Kathy Charmaz from Sonoma University visited Aarhus BSS on 23-25 April 2018

A group of 50 people got the chance to learn about Kathy Charmaz’s approach to Grounded Theory. The participants were from three departments at Aarhus BSS; namely Political Science, Public Health, and Department of management. The group consisted of a mixture of senior and junior faculty. The Workshop was run as a combination of lectures, exercises and discussions. During the first two days participants were introduced to the content of Kathy Charmaz’s version of Grounded Theory. She introduced the history of Grounded Theory and elaborated on how she had developed her own approach. More specifically, she familiarised the group of researchers to Grounded Theory interviewing and coding techniques and gave them exercises both with common and own data, through which they became familiar with coding and writing memos.

On the third day, Kathy Charmaz made an add-on seminar for people interested in a more philosophical discussion on ontology, epistemology and theory construction, and writing and publishing the research report.

The workshop had a large number of participants from the Department of management, some who were new to the method, others more experienced. The workshop has created a lot of interest in Grounded Theory - also among colleagues who were not able to participate. We have had numerous suggestions on starting an interest group or a seminar series to proceed with the ideas the workshop have sparked. If anyone is interested in co-arranging such a setting, please get in contact with Charlotte J. Brandt chjb@mgmt.au.dk or Mona Toft Madsen mtm@mgmt.au.dk

Examples of comments from participants:

"The workshop was very useful to me. We got a chance to go through the various stages of grounded theory, coding and analysing our own data, which brought the method to life in a whole different way compared to a classical lecturing approach. Kathy also supplied us with plenty of examples of coding of her own and colleagues' data, illustrating the purpose and function of the various steps of analysis.”  Pernille Smith from OSA

“We learned the commentary values of important traditions of qualitative research. Kathy explained and showed different robust dimensions of qualitative research traditions illustrated by a number of short instructive exercises throughout the three days. In short, an enriching and inspirational experience far beyond grounded theory.”   Mikael Søndergaard from OSA 

“This was the most useful two-course I have attended. It was very simple, yet extremely insightful and inspiring. I look forward to use the learned technics and approaches in my future work.” Jesper Rosenberg Hansen from OSA

“Looking at my data through the inductive approach in Grounded Theory produced a whole new perspective. There is definitely data for yet another paper or two in the data that I have collected for another purpose.” Charlotte J. Brandt from INEIS

See photos from the workshop