Orthodoxy and Openness in (Constructionist) Grounded Theory

This chapter is dedicated to answering the following questions: how is it possible to recognize a grounded inquiry process dis- tinguished from other qualitative approaches? What are the principles or criteria whose observance allows us to claim that we are doing Grounded Theory legitimately? The next few pages aim to put forward some arguments that may help those who think it appropriate to draw inspi- ration from Grounded Theory to organize and carry out their research. Sometimes happened to read papers in journals or attend presentations at international conferences. The authors declared in advance that they had been inspired by Grounded Theory – without it being clear from the subsequent discussion what methodological features justified this inspiration. In other words, the description of the research architecture, however, did not make it possible – in whole or in part – to recognize the essential criteria that are typical of the Grounded method.