Grounded theory — the conditions of civic participation
Synthetic interviews with 8 people · 48 utterances
Research question — What sets civic participation in motion, how do people respond under which conditions, and what remains afterwards?
Raw data sample_grounded_participation.csv · 48 rows
Synthetic data — interview utterances from 8 people written for a study of civic participation (unrelated to real people or places). The finished state ships in the repository as the researcher confirmed it.
| participant | response |
|---|---|
| R1 · former block leader | I did the block leader job for over ten years. What started it was a streetlight in the alley that had been out for months with nobody stepping up. I kept calling the district office and before I knew it I had become the point of contact. |
| R1 · former block leader | Since the residents’ council was set up I go to every meeting. Neighborhood business only moves if you have the sense that it is your own business. And the gap between people who have that sense and people who do not is very wide. |
| R1 · former block leader | I can do it because I am retired and my daytime is free. Someone who is in the neighborhood all day and someone who only comes back to sleep cannot help seeing a different neighborhood. |
| R1 · former block leader | If a meeting is held at two in the afternoon on a weekday, younger people cannot come. One time slot decides who can and cannot be there. |
| R1 · former block leader | At meetings I make a point of asking the newcomers to speak first. Once someone takes on even one small item, from then on it becomes their own business. |
The study, step by step — what was actually produced
① Open coding
Reading the 48 utterances, a name was put to each concept that stood out — 15 open codes. Similar names were grouped into 10 categories, and the assignment was confirmed for every utterance.
② Bringing the categories together
The 10 categories were compared against the earlier material again and again and grouped into 4 themes — the door to participation (trigger and invitation), the tension at the center, the terrain of conditions (hours in the neighborhood, how meetings run, existing members, notices), and movement and the fork (speaking up, standing back, the course taken).
③ Axial coding
The categories were placed in the six slots of the Strauss and Corbin paradigm. One category clearly remained in the slot for the central phenomenon — the tension between my own work and my share.
Causal conditions: living the problem firsthand · an invitation from a familiar face → central phenomenon: the tension between my own work and my share ← context: hours spent in the neighborhood and the radius of a life / intervening conditions: the threshold set by how meetings run · the air the existing members carry · how the notice reaches people → action/interaction: trying to speak up and taking a small role · standing back and watching → consequence: the fork between staying, watching and leaving
④ Selective coding
The tension between my own work and my share was chosen as the core category threading all the others, and the whole phenomenon was written as one story — the storyline.
Civic participation turned out to be a story with “the tension between my own work and my share” at its center. People who lived a problem in person — a streetlight, parking, a playground — or were led over the threshold by a familiar face find themselves, the moment they sit in the meeting room, between the sense that this is their own business and the sense that it is not their share. Hours spent in the neighborhood and the radius of a life sketch the ground of that tension, and the meeting’s time slot and manner, the air the existing members carry and the way the notice reaches people either widen or narrow it. People try to speak and take small roles, pulling the tension toward themselves, or they stand back and watch, adjusting the distance. At the end of that movement, participation forked into staying, watching and leaving. In the end, the condition of participation was not doing away with the tension but making a place where the tension can be borne.
⑤ Saturation check
The number of newly appearing open codes was recorded in the order the participants were analyzed. The curve is only a reference — where to stop was the researcher’s decision.
Cumulative saturation record — R1 8 → R2 3 → R3 2 → R4 1 → R5 1 → R6 0 → R7 0 → R8 0 (newly added open codes · 15 cumulative, 10 categories after consolidation). No new category appeared after R6.
⑥ Results
The paradigm placement, the storyline, the saturation record and the supporting quotations are laid out together with the paper-style tables. Extending the categories into survey items is left as an optional road — finishing here is already a complete study.
Key results
Paradigm placement (axial coding)
The category placed in each slot and its supporting excerpt — every excerpt is a sentence that exists in the source.
| Slot | Category placed | Supporting excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Causal conditions | Living the problem firsthand · an invitation from a familiar face | a streetlight in the alley that had been out for months with nobody stepping up |
| Central phenomenon | The tension between my own work and my share | I end up thinking this is their business, not my share |
| Context | Hours spent in the neighborhood and the radius of a life | Someone who is in the neighborhood all day and someone who only comes back to sleep cannot help seeing a different neighborhood |
| Intervening conditions | The threshold set by how meetings run · the air the existing members carry · how the notice reaches people | Notices go up only on the apartment block boards, so they never reach people in studio buildings like me |
| Action / interaction | Trying to speak up and taking a small role · standing back and watching | I do not step up and take things on, but if they call, I go |
| Consequence | The fork between staying, watching and leaving | The ones who went home from their first meeting without getting a word out are hard to see again |
Saturation curve
Newly appearing open codes in the order the participants were analyzed. The 15 open codes were consolidated into 10 categories, and no new code or category appeared after R6.
