From Cells to Sociology: An Animal scientist's Journey to Grounded Theory

Welcome to Grounded Theory Unbound, a podcast about all things grounded theory.

In today’s episode, I am talking to Dr Laura Biggs. Laura is a research fellow at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Victoria, Australia. Laura recently contributed two vignette’s to the 3rd edition of Grounded Theory - a practical guide, written by friends of the podcast Melanie Birks and Jane Mills. One of these vignettes focused on theoretical coding and how to use storyline in relation to this. At the ARU Grounded Theory Network we regularly get questions about theoretical coding, so I felt that a conversation with Laura was a great opportunity to unpick some of the things related to it.

In today’s episode, I am joined by co-host Dr Hilary Engward. Together, we are talking to Dr David Morgan . David is a professor emeritus in the Department of Sociology at Portland State University. He is a sociological social psychologist, who is widely known for his work on focus groups, and started his grounded theory journey during his PhD research. More recently, David published the paper “Exploring the Use of Artificial Intelligence for Qualitative Data Analysis: The Case of ChatGPT” in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods. . The use of AI in research, and specifically in qualitative research, is a hot topic at the moment, and will become more and more significant as time moves on. For this reason David’s paper fascinated me, and led me to invite David to the podcast.

In today’s episode, I am talking to two of the leading lights of contemporary Grounded Theory, Prof Melanie Birks and Professor Jane Mills. Melanie is Professor of Nursing and Midwifery and James Cook University in Australia, Jane is Pro Vice Chancellor Health Innovation (Regional) and Dean, La Trobe Rural Health School at Latrobe University in Australia. Together, Melanie and Jane are most famous for their excellent book Grounded Theory – a practical guide. Their book is has recently been released in its third edition, and Melanie and Jane have now also launched an online training course in grounded theory. Because of these developments, I invited them to the podcast to discuss aspects of developing as a grounded theorist.

In today’s inaugural episode, Dr Hilary Engward, who is an associate professor in applied social science and deputy director of the Veterans and Families Institute for Military Social Research at Anglia Ruskin University, and Dr Oliver Thompson, who is an associate professor and doctoral programme lead at the University College of Osteopathy in London, and who hosts the Words Matter Podcast are discussing the foundations of grounded theory.