Grounded Practical Theory: Investigating Communication Problems

Grounded Practical Theory: Investigating Communication Problems provides readers with an introduction to grounded practical theory (GPT), a framework for doing research about the problems people encounter when they engage in particular communicative practices, techniques for managing those problems, and normative ideas for how to communicate wisely in situations that involve tensions and dilemmas.

Readers learn about the philosophy behind GPT and how its application can strengthen and improve existing communication practices. They review a detailed road map and practical examples for conducting GPT research, including how to analyze discourse. They also learn how past researchers have creatively adapted GPT to study and reconstruct a variety of communicative practices. The text compares GPT with other qualitative approaches and offers guidance for how to choose among different methods. The book concludes with considerations of how GPT may be used in the future.

Grounded Practical Theory is an ideal book for graduate-level courses in qualitative methods or communication theory and an excellent resource for practicing communication scholars and researchers.

Robert T. Craig (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is Professor Emeritus of Communication at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association and a fellow and past president of the International Communication Association. He writes about communication theory and philosophy, discourse, and argumentation.

Karen Tracy (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin) is Professor Emeritus of Communication at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association and a fellow in the International Communication Association. She is the author of Challenges of Ordinary Democracy: A Case Study in Deliberation and Everyday Talk: Building and Reflecting Identities.