tenents of grounded theory alongside visual data collection and its analysis; the use of visual imagery “serving as objects of analytical scrutiny rather than as corroborating evidence” (Charmaz, 2014, pg. 53).
Methods: It offers interpretations of data that are readily accessible, with “visual data used to construct categories, describing properties, and generating/constructing theoretical hypotheses, accounting for the visual phenomena and visual sociological processes” (Konecki, 2011, p. 133).
Conceptualization/Theory development: The use of visual imagery within grounded theory is justified with the adage, “all is data” (Glaser and Strauss, 1967); a statement that is core to grounded theory methodology, as is the notion that the nature of the data shapes subsequent theory (Mey and Dietrich, 2017). To quote Charmaz (2014, p. 22), “attending to how [sic] you gather data will ease your journey, and bring you to your destination with a stronger product”. In this case, “eliciting knowledge from respondents through them” (Pink, 2013, p.93).
Conclusions: VGT offers interpretations of data that are readily accessible; being grounded in participant photo-elicitation, with imagery rendered reflectively to provide meaningful insights and purposive application, a “language bridge” (Collier, 1957, p. 858) forged from subjective knowing.
294 words.
References:
Charmaz, K. (2014) Constructing Grounded Theory. 2nd edition. London: Sage Publications Limited.
Clarke, A. E. (2005) Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory after the Postmodern Turn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Collier, J. J. (1957) ‘Photography in Anthropology: A Report on Two Experiments’, American Anthropologist, 59, pp. 843-859.
Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A.L. (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine.
Harrison, B. (2002) ‘Seeing health and illness worlds – using visual methodologies in a sociology of health and illness: a methodological review’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 24(6), pp. 856-872.
Konecki, K. (2009) Teaching visual grounded theory. Qualitative Sociology Review 5(3), 64-92.
Konecki, K. (2011) Visual Grounded Theory: A Methodological Outline and Examples from Empirical Work. Revija Za Sociologiju. 41(2), 131-160
Mey, G. and Dietrich, M. (2017) ‘From text to image – Shaping a visual grounded theory methodology’, Historical Social Research, 42(4), pp. 280-300
Ridge, J. A. (2020) Authentic Identity: A Visual Grounded Theory of Construction and Sustainability of Professional Identity in Adult Nursing. Ph.D. University of Northampton.
Pink, S. (2013) Doing Visual Ethnography. 3rd edition. London: Sage Publications Limited.
Rose, G. (1996) ‘Teaching visualised geographies: Towards a methodology for the interpretation of visual materials’, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 20(3), pp.282-294.
Schubert, C. (2006) ‘Video analysis of practice and practice of video analysis: Selecting field and focus in videography’, in Knoblauch, H. et al (eds) Video-Analysis, Methodology and Methods: Qualitative Audio Visual Data Analysis in Sociology. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang, pp. 115-126.
Suchar, C. S. (1997) ‘Grounding Visual Sociology Research in Shooting Scripts’, Qualitative Sociology, 20(1), pp. 33-55.

Period	16 Sept 2022
Event title	International Grounded Theory Alliance: Recalibrating Society. : Grounded Theory Perspectives.1st International Conference of the Coalition for Grounded Theory
Event type	Conference
Location	Sheffield, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International