Page 85 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

and was the focus of exploration and research right at the start of my graduate studies. The process

of a considerate deliberation clearly aids and facilitates the emergence of new ideas and insight, as

with grounded theory so to me, there is a perfect match-up. Consider the emergence and the

process of our evolution of understanding through human encounters and we can see this is a

foundational element of grounded theory and public deliberation. As a process of discovery,

grounded theory and PALAR combines many facets which have allowed for me a wonderous way

to conduct an intricate investigation path through these public dialogue processes where I have

been using surveys and interviews from actual participants as the primary form of data collection.

The interview data includes details of particular participant experiences focused on

interacting with others during the process of comfortably yet deeply engaging, relating and

reflecting. As a research method for exploration and discovery, grounded theory is a “constructivist

approach that reaffirms studying people in their natural settings” (Charmaz, 2003, p. 251).

When examining the insights generated from session notes and transcripts, using the

paradigm of conditions, interaction among participants coding tended to fall into one of two areas:

those associated with interaction aspects (interaction among the actors, strategies and tactics) or

those associated with the conceptualization of the dialogue experience (conditions and

consequences). This drew a natural distinction in the data and also allowed the research questions

to be addressed in a straightforward manner. Interaction and conceptualization can also be thought

of as emergent core categories. Obviously, there is an element of choice in applying the paradigm

in this way however, I found that the data naturally meshed with the paradigm in this manner,

rather than being forced, to where it supports its selective application in this particular usage.

Chapter III will reveal more about the use of my methods and research.

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