Researching Tenants and Residents Association and Local Authority Collaboration: the value of a grounded theory approach and ethnography

In this paper I elaborate on my reasons for adopting a qualitative research strategy that comprised a novel grounded theory approach and ethnography to examine and analyse the management of tenants and residents association (TARA) and local authority collaboration. The main questions that are addressed concern decisions made about the sort of methodology and methods that could be used to obtain people’s different perspectives on collaboration. I eventually adapted aspects of the grounded theory method to produce a grounded theory approach that fitted better with my ethnographic work and understanding TARA and local authority relationships in a large city in the north of England. A discussion of the usefulness of grounded theory includes views on the value of a grounded theory approach and ethnography to collect rich data on activities in complex and ‘messy’ real life situations. Finally, some key research findings and the implications of my research for other researchers in the future involved in studying phenomena and events in real life situations are set out.