Lugano, Switzerland

Conducting a Grounded Theory Study

Grounded theory is a methodology used by social scientists to explore, describe, and understand social phenomena from the perspectives of those being studied. This workshop is an introduction to grounded theory methodology with a ‘how-to’ practical focus. The main goal of this workshop is thus to equip students to critically read, design, conduct, and report grounded theory projects.

The students will be introduced to:

Different types of grounded theory methodology with a predominant focus on Straussian grounded theory
Common features and terminologies of grounded theory methodology
Research process involved in a basic grounded theory study
Ethical considerations involved in a basic grounded theory study
Collection of semi-structured interview data for a grounded theory study
Data triangulation (e.g., using observation data) in the context of a grounded theory study
Data analysis using grounded theory-based coding techniques
Rigour and reflexivity in the context of grounded theory methodology
Basics of reporting grounded theory studies
The structure of the workshop reflects the grounded theorizing process starting with the generation of a research question, research design, ethical considerations, sampling, data collection, data analysis, and the writing of a good-quality research report.

Course leader

Dr Lakshmi Balachandran Nair is an Assistant Professor (Research) at the Department of Business and Management at LUISS Guido Carli University, Italy.

Target group

graduate students, doctoral researchers, early career researchers

Prerequisites
Qualitative methodologies, such as grounded theory, have different ontological and epistemological foundations when compared to quantitative methodologies. Hence, the students attending this course should have at least a basic level of familiarity with qualitative research methodologies and their underlying philosophies.

Credits info

The Summer School cannot grant credits. We only deliver a Certificate of Participation, i.e. we certify your attendance.

If you consider using Summer School workshops to obtain credits (ECTS), you will have to investigate at your home institution (contact the person/institute responsible for your degree) to find out whether they recognise the Summer School, how many credits can be earned from a workshop/course with roughly 35 hours of teaching, no graded work, and no exams.

Make sure to investigate this matter before registering if this is important to you.

Fee info

CHF 700: Reduced fee: 700 Swiss Francs per weekly workshop for students (requires proof of student status).
CHF 1100: Normal fee: 1100 Swiss Francs per weekly workshop for all others.