In this chapter, we present, discuss and illustrate works of some of the many, differently situated researchers who have, over the last 40 years, originated and developed, employed and reflected upon their use of a now well-known methodological approach and associated set of inquiry methods known as ‘grounded theory. These methods provide flexible, successive analytic strategies for constructing inductive theories from the data. We largely speak about these methods from our two cognate, but sometimes quite different disciplines - sociology and psychology - although we draw on other contributions, notably those from key grounded theory researchers and researcher practitioners within allied health and social disciplines. While our chapter is, of course, targeted on issues customarily discussed about a particular methodology and set of inquiry methods, we limit our historical view of the method and instead write very much from the perspective of the present. We want our readers to have ready, up-to-date access to the substance, character, and developing use of grounded theory method, and to current debates about these methods. Grounded theory, as one of us has previously argued (Henwood and Pidgeon, 2003), is not a unitary method but a useful nodal point where contemporary issues in qualitative social science are discussed. The method originated in sociology but has become a general method that has informed qualitative inquiry across and between disciplines. We aim to capture these discussions adequately here