Dear Osama Mansour,

I hope the following references/ links and attachments may be of some help.

Kind regards,

Paul Chaney

Gola, G. (2009) Informal learning of social workers: a method of narrative inquiry Source: The Journal of Workplace Learning, Volume 21, Number 4, 2009, pp. 334-346. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13665620910954229

Burck, C. (2005) Comparing qualitative research methodologies for systemic research: the use of grounded theory, discourse analysis and narrative analysis, Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 27, Number 3, August 2005, pp. 237-262. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6427.2005.00314.x [attached]

Seban, D. (2009) Researching reflective field practices of elementary pre-service teachers: two-dimensional analysis of teacher narratives, Reflective Practice, Volume 10, Number 5, November 2009, pp. 669-681. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623940903290745

Reissner, Stefanie C. (2005) Learning and innovation: a narrative analysis, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Volume 18, Number 5, 2005, pp. 482-494. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09534810510614968

Liebenberg, Linda; Didkowsky, Nora; Ungar, Michael (2012) Analysing image-based data using grounded theory: the Negotiating Resilience Project, Visual Studies, Volume 27, Number 1, 1 March 2012, pp. 59-74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2012.642958

van der Vyver, Abraham Gert; Marais, Mario (2015) Evaluating Users’ Perceptions of the Digital Doorway: A Narrative Analysis, Information Technology for Development, Volume 21, Number 1, 2 January 2015, pp. 99-112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2013.841629

Maura, Striano (2012) Reconstructing narrative: A new paradigm for narrative research and practice, Narrative Inquiry, Volume 22, Number 1, 2012, pp. 147-154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ni.22.1.09str

Souto-Manning, Mariana (2014) Critical narrative analysis: the interplay of critical discourse and narrative analyses, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Volume 27, Number 2, 7 February 2014, pp. 159-180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2012.737046

Michael, Bamberg (2012) Why narrative? Narrative Inquiry, Volume 22, Number 1, 2012, pp. 202-210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ni.22.1.16bam

Sandelowski, M. (2000) Focus on Research Methods - Whatever Happened to Qualitative Description? Research in Nursing & Health, 2000, 23, 334-340 [attached]

I personally don't think of Grounded Theory and Narrative as being all that compatible. In particular, GT relies on detailed coding of the data, whereas narrative typically relies on the detailed analysis of relatively small segments of data.

Can you say more about why you are interested in combining them?

Dear Mansour

I would like to propose some bibliographic references (in English, Spanish and Portuguese) that, in my humble opinion, might help you. Please note that some of them are not "neutral" at all (I think to the Forster's work) and that were hardly criticized because of their lack of scientific method. Nevertheless, it could be useful if you need also "polemical examples" to explain your theoretical model.

• Marocco, Beatriz. (2003). Foucault y el periodismo. Athenea Digital, 4, (otoño): 160-172. http://antalya.uab.es/athenea/num4/marocco.pdf
• Michinel, José Luis y Fróes Burnham, Teresinha. (2007).A socialização do conhecimento científico: um estudo numa perspectiva discursiva. Investigações em Ensino de Ciencias, 12, (3): 369-381. http://www.if.ufrgs.br/ienci/artigos/Artigo_ID177/v12_n3_a2007.pdf
• Vargas Monroy, Liliana; Aragón, Diana; Rivera, Segovia y Trevisi Carolina. (2004). Discursos circulantes y construcción social de empresa en una organización del sector floricultor colombiano. Universitas Psychologica, 3, (2, julio-diciembre): 197-212. http://sparta.javeriana.edu.co/psicologia/publicaciones/actualizarrevista/archivos/V3N206discursos_circulantes.pdf
• Forster, Keith. (1977). The narrative folklore discourse in border Cuna. En Robert E. Longacre and Frances Woods (eds.), Discourse grammar: Studies in indigenous languages of Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador, part 2, 1-23. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics and Related Fields, 52(2). Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. http://www.sil.org/acpub/repository/15683.pdf

Best regards

Mao

Thanks everyone. Very helpful references. 

David L Morgan: this is a very helpful thought. I am still trying to figure out the most suitable research design. I thought about narrative inquiry because I am doing a case study which focuses on stories of 'powerful individuals' in a developing context. The area is ICT4D and there is a lack of theory here. Thats how I started to think of grounded theory. 

How do you think I can use narrative inquiry/analysis in case study design? Thanks a lot. 

Dear Osama, 

I would like to address your last question to David. Both "narrative inquiry" and "grounded theory" are social constructions (as are all methodologies). As such, different people use the terms differently. Some may say that there are "incorrect" usages of either term, others would argue, along the constructionist lines of thought, that there is no such thing as an incorrect usage. Indeed, there is a great overlap between methods, as well as variations of each (some of whic are not compatible with the other method. e.g., a "small story" narrative research, the kind advocated by researchers such as Bamberg and Georgakopoulou, is more of a discourse analysis applied to narrative than a grounded theory. However, narrative research as advocated by Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, and Zilber, 1998, may be applied to grounded theory). Nevertheless, each of these traditions has a literature you must be familiar with in order to apply it properly. You must understand what it is you would like to find in your reseach, and then identify the related literature. If you are interested in explaining (rather than describing) a phenomenon, you would do well to go with grounded theory, even if your data consists of narratives. You may call it a narrative research, but I would recommend, in this case, to call it a grounded theory. If you are interested in the story that is told, rather than the phenomenon it discloses, then this is more in line with a narrative inquiry. 

Remember, the boundaries are fuzzy. Both grounded theory and narrative inquiry (as well as phenomenology for that matter) share several features (e.g., reflexivity, some bracketing of preconceptions, rich description, coding of participants' words etc.). Findings of any qualitative research are grounded in the data, and any research that has narratives as data may be considered a narrative research. Hence the confusion. Nevertheless, as noted above, you should pick a tradition and stick to the literature associated with it, at least in preliminary stages of your research. 

I hope this helps (though it may also be confusing - as qualitative research usually is). All the best,

Cobi.

I think Cobi makes some very good points. In particular, there are quite a few versions of narrative out there and at least three major versions of grounded theory (one of which, Glaser's "classic" GT is not constructivist). I also agree that just because most forms of qualitative analysis are both constructivist and most interviewing consists of narrative doesn't necessarily create a lot of overlap on specifics.

One possibility might be to think in terms of something like a two-stage analysis, where GT serves your essentially exploratory purposes, and then an in-depth use of narrative demonstrates how the things you discovered operate.

As far as case studies go, I don't see any limitation there, so if you are operating with a single organization or whatever, you could still use either GT or narrative.