B1 · Coding: third-order scheme

Build a shared set of categories

B1 asks which kinds of organizing recur across communities. Its task is to turn many local descriptions into a common coding scheme without erasing differences that matter.

Where this stage starts

A1 has read the communities and recorded their context. Each community already has local themes, meaning groups of concepts from that case. B1 compares these themes across cases. The common categories it builds are called “third-order themes”: one level above the themes made within communities.

What the aggregator does

The aggregator writes expectations and stopping rules before building categories, then works through communities in a recorded order. A useful category identifies a specific kind of action or pattern. It needs a name, examples, a rule for what belongs, and a rule for what does not. Where two categories look alike, the scheme must explain how to choose between them.

For example, a label as broad as “coordination” would leave a later reader guessing which acts it includes. The scheme needs distinctions that readers can apply to the underlying participant evidence, rather than simply matching the words in a local theme’s title.

The aggregator records when new kinds appear, rereads selected uncertain material, and checks whether further reading keeps changing the scheme. Rare patterns stay visible instead of being forced into common categories. Categories supported across communities are distinguished from those with limited support. Two communities describing the same joint episode do not automatically provide two independent examples.

This stage organizes description. It does not yet explain how all the parts form an organizational model. Its category boundaries remain provisional until B2 tests whether other readers can use them.

What the next stage receives

B2 receives a written scheme, membership rules, examples and known trouble spots. It can test whether another reader understands the distinctions the author intended. A long category list alone would not provide that testable starting point.