Situational Analyses: Grounded Theory Mapping After the Postmodern Turn

Abstract

To better address differences and complexities of social life articulated through the postmodern turn, grounded theory is being regenerated and updated. Based on Strauss's ecological frameworks in his social worlds and arenas theory, I offer situational maps and analyses as innovative supplements to the basic social process analyses characteristic of traditional grounded theory. There are three kinds of analytic maps: maps of situations including all the key human and nonhuman elements, maps of social worlds and arenas, and maps of positionality along salient analytic axes. This article introduces all three kinds of maps and explicates one—situational maps—as a means of coherently elucidating and analyzing some of the complexities and instabilities of social life.