This is a reprise of an earlier theme in this book: the demise of positivism and the challenge of interpretive, constructivist and relativist voices (see chapter 2, pp. 17-29). The argument put forward there was not to deny the value of this new body of approaches, but to insist that there were continuing virtues in maintaining a broad scientific approach for real world enquiry; and that critical realism provides a viable means of doing this in a post-positivist scientific era. Admittedly, some of the language and terminology traditional in grounded theory harks back to an earlier era; but there appears to be no basic incompatibility between grounded theory and realism. The approach is one way of finding out underlying structures and mechanisms, and realism has no quarrel with theory being generated from analysis of the data gathered in a study.
NUD*IST and grounded theory analysis
A prime aim in the initial and subsequent development of NUD*IST has been to facilitate grounded theory analysis (Richards and Richards, 1994). A particularly helpful feature for grounded theory analysis is the flexibility of the index system as theory develops, new categories emerge and you see the need to change the relationships between categories. This can be easily achieved with NUD*IST.
As with other approaches, grounded theory is based upon coding (indexing) and memoing. In the course of the analysis you will produce an ever-expanding system of memos about the data. The coding system will initially expand rapidly when open coding is proceeding. The tree structure will build up as notions about relationships between codes occur to you. Figure 14.6 provides a generalized version, based on Cresswell (1998, p. 160). There is likely to be a phase of major change both to the coding and the structure as axial and eventually selective coding predominate. And as the core concept becomes clear, so the coding structure will simplify. NUD*IST greatly facilitates this sequence and helps you keep tabs on the various stages you have gone through to achieve the end result.