Bio: (1916-1996) American sociologist and social psychologist. Anselm Strauss received his doctorate from the University of Chicago, where he then taught from 1952 to 1960. During this period, he became known as the representative of the "second generation" of the Chicago School of Sociology. Strauss later taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. As a member of the Chicago School, he was a supporter of symbolic interactionism and applied this approach to the development of middle-range theories. Strauss, in collaboration with sociologist Barney Glaser, used symbolic interactionism as a basis for their methodological-theoretical approach known as "grounded theory". Strauss contributed to the development of several areas of sociology: medical sociology, sociology of work, urban sociology, sociology of organizations, sociology of education, as well as social psychology.

                                    Symbolic Interactionism

For Strauss's symbolic interactionism, it is crucial to understand the meaning that actors attach to themselves and their actions. In his essay Mirrors and Masks: The Search for Identity (1959), Strauss views identity as a way in which individuals organize ideas and theoretical insights into social processes and their symbolic meaning. Language has a dominant role in building a person's individual and social identities and in shaping their behavior. Language enables individuals to understand and evaluate their own selves, other people, objects, and events, and to position themselves in society, all of which allow them to direct their own behavior. Strauss applied symbolic interactionism to the Meso-level of society, primarily to organizations and institutions.

                                        Negotiated Order

In his book Negotiations: Varieties, Contexts, and Social Order (1978), he introduces the concept of “negotiated order” (which Strauss later renamed „processual order“) to explain how social order emerges within organizations. Individuals within organizations negotiate order during individual or collective interactions. The social order is not permanent within organizations but is constantly being re-created. Specific power relations, established and implied norms, and routines, are constantly questioned and fragmented, and symbolic interaction enables negotiation and agreement on a new social order. Situations that most often lead to negotiations within organizations are: when there is ambiguity about the application of procedures, when different actors (individual or group) define organizational routines and procedures differently, when there are differences in defining problems, and when it is necessary to introduce exceptions for previously established procedures.

Once new procedures are introduced, they become the organizational background for later negotiations. The concept of negotiated order enables historical analysis of organizations because it emphasizes the importance of previous development of the organization and how that development influenced the negotiation of order in it, in order to understand the current state of the organization. In addition, this concept allows merging micro and macro perspectives, because the analysis starts, on the one hand, with interpersonal relationships, while, on the other hand, the concept can be applied to relationships between different organizations, professions, sectors of the economy and even on relations between different nations. Strauss also introduces the concept of "social worlds" as a unit for theoretical analysis of negotiations at the macro level. Social worlds represent social structures, which consist of organizations and interest groups within a field (religion, economy, science, media, etc.), and which negotiate the social order within that field (social world).

                                      Grounded Theory

Strauss, together with Barney Glaser, developed the "grounded theory" approach in his book The Discovery of Grounded Theory (1967). Grounded theory is a methodological guide for applying the theoretical approach of symbolic interactionism to qualitative research and the creation of middle-range theories. The grounded theory emphasizes the dialectical relationship between the preparation and implementation of qualitative empirical research and the formulation of a middle-range theory that is applied to the research area. The grounded theory requires researchers to develop analytical procedures and categories that will serve to build the theory, at the same time as they are collecting empirical data. Analytical categories should have deep, but also broad explanatory power, and be subject to change during the research itself. Strauss further elaborated his methodological approach in the textbooks Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists (1987) and Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques (1990).

                                        Medical Sociology

Strauss also significantly contributed to the development of medical sociology by studying: psychiatric institutions; value systems that emerge in medical institutions; attitudes of medical staff and other people towards terminally ill patients in hospitals, as well as towards chronically ill people who are treated at home; the relationship between the physical body of the individual and his personal identity. In the book Awareness of Dying (1965), Strauss and Barney Glaser introduced the concept of „awareness context“, which pertains to awareness of dying patients, that are in hospital care, of their incoming deaths.  Glaser and Strauss distinguished four types of awareness contexts: closed awareness, suspicion awareness, mutual pretense awareness, and open awareness. Closed awareness context relates to patients who are unaware of their health status, while the staff of the hospital knows patients' prospects. In the suspicion awareness context the patient suspects that the staff thinks that they are about to die, but the staff doesn’t reveal that to the patient. Mutual pretense awareness context exists in situations when both patients and staff know that the patients are dying but are pretending otherwise. Open awareness context pertains to situations when both staff and patients know and acknowledge that patient is dying.

Main works

Mirrors and Masks: The Search for Identity (1959);

Images of the American City (1961);

Psychiatric Ideologies and Institutions (1964);

Awareness of Dying (1965);

The Discovery of Grounded Theory (1967);

Field Research: Strategies for a Natural Sociology (1973);

Negotiations: Varieties, Contexts, and Social Order (1978);

Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists (1987);

Unending Work and Care: Managing Chronic Illness at Home (1988);

Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques (1990);

Continual Permutations of Action (1993);

Grounded Theory in Practice (1997).