METHODS IN POSTPHENOMENOLOGY1 April 2014

Intent of the series• To explore postphenomenological approaches to research

practices

• To develop the concept through multiple perspectives and disciplines

• To build a network for exchange and collaboration

Larger Programme• Session 1: 1 April (Today!)

• James Ash, Jethro Brice

• Session 2: 19 May (same time/location)• Paul Simpson, Maria Fannin

• Session 3: Sometime in late June or July• TBD

Phenomenology• Branch of Continental philosophy initiated by Edmund

Husserl

• The study of ‘phenomena’ – whatever appears in the manner in which it appears.

• Paying attention to the nature of consciousness as actually experiences

• David Seamon – uses phenomenology to describe the underlying, essential qualities of human experience and the world in which that experience happens

Phenomenology• In tension with Descartes

• Merleau-Ponty – philosopher of the body

• The body is the basis and conduit of knowledge

• Replaces the ‘objective’ Cartesian body with the body-as-subject - subject and object as mutual interrelation

Towards postphenomenology• Peter-Paul Verbeek (Philosophy of Technology)

• Verbeek, P (2008) ‘Obstetric Ultrasound and the Technological Mediation of Morality: A postphenomenological Analysis’ Human Studies, Vol 31. 1 (11-26).

• Subject/Object co-shape and constitute one another.

• Nonrepresentational Theory (Geography)

• John Wylie (Landscape Phenomenology)• Wylie, J (2007) Landscape. Routledge: London

• Emma Roe • Roe, E & Greenhough, B (2013) Experimental partnering: interpreting

improvisatory habits in the research field. Int’l Journal of Social Research and Methodology.

Postphenomenology• Rejects ‘view from nowhere’ (per good ole

phenomenology)

• Moves away from essentialism and towards phenomenological structures such as ‘multistability’ (See: Don Ihde)

• Non-subjectivistic (decentres human)

• Interrelational ontology (co-shaping)