Abstract
According to Herbert Spiegelberg, speaking of phenomenology as such is highly problematical, but speaking of the phenomenological method is not. The reason is that the results of phenomenology “do not constitute a coherent system shared by all phenomenologists,” its method is “at the present stage its most characteristic core.”1 Describing this method, Spiegelberg challenges us to inquire whether the method or certain elements from the method, can be used in sociological research. Such an inquiry has to answer two questions: (1) Are the objectives and results of sociological research compatible with those of the phenomenological method as presented by Spiegelberg? (2) If so, what can we say about the character of this method of phenomenological sociology? Answering these questions enables us to present a typology of contemporary phenomenological sociological methods.
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References
H. Spiegelberg, The Phenomenological Movement, 2 vols. (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1971), 2:655.
Ibid., 2:656.
Ibid.
Ibid., 2:657.
Ibid., 2:700.
Ibid.
M. Weber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (New York: Oxford University Press, 1947), p. 88.
Social action is here briefly defined as “subjectively meaningful conduct.”
J. Freund, The Sociology of Max Weber (Harmond worth: Penguin, 1972), p. 94.
A. Giddens, New Rules of Sociological Method (London: Hutchinson, 1976), pp. 123–24.
Spiegelberg, 2:655.
Ibid., 2:660.
Ibid., 2:669–670.
Ibid., 2:673.
See H. Blumer, Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1969), pp. 140–52.
Spiegelberg, 2:677.
Ibid., 2:678.
J. D. Douglas, The Social Meanings of Suicide (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), p. 271.
Spiegelberg, 2:680.
Ibid., 2:681–82.
A. Schutz, Collected Papers, vol. 1, The Problem of Social Reality (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1973), pp. 207–59, 287–356.
Spiegelberg, 2:685.
Ibid., 2:685–86.
Ibid., 2:686.
Ibid., 2:688.
See H. S. Becker, Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance (New York: Free Press, 1966), pp. 41–78.
See, for instance, H. Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1967).
Spiegelberg, 2:692.
Ibid., 2:695.
Ibid., 2:696.
See, for instance, A. F. Blum, ‘Theorizing,’ in Understanding Everyday Life, ed. J. D. Douglas (Chicago: Aldine, 1970), pp. 301–19, and P. McHugh et al., On the Beginning of Social Inquiry (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974).
See, for instance, A. F. Blum, ‘Theorizing,’ in Understanding Everyday Life, ed. J. D. Douglas (Chicago: Aldine, 1970), pp. 301–19, and P. McHugh et al., On the Beginning of Social Inquiry (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974).
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© 1983 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Maso, I. (1983). Phenomenological Methods in Sociological Research. In: Tymieniecka, AT., Schrag, C.O. (eds) Foundations of Morality, Human Rights, and the Human Sciences. Analecta Husserliana, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6975-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6975-9_2
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