The purpose of this paper is to move thinking about qualitative methods and theory development beyond what until now has been an either/or situation: Either researchers begin with a conceptual framework or they do not.Both approaches originateMoreThe purpose of this paper is to move thinking about qualitative methods and theory development beyond what until now has been an either/or situation: Either researchers begin with a conceptual framework or they do not.Both approaches originate within the Chicago School of Sociology and have much in common.
They are grounded theory and deductive qualitative analysis. In this paper, I show how they work together so that students will have research projects that will satisfy dissertation committees, researchers will have proposals that will be focused and fundable, and researchers will have clear ideas about how to analyze data and write up findings.