Grounded Theory and Disability Studies: An Investigation Into Leg ...

certain research eras; and report on the overall development of the study as an example for current and future researchers. These, I argue in this book, have their own special needs within unique research environments.

Although the methodology that is discussed in this book is based on research solely within blind communities, its techniques and the new framework it presents are applicable to other social and cultural communities in institutional settings, particularly those that, as I mentioned earlier, have been socially and culturally classified or taught in separate communities or classrooms. In particular, it looks at the effects of this separate treatment on these community members’ behaviour and their understanding of being the topic of research studies. Furthermore, unlike traditional mainstream sociological, medical, and psychological literatures that see their formal topics within rigid academic theories and paradigms, the findings of the methodological development that is described in this book question the notion of the way that special institutional settings are researched. Instead, this model outlines a two-dimensional, multidisciplinary approach to fieldwork and analysis that investigates the effects of individual and cultural development of knowledge on experiences and behaviour.

Before beginning this process, however, this chapter briefly introduces the reader to the concept of grounded theory. This is important because it not only familiarizes the reader with the theory on which this grounded methodology is based, but it also presents an outline of how I approached the philosophy of grounded theory for my own research. Following this, I give an outline of the individual book sections and their chapters. I include this description because it is important for the reader to see how the process of this research works prior to engaging in a more detailed reading of its text.