Grounded Theory as an Approach for Exploring the Effect of Cultural Memory on Psychosocial Well-Being in Historic Urban Landscapes

Abstract

Although grounded theory (GT) has emerged as a popular research approach across multiple areas of social science, it has been less widely taken up by researchers working in the fields of urban planning and design. The application of GT enables uniquely innovative insights to be gained from qualitative data, but it has attracted criticism and brings its own challenges. This paper proposes a methodology that could be applied by other researchers in the field of urban research. Utilising constructivist GT as a qualitative approach, this research investigates how cultural memory impacts the psychosocial well-being and quality of life (QoL) of users of, and visitors to, historic urban landscapes (HULs). Based on the findings, it can be posited that the application of GT yields a rich and nuanced understanding of how users of HULs experience the settings in which they live, and the impact and significance on human psychosocial well-being of the cultural memories incarnated within such settings. The current paper also contends that GT enables researchers studying the built environment to construct inductively based theories. Lastly, the practical implications of developing GT for application to HUL management are discussed, both in regard to how users experience the contexts in which they live and the impact of such contexts on well-being and quality of life.

Quality 4.0 conceptualisation and theoretical understanding: a global exploratory qualitative study

“…They have also executed on an average about 4-5 Quality 4.0 projects each within their organisations. For the qualitative data analysis, this study followed the grounded theory methodology (Hussein et al, 2020).…”

“…They have also executed on an average about 4–5 Quality 4.0 projects each within their organisations. For the qualitative data analysis, this study followed the grounded theory methodology (Hussein et al , 2020). Three techniques of open coding are creating a list of themes within data and axial coding by categorising or linking theme subcategories and selective coding by condensing specific or excessive categories into higher-order themes (Cascio et al , 2019).…”

How does performance vary between early and late adopters of Industry 4.0? A qualitative viewpoint

“…Grounded theory methodology is an interlayered method of data collection and data analysis. In simple words, data is simultaneously gathered and analyzed (Hussein et al , 2020), and hence after 14 interviews no new category was emerging suggesting theoretical saturation (Guest et al , 2006) had occurred. The sample characteristics are given in Table 1.…”

The Utility of Constructivist Grounded Theory in Critical Policy Analysis

“…Moreover, they challenged existing theories and approaches that believed that theory could only be tested deductively (Tie et al, 2019). The original GT by Glaser and Strauss offered an approach that generates inductive theories from data where “concepts are summarized into codes which-with the benefit of further data-are placed into higher level “categories” that may provide the basis for hypothesis” (Hussein et al, 2020: 4). In GT, the collection of data is “grounded” on the narratives and experiences of participants.…”

“…GT attempts to generate theory through inductive research. Developed in the 1960s by Glaser and Strauss (1967), this approach “brings together elements of multiple qualitative research methods to create a systematic roadmap whereby data can be simultaneously, rather than sequentially, processed through during both collection and analysis phases” (Hussein et al, 2020: 4). The value of the approach lies in generating theory through the stories of participants that are “grounded” in the data.…”