Professional Documents
Culture Documents
C. F. Graumann
Phenomenology in Sociology
1. The Origins and Scope of Phenomenological
Sociology
Phenomenological sociology is the prescientic study
of social life and the process by which humans interpret, experience, and understand their individual and
collective realities. The work of the social philosopher
2. The Life-world
Schu$ tz states that the life-world (Lebenswelt) can be
understood as that province of reality which the wideawake and normal adult simply takes for granted as
common sense (Schu$ tz and Luckmann 1973, p. 3).
The everyday life-world provides us with a sense of the
real. It is through our position in, and experience of
the life-world that we are social beings engaged and
aected by the social and natural worlds. The most
important characteristic of the life-world, according to
Schu$ tz, is that it is taken-for-granted. By this he means
that individuals apprehend their worlds and its problems as self-evidently realthats just the way it is.
As a result, most individuals, most of the time, give
little thought to the true nature of the world around
them. It is the unquestioned givenness of the lifeworld for its denizens, including those whose business
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Phenomenology in Sociology
it is, in professional terms, to analyze problems of the
social world, that phenomenology nds the ground of
the social scientists activity (Natanson 1973, p. 40).
Taken-for-grantedness arises out of the typication
of the phenomenal world. That is, our perceptions are
categorized from a shared stock of knowledge as this
or that type of thing. Our typications, however, are
only of an approximate nature. Such categories are
held only until further notice. If contravened by future
experiences, typications must either be abandoned or
reformulated. Taken-for-grantedness is further enabled through the use of time tested recipes for social
action. Of the unlimited realm of potential social
action open to individuals, most potential actions are
circumscribed by a taken-for-granted sense of what is
possible and not possible in such typical situations.
The universe of potential recipes for social action is
also part of the social stock of knowledge from which
typications are drawn. An important point to be
made is that the social stock of knowledge complete
with its typications and recipes for social action is
pragmatic in nature. We simply tend to do what works
and to avoid what does not work. Through typication
and the use of recipes for social action the world
becomes unproblematic and a matter of common
sense.
4.2 Ethnomethodology
Ethnomethodology is the second intellectual tradition
linked to phenomenology. Ethnomethodology is also
connected to the epoch, but most importantly to
Schu$ tzs commitment to the importance of the everyday life-world. However, unlike the prescientic and
proscientic work of phenomenology, ethnomethodology as formulated by Garnkel (1963) represents a
radical break from the traditional models of social
science with which Schu$ tz had once tried to reconcile
(Lynch 1988, p. 93). Ethnomethodology seeks to understand the method by which individuals construct,
negotiate, and agree upon reality, but questions the
possibility of an objective science of the subjective
human condition. As a radically subjective pursuit,
ethnomethodology falls short of the objective science
of the life-world Schu$ tz envisioned. Concerning such
radically subjective endeavors Schu$ tz (1962b, p. 52)
maintains a method which would require that the
individual scientic observer identify himself with
the social agent observed in order to understand the
motives of the later, or a method which would refer the
selection of the facts observed and their interpretation
to the private and subjective image in the mind of this
particular observer, would merely lead to an uncontrollable private and subjective image in the mind of
this particular student of human aairs, but never to a
scientic theory. While ethnomethodology remains
an important inuence in sociology, as currently
formulated it falls short of the phenomenological
sociology Schu$ tz envisioned.
Without question, phenomenology has had a major
impact upon modern sociology. Social constructionism and ethnomethodology each display a commitment to the epoch and the fundamental importance
of the life-world, and therefore can directly be traced
to phenomenological thinking. Both methods of
analysis remain viable sociological traditions, and will
no doubt continue to inform social research.
See also: Constructivism\Constructionism: Methodology; Ethnomethodology: General; Hermeneutics,
History of; Hermeneutics, Including Critical Theory;
Interactionism: Symbolic; MacrosociologyMicrosociology; Phenomenology: Philosophical Aspects;
Bibliography
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J. Williams
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ISBN: 0-08-043076-7