Grounded theory in the era of datafication: a data journey perspective

The digital era requires new approaches to information systems research that are innovative to facilitate our understanding and theorising of phenomena emerging from the digitalisation and datafication of our lives. The challenge is to accommodate the sheer volume of digital data available to qualitative researchers. Computational and algorithmic analysis of such datasets complements GTM as such analysis reveals patterns in data that are not visible or accessible to the usual GTM approaches. However, such co-existence between qualitative and computational analysis leaves unanswered key questions about the nature of datafied phenomena. In this chapter we propose an extension to GTM that examines how data moves through space/time and social context to create a data story that is co-constructed with the participants’ story of datafied phenomena. We introduce the concept of a data journey to encapsulate the decisions, processes, and actions that shape datafication and use this as a theoretical apparatus to unpack and understand datafied phenomena. Our approach provides an important bridge between qualitative and computational analysis and enriches our understanding and theorising of datafication.