Presenting phenomenology: faithfully recreating the lived experiences of Surfer Girls

Abstract

Phenomenology offers an appropriate philosophical orientation to investigate people's lived experiences. It is an approach that is now widely acknowledged and applied in the social sciences. Despite its increasing adaptation in diverse contexts, the use of phenomenology in leisure studies remains limited and presents many conceptual, theoretical and applied challenges to researchers. A significant challenge is presenting research findings in ways that faithfully present people's experiences. This paper provides reflexive insights into Laura's (the lead author's) attempts as a current Ph.D. candidate to embrace Heideggerian phenomenology to investigate the experiences of being a surfer. The paper is derived from Laura's thesis process, where she took part in 37 unstructured conversations with women surfers ('Surfer Girls'), and incorporated her own experiences as a woman surfer into the study. In her thesis, Laura presents her findings in the form of 'postcards' to promote women surfer's individuality, and to make their words come to life. Text, visual and other aids are incorporated in ways that enrich the written word, and that set a 'surfing scene' and create a surfing lifeworld for the reader. This paper examines and explains the importance of integrating phenomenological method and analysis to give faithful voice to people's lived experiences, and suggests tools for presenting phenomenological findings. Finally, this paper justifies and promotes the use of phenomenology as an under-utilized means of deepening our understandings of people's leisure experiences.

Impact of COVID-19 on SMEs and employment

“…The outcome of the research can change in time and results are influenced by both researcher and subject who co-create the conduction and outcomes of the inquiry process. This approach is commonly used in the social sciences and regarded as an analytic adaptation that represents a faithful vocalization of the people who experienced the phenomenon (Fendt, Wilson, Jenkins, Dimmock, & Weeks, 2014). A similar study using phenomenology on the COVID-19 outbreak has been conducted on perceptions and psychosocial consideration of Spanish nursing students (Collado-Boira, Ruiz-Palomino, Salas-Media, Folch-Ayora, Muriach, & Baliño, 2020).…”

Experiences of amateur athletes’ non-participating entourage at participatory sport events

“…As declared earlier through our personal experiences as amateur athletes and as NPE, we acknowledge that this study constituted 'insider research' in which the researchers possessed 'knowledge of the organisation and/or phenomenon prior to the study's commencement' (Hays & Singh, 2012, p. 140). Our positions as insiders enabled more intimate understandings of NPE experiences than 'outside' researchers (Sparkes, 2002), and we reiterate that interpretive phenomenology values the researcher's experiences to unpack informants' experiential accounts (Fendt et al, 2014).…”

“…A flexible and inclusive epistemological approach was desirable to examine the experiences of NPE at participatory sport events, as it was recognised NPE perspectives could be diverse, influenced by individual circumstances and unique event factors. We adopted a phenomenological approach for this research (Sokolowski, 2000), following tourism and leisure studies deploying interpretive epistemologies which embrace subjectivity, relativity, and facilitate empathetic accounts of lived experiences (Fendt, Wilson, Jenkins, Dimmock, & Weeks, 2014). Fendt et al (2014) advocated Heideggerian (interpretive) phenomenology, as it 'values the researcher's own understandings and experiences, viewing them as a crucial tool for interpretations of the experiential descriptions' (p. 402).…”

“…We adopted a phenomenological approach for this research (Sokolowski, 2000), following tourism and leisure studies deploying interpretive epistemologies which embrace subjectivity, relativity, and facilitate empathetic accounts of lived experiences (Fendt, Wilson, Jenkins, Dimmock, & Weeks, 2014). Fendt et al (2014) advocated Heideggerian (interpretive) phenomenology, as it 'values the researcher's own understandings and experiences, viewing them as a crucial tool for interpretations of the experiential descriptions' (p. 402). All four authors have experience as both athletes competing in, and NPE attending participatory sport events.…”

Phenomenology for hospitality: theoretical premises and practical applications

“…Pernecky and Jamal (2010) and Szarycz (2009) also point out that hospitality and tourism researchers tend to inadequately address ontological and epistemological assumptions of phenomenology, which led to misunderstandings about approaches to data collection, analysis and interpretation. This could be because phenomenology is a broad methodology with few practical guidelines for professional researchers (Fendt et al, 2014). This article aims to illuminate the possibilities of phenomenology in hospitality, thereby enriching methodological rigor necessary to study holistic experiences.…”