QualRes Article Review & Summary

Title
Author(s)
Source
(full citation)
Reviewed by
Date
Presented

Summary

To Learn to Think Conceptually: Juliet Corbin in Conversation with

Cesar A. Cisneros-Puebla
Juliet Corbin, Cesar A. Cisneros-Puebla
FQS Forum: Qualitative Social Research, v. 5, n. 3, Art 32, Sep.
2004
Nik Dholakia
Oct 9, 2014

Summarize the key content. Extract the main themes of this piece in
terms of content, methods, theories, etc. Enumerate or present in the
form of bullets. Make it easy to understand and comprehend.

Glaser and Strauss created the Grounded Theory Method (GTM). At a much later
stage, Juliet Corbin did her doctoral work on GTM with Strauss and later became his
key collaborator in GTM, and a key figure in QualRes methods in general.

The interviewer is a professor in Mexico. He interviewed Juliet Corbin (JC) during 3

QualRes conferences over some years in Mexico, Canada and Brazil.

Some pages are spent just on describing the conferences, how the tape recorder
failed in one interview (and hence notes had to be used), etc. Part of the interview is
thus notes and partly transcript.

As intro (or are these notes? Not clear) there is JCs career: Masters student at San
Jose State University (SJSU), where she was using Quant methods but did read an
influential piece by Anselm Strauss. So, went for doctorate, in Nursing, at University
of California San Francisco (UCSF), which is mainly a medical-oriented school, but
has a behavioral science dept. where Glaser and Strauss worked and where they
developed GTM.

By the time JC went to UCSF, Glaser had retired and Strauss was teaching GTM
courses.

JC had a major prof in Nursing but tried to do as much as possible with Strauss in the
Beh Sci dept. Strauss was on her committee. During dissertation, Strauss went away
on a sabbatical. When he returned, he had major health problems and worked out of
him home, with students (local and global) visiting and working with him at his
home.

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The article mentions dozens of names of students and scholars who interacted with
Strauss, many becoming major influences in GTM in later years. JC got to interact
with them also.

After doctorate, JC felt she still had very rudimentary understanding of GTM. So she
decided to stay on (and there were others) as post-doc with Strauss. This of course
led to 15-year collaboration with Strauss, including many GTM and related books.

In the interview, she was open to GTM being adapted and changed over the years
(unlike the Glaser view). She feels QualRes methods in general are important, and
GTM can work with other methods.

While JC is very aware of multiple philosophical traditions and methods, including

performance ethnography, she feels strongly that the theory building aspect of
GTM is central to all QualRes, and she feels the Chicago School symbolic
interactionism (SI) philosophy (that GTM relies on) is better than other philosophical
positions.

She reviews GTM applications in Latin America, Asia, and Europe briefly in the
interview.

Seems she is both a bit skeptical and at the same time a bit envious of the more
literary and performance ethnography methods that have become popular in recent
years. She kept saying, a bit jokingly, that she would write a steamy novel that would
later become a play.

Critique

Indicate what you liked or did not like about this piece, and why. Also
discuss what the author(s) could have done to improve this piece.
Enumerate or present in the form of bullets.

The interviewer gave a lot of unnecessary details and fluff at many places, and not
enough focus on GTM.

Some glaring spelling and grammar errors.

JC seemed a bit shallow in her understanding of philosophies other than SI.

Extensions
and
Applications

Indicate what further or related work can be done in this area. Enumerate
or present in the form of bullets. Think of applications in business,
consumer, organizational, communications, and other fields. Think about
further publishing opportunities in this area of research.

It would have been nice if the perspectives of other GTM scholars who also worked
with Strauss were brought in.

Perhaps a debate or discussion format would be more revealing of the GTM issues.

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