Grounded Theory

Reviews / Votes

'Overall, Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide by Melanie Birks and Jane Mills (2011) is a well-written, easy to read and understand text that is highly organized and practical' -
The Qualitative Report



'As a guide for learning grounded theory the book is outstanding' -
International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches





Melanie Birks and Jane Mills are to be congratulated on compiling a book on grounded theory that reviews the field and provides excellent advice to the researcher... Birks and Mills provide a framework for researchers who wish to undertake research that follows a principled approach to making choices about important issues for researchers from diverse backgrounds and with varying levels of experience and or expertise... The book is well written, easy to understand and well set out. Each chapter begins with learning objectives and concludes with a summary, critical questions and leads to appendices that suggest that the reader pursue additional examples of grounded theory.



Professor Ruth Rentschler
Australasian Journal of Market & Social Research





Activity boxes prompt the reader to captalise on the activity conducted in the previous chapter. This activity becomes prospective in its focus and enables knowledge and learning to be taken forward in order to embrace the present chapter... The content of this paperback provides a fundamental approach to comprehend the processes involved in developing a grounded theory.



Jane Ryan
Qualitative Research





Grounded Thoery: A Practical Guide is comprehensive and covers topics in depth. This book could be used as a text for an introductory class for graduate students. The format is very appealing and useful for teaching; it is well structured and clearly written. Each chapter includes learning objectives, introduction to the chapter, activities, a "window into GT" (grounded theory; well-chosen examples), a "working grounded theory" (exercises), critical thinking questions, boxes, bullets, models, and conclusions.



Martha Ann Carey
Qualitative Health Research


I fell in love with the fact that Grounded Theory allows ideas and information to flow in as it comes, without the biases. Research automatically takes shape while processing thoughts and information in your mind, helping you to discover a lot more then what you started with.
Ekta Kudale
MA student, Wilfrid Laurier University


Overall, Grounded Theory is a very enlightening experience and will likely serve as an effective guide for any grounded theory research that I perform over the next few years. Thank you very much.
Michael Aiello
MA student, Wilfrid Laurier University


The book, and the theory itself, offered some attractive tenets for aspiring researchers, specifically in terms of identifying personal biases or assumptions that may not be self-evident. While this is not unique to the theory, I found the attitude towards personal bias and the utility hidden within very welcoming, as it offers a potential tool as opposed to an inherent weakness.
Jason Molloy



MA student, Wilfrid Laurier University


I'd like here to praise the extensive focus on practical advice given in Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide. Rather than present grounded theory as a magic bullet that bypasses all the shortcomings of other qualitative research methods, Birks and Mills present the depth and frequency of the pitfalls, that research inherently contains... grounded theory will be given serious consideration when I begin looking at doing field work.
Russell Ramey
MA student, Wilfrid Laurier University





I found reading Grounded Theory illuminating in a variety of ways. The activities provided throughout the book were highly informative in that they offered a practical method in allowing the reader to "play" with the some of the techniques presented in each chapter... I really had the chance to understand just how much qualitative information is able to surface, in regards to not only research data, but the way my own thoughts, assumptions and connections play in to the discoveries being made. For me, it was refreshing to know that it is encouraged to just let my mind "run wild," without having a specific question that needs to be answered... Overall, I absorbed that grounded theory, for me, has become the "orthodoxy" of qualitative research methods, and I very much appreciate Birks and Mills presentation of the text.
Keri Raif
MA student, Wilfrid Laurier University


Your book helped me find a love of Grounded Theory
Marisha McAuliffe
PhD Student, School of Design, Queensland University of Technology