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Two cases of ethnography

Grounded theory and the extended case method

University of California, Los Angeles, USA, iddotavory{at}ucla.edu

Stefan Timmermans

University of California, Los Angeles, USA, stefan{at}soc.ucla.edu

A B S T R A C T Sociological ethnography largely draws upon two epistemologically competing perspectives — grounded theory and the extended case method — with a different conceptualization of sociological case-construction and theory. We argue that the sociological case in the extended case method is foremost a form of theoretical framing: relying on theoretical narratives to delineate the boundaries of an empirical field. Grounded theory follows the tenets of Chicago School ethnography where the sociological case is elicited from ethno-narratives of actors in the field: the institutionally and interactionally delimited ways members in the field ‘case’ their action. This difference in sociological casing, in turn, is reflected in the ways theory is used. Where the extended case method uses theoretical narratives as a denouement of the case, grounded theory employs theory to construct a grammar of social life.

Key Words: ethnography • methodology • grounded theory • extended case method • epistemology • theory construction • narrative

Ethnography, Vol. 10, No. 3, 243-263 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1466138109339042


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