Five different approaches for doing qualitative research - from data-driven to theory-driven qualitative research designs

There is not one single or unified way of doing qualitative research. This article presents and discusses a number of different qualitative approaches to social research that can meaningfully be placed on a ‘qualitative continuum’ (an idea developed by Søren Kristiansen) – ranging from data-driven approached in one end towards more theory-driven approaches in the other – and which highlights some internal differences between the ambitions, procedures, and outcomes of these approaches regarding the relative importance of the research components of ‘data’ and ‘theory’. In the article, the following five methodological approaches are described in some detail: grounded theory, analytic induction, adaptive theory, the extended case theory, and metaphorical redescription. While some of these approaches are already well-known and widely used within qualitative research, others remain relatively unknown and are largely unused. Based on the presentation of these five approaches, a discussion and qualification of the respective positioning of the different approaches follows, illustrating some of the problems and potentials of the idea of a qualitative continuum.