Confronta i metodi

	Etnografia Istituzionale	Ricerca-Azione	Analisi del Discorso	Teoria Fondata
Campo	Qualitativo	Ricerca qualitativa	Ricerca qualitativa	Ricerca qualitativa
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anno di origine	1970s–1987 (developed through the 1970s–80s; consolidated in Smith 1987, 2005)	1946	1989 (Fairclough); 1987 (Potter & Wetherell)	1967
Ideatore	Dorothy E. Smith	Kurt Lewin; expanded by Kemmis, McTaggart, Reason & Bradbury	Norman Fairclough; Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell	Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss
Tipo	Qualitative research method	Method	Method	Method
Fonte seminale	Smith, D. E. (2005). Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People. AltaMira Press. ISBN: 978-0759105010	Lewin, K. (1946). Action research and minority problems. Journal of Social Issues, 2(4), 34–46.	Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. Longman.	Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine.
Alias	IE, sociology for people, institutional ethnographic inquiry, Smith's institutional ethnography	Participatory Action Research, PAR, Collaborative Inquiry	DA, Critical Discourse Analysis, Discursive Analysis	GT, Grounded Theory Approach
Correlati	6	1	2	3
Sintesi	Institutional Ethnography (IE) is a qualitative research method developed by Canadian sociologist Dorothy E. Smith that investigates how people's everyday lives are shaped and coordinated by institutional texts, rules, and relations of power. Starting from the lived experience of individuals in a particular standpoint, IE traces the social organization that governs their work and troubles — revealing how macro-level institutions operate through the micro-level activities of real people.	Action research is a collaborative research methodology in which researchers work with practitioners and community members to investigate a problem, implement change, and evaluate outcomes, cycling through reflection, action, and learning. Developed by Kurt Lewin (1946), action research bridges research and practice, aiming simultaneously to produce knowledge and practical improvement.	Discourse analysis is a qualitative research methodology that examines how language, communication, and power shape meaning, identity, and social reality. Developed across linguistics, sociology, and psychology (particularly by Norman Fairclough and Jonathan Potter), discourse analysis goes beyond content to analyze language use as a social practice that constitutes and reflects power relations, ideologies, and social structures.	Grounded Theory (GT) is a systematic qualitative research methodology in which theory emerges directly from data through iterative analysis, rather than being imposed before data collection. Developed by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss in 1967, GT prioritizes generating explanatory frameworks grounded in evidence.