Introducing postphenomenological research: a brief and selective sketch of phenomenological research methods

Abstract

In time, phenomenology has become a viable approach to conducting qualitative studies in education. Popular and well-established methods include descriptive and hermeneutic phenomenology. Based on critiques of the essentialism and receptivity of these two methods, however, this article offers a third variation of empirical phenomenology: Postphenomenology. The article introduces postphenomenology, a philosophy of technology that highlights the importance of technological mediation of experience: Technologies transform our perceptions (amplify/reduce) and translate our actions (invite/inhibit). Based on this framework, two approaches to empirical fieldwork are suggested: In-depth exploration of the typical use of a given technology and critical comparison of multiple versions of a technology. It is argued that using postphenomenology as a research method helps researchers explore technological mediation, a vital and oft-neglected aspect of educational practice, but the method simultaneously entails epistemological commitments such as multistability, reflexivity, and posthumanism. The article concludes by discussing future challenges for the postphenomenological method.

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“…Phenomenology explores the lived experience (Heidegger, ). Post‐phenomenology, influenced by both descriptive and hermeneutic phenomenology (Aagaard, ), is a philosophy of technology with the primary tenant of technologies actively mediating a person's every‐day being (Idhe, ). Technologies are said to have social and cultural roles in that technologies do not only function for their specific purpose, but also have the capacity to transform the experiences of people.…”

Striving for experiential resonance: Critique, postcritique and phenomenology

“…This is certainly an understandable concern, since some phenomenological scholars claim that phenomenology liberates us from theory and allows us to see the light of lived experience (see Aagaard, 2017). Phenomenology, however, is emphatically not a neutral lens through which we perceive a pre-given phenomenon, but an intellectual tool that shapes our research process all the way down to data collection: it influences what we see, which questions we ask, and what ultimately stands forth as significant (Aagaard, 2017). A weak theory, in other words, is not the same as an empty theory.…”

“…In my own research on digital technology, I subscribe to an actor-network-inspired variant of phenomenology called postphenomenology (Aagaard, 2017). While the topic of technology will not be further explored here, I find it instructive to follow postphenomenology's refusal to treat its analytical objects (i.e.…”

“…As Don Ihde (1998) maintains: 'The postmodern hermeneutics of things must find ways to give voices to things, to let them speak for themselves ' (p. 158). This insistence on letting things speak impedes large-scale critiques of Capitalism, Technocracy or Neoliberalism, because, at this level of abstraction, technologies are often reduced to mute symbols of such nebulous entities (Aagaard, 2017).…”

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“…Den filosofiske eller konstitutive fenomenologien eg knyter meg til, plasserer seg i ein erkjenningsteoretisk posisjon som tek avstand både frå idealisme og relativistisk konstruktivisme. Denne fenomenologien har like trekk med den såkalla postfenomenologien av di han er empirisk retta (Ihde 2009;Aagaard 2017). Forsvaret av den kategoriale tenkinga byggjer på ei vidareutvikla forståing av den fenomenologiske kategorien typikalitet.…”