Like most engineering research and practice, requirements engineering (RE) is typically approached according to the philosophical tradition of positivism. Indeed, theories and knowledge assets are deduced or abducted from the systematic observation of stable and knowable phenomena.

However, despite the dominant role of human beings in RE, current approaches don’t focus explicitly on social issues and contextual factors, which are often ignored. This paper explores social aspects in RE by adopting a research method (grounded theory) borrowed from the social sciences.

This solidly written work proposes a constructive criticism of the dominant position of positivism in RE. A grounded theory approach is well supported by an extensive description of the author’s perspective in the context of the (high) risk that the adoption of this method implies. This contribution has a theoretical research focus, but it could be, in perspective, suitable also for a wider audience including highly skilled practitioners. A more inductive-oriented logic to approaching engineering problems is definitely a significant issue to reflect on, both in RE and beyond.