Phenomenological Ethnography in Sociology and Anthropology

Abstract

In this issue we present a variety of examples of recent and ongoing ethnographic research in which investigators are working self-consciously in dialogue with one or more traditions within the phenomenological movement in philosophy. Each article makes a contribution to a given substantive field. As a set they pose a range of issues: the variety and distinctiveness of phenomenologically influenced ethnography, the relationship between philosophy and empirical inquiry, the evolution of phenomenological influences in social research, and issues about convergence and segregation in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology. We comment briefly on the last.One historically emergent difference is the contrasting moral postures that author and reader take toward the subjects of study. Anthropological writings characteristically have illuminated native groundings for subjects' perspectives, enhancing respect for local cultures by uncovering reasons that outsiders had not appreciated. Sociological ethnography began in a similar posture, but for over 40 years now, and especially in phenomenologically influenced works, ethnographies produced out of academic sociology departments have frequently been critical or at least agnostic about claims made by their subjects, and the suspension of belief has ranged from the political to the ontological.The anthropological articles in this issue restore credibility to native graphy

Feminist Phenomenology and the Woman in the Running Body

“…Brief data from a research project on female distance running are included for illustrative purposes only. I should emphasize that, as a sociologist, I am working within the sociological-phenomenology tradition (Schutz 1967;Psathas 1973;Katz and Csordas 2003) rather than from a philosophical base. The openness of phenomenology to different readings has been noted as one of its strengths, with 'no place for phenomenological orthodoxy, or for so-called "purism"' (Mortari and Tarozzi 2010: 9).…”

A Experiência Fenomenológica E O Trabalho Em Grupo Na Saúde Mental

“…O estudo foi submetido ao Comitê de Ética, para apreciação segundo a Resolução 466/12 (Resolução n. 466, 2012), com aprovação datada em 28 de fevereiro de 2013. Para tanto, o corpus do estudo foi delimitado com a utilização de dois procedimentos, a saber: (a) entrevistas abertas em profundidade, com a colaboração de nove participantes (três usuários, três profissionais e três familiares), a partir da questão norteadora: "Conte sobre a sua vivência no Grupo" e (b) observação participante, que consistiu na inserção do pesquisador ao longo de dois anos e seis meses no contexto grupal, com o objetivo de vivenciar o seu cotidiano e estar presente nas diversas situações, numa epistemologia fenomenológica (Katz & Csordas, 2003). As impressões foram registradas no caderno de campo como instrumento que demarca a interlocução entre pesquisadora, participantes, contendo informações literais, sentimentos e impressões sobre os momentos vividos durante a participação nos grupos e após a realização das entrevistas.…”

A Video Ethnography Approach for Linking Naturalistic Behaviors to Research Constructs of Neurocognition in Schizophrenia

“…59 The observational record includes rather than eliminates the environmental and interactional factors that form part of everyday behavior. 60–62 Aspects of the subject’s world are not external to cognition, but are integral to it, to the extent that the environment is replete with tools, foils, and motivators for action. 63–65 Naturalistic data can be contrasted with data that emerge through the suppression of normal routines (such as in the lab) or the structure imposed by research tools.…”