| Participant | New open codes | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|
| R1 | 8 | 8 |
| R2 | 3 | 11 |
| R3 | 2 | 13 |
| R4 | 1 | 14 |
| R5 | 1 | 15 |
| R6 | 0 | 15 |
| R7 | 0 | 15 |
| R8 | 0 | 15 |
Open-coding categories
10 categories — the count is the confirmed assignments across the 48 utterances.
| Category | Definition | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Living the problem firsthand | The experience where living through a problem in person — a streetlight, parking, a playground, an elevator — opened the door to taking part | 6 |
| An invitation from a familiar face | The experience of being led over the threshold of the group by someone known | 1 |
| The tension between my own work and my share | Moving back and forth between the sense that neighborhood business is one’s own and the sense that it is not one’s share — the central phenomenon | 6 |
| Hours spent in the neighborhood and the radius of a life | The condition where hours spent in the neighborhood, the radius of daily life and the shape of the place sketch the ground of participation | 6 |
| The threshold set by how meetings run | The threshold that the time slot, the place and the manner of a meeting (in person or in chat) either raise or lower | 6 |
| The air the existing members carry | How the air among long-standing members reaches a new face — as a wall or as a door | 3 |
| How the notice reaches people | The routes — boards, newsletters, group chats, social accounts — by which news does or does not arrive | 6 |
| Trying to speak up and taking a small role | The movement of trying to speak, putting an item forward and taking a small role, making a place for oneself | 5 |
| Standing back and watching | The movement of adjusting distance — not stepping up, but answering when called | 2 |
| The fork between staying, watching and leaving | The course of participation as it forks into staying, watching or leaving | 7 |
Representative quotes
Every quote is a sentence that exists in the raw data (excerpt-existence check passed).
“a streetlight in the alley that had been out for months with nobody stepping up”
Living the problem firsthand · R1 · former block leader
“I end up thinking this is their business, not my share”
The tension between my own work and my share · R2 · recent arrival
“One time slot decides who can and cannot be there”
The threshold set by how meetings run · R1 · former block leader
“I presented the playground item myself”
Trying to speak up and taking a small role · R4 · resident raising a child
“Not because I do not care, but because the feeling that it is not my seat is strong”
The fork between staying, watching and leaving · R6 · young tenant
Paper-ready tables
Table 1. Theme structure
Categories, their definitions, and how often they appeared.
| Category | Definition | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Living the problem firsthand | The experience where living through a problem in person — a streetlight, parking, a playground, an elevator — opened the door to taking part | 6 |
| An invitation from a familiar face | The experience of being led over the threshold of the group by someone known | 1 |
| The tension between my own work and my share | Moving back and forth between the sense that neighborhood business is one’s own and the sense that it is not one’s share — the central phenomenon | 6 |
| Hours spent in the neighborhood and the radius of a life | The condition where hours spent in the neighborhood, the radius of daily life and the shape of the place sketch the ground of participation | 6 |
| The threshold set by how meetings run | The threshold that the time slot, the place and the manner of a meeting (in person or in chat) either raise or lower | 6 |
| The air the existing members carry | How the air among long-standing members reaches a new face — as a wall or as a door | 3 |
| How the notice reaches people | The routes — boards, newsletters, group chats, social accounts — by which news does or does not arrive | 6 |
| Trying to speak up and taking a small role | The movement of trying to speak, putting an item forward and taking a small role, making a place for oneself | 5 |
| Standing back and watching | The movement of adjusting distance — not stepping up, but answering when called | 2 |
| The fork between staying, watching and leaving | The course of participation as it forks into staying, watching or leaving | 7 |
Table 2. Quotations by category
Participant words supporting each category.
| Category | Case | Quotation |
|---|---|---|
| The tension between my own work and my share | R2 | I end up thinking this is their business, not my share |
| The threshold set by how meetings run | R1 | One time slot decides who can and cannot be there |
| The fork between staying, watching and leaving | R6 | Not because I do not care, but because the feeling that it is not my seat is strong |
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