Applying Critical Grounded Theory to Community Intervention Development Methodology: Designing the Critical Difference Engagement Approach

Abstract

Multiple factors contribute to community practice’s ongoing challenge of developing effective, evidence-informed, and socially just practice interventions. Currently, rationally driven systematic reviews dominate intervention design and development in various interprofessional applied health and human service fields, including community practice. As a result, community interventions often undergo significant development outside complex community contexts in which social problems manifest. Drawing from a case example of one author’s participation in a community engaged intervention development study based on mobilizing across differences, this piece advances an inclusive approach to community-based participatory intervention development driven by critical grounded theory. Undergirded by critical research perspectives, the article offers an early-stage intervention development methodology derived from the field in collaboration with community practitioners and resident leaders. Built upon existing interdisciplinary scholarship, it blends prominent intervention development frameworks, participatory research approaches, and critical grounded theory methods. Authors aim to aid scholars, practitioners, and community leaders in developing socially just, inclusive, and contextually relevant intervention approaches that originate from within communities directly impacted by social problems.