Grounded theory and citizen narratives.

The aim is to present participatory research projects focused on town development and inhabitants’ needs. On these bases, the paper discusses, firstly, how to build up a theory starting from a field investigation that pays attention to people’s narratives, secondly, how to build a substantive theory, which is inductively derived from the study of the phenomenon; and thirdly, how to assess the trustworthiness of data. For a better understanding of the particular or different aspects of a local community, this paper deals with methodological questions concerning triangulation of sources and sampling strategies. Research instruments such as narratives, community profiles, and SWOT analysis will be specifically discussed in their use within a grounded theory methodology. Furthermore, according to a constructivist approach, the article concerns the construction of interpretative categories and the development of meaning attributions (Charmaz, 2005).