U. Kelle, THEORY BUILDING IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH AND COMPUTER-PROGRAMS FOR THEMANAGEMENT OF TEXTUAL DATA, Sociological research online, 2(2), 1997, pp. 1-13
This article refers to recent debates about the potential methodologic
al costs and benefits of computer use in qualitative research and abou
t the relationship between methodological approaches (eg. 'Grounded Th
eory') on the one hand and computer-aided methods of qualitative resea
rch on the other. It is argued that the connection between certain com
puter-aided strategies and methodological approaches is far more loose
than is often assumed. Furthermore, the danger of methodological bias
es and distortion arising from the use of certain software packages is
overemphasized in current discussions, as far as basic tasks of textu
al data management ('coding and retrieval') usually performed by this
software are concerned. However, with the development of more advanced
and complex coding and retrieval techniques, which are regarded by so
me authors as tools for 'theory building' in qualitative research, met
hodological confusion may arise if basic prerequisites of qualitative
theory building are not taken into consideration. Therefore, certain a
spects of qualitative theory building which are relevant for computer
aided methods of textual data management are discussed in the paper.