Abstract
Historical research provides special challenges to sociological analysis because it focuses on the description of particular situations. This focus makes many traditional sociological methods difficult for historical work. The grounded theory approach developed by Glaser and Strauss (a form of comparative analysis) allows researchers to concentrate on understanding what happened in a set of particular circumstances while retaining the usefulness of relatively abstract analyses. This paper provides a rationale for historical analysis as “getting the story straight”, as well as suggestions for conducting an effective analysis.
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Notes
- 1.
On the reception of pragmatism, Symbolic Interactionism, and Grounded Theory in German speaking sociology see Bergmann/Hildenbrand as well as Ploder in the first volume of this handbook.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Anselm Strauss, Howard S. Becker, and William C. Wimsatt for instruction and discussions over many years of the ideas presented here. I am also grateful to M. Sue Gerson, William Glen, James R. Griesemer, Jane Maienschein, and Jan Sapp for comments on earlier versions, to Andrea Ploder for comments and suggestions, and to M. Sue Gerson for continuing support.
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Gerson, E.M. (2017). Grounded Theory Methodology for the History of Sociology. In: Moebius, S., Ploder, A. (eds) Handbuch Geschichte der deutschsprachigen Soziologie. Springer Reference Sozialwissenschaften. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-07608-5_16
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