Generating Empirically Grounded Typology from Narrative Data

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the methodological aspects of the analytical interpretation of qualitative data as the process of constructing an empirically grounded typology from the textual information provided by biographical interviews. The main questions for discussion are how the researcher can generalize from individual data and what the step-by-step procedure of going “up” from empirical data is. The author argues for the possibilities of combining subjectivity and objectivity in this process, as well as the role of empirical, theoretical, and contextual knowledge in this process. An additional aspect to discuss is the procedure of interpretation of narrative texts and their use as the basis for constructing a typology. As a result, the author presents the entire procedure for constructing a grounded typology and illustrates it with the example of individual career strategy. Finally, the article debates the risks and advantages of the proposed research strategy. The objective of the paper is achieved through the following scheme: 1. theoretical approaches and methodology towards subjective/objective typologies in biographical research; 2. an analytical model for constructing empirically grounded typologies; 3. an empirical step-by-step procedure for elaborating a typology from biographical data; 4. interpretation and some conclusions on typology-construction-oriented biographical research.