Beyond Husserl and Schütz. Hermann Schmitz and Neophenomenological Sociology

Phenomenological sociology is one of the most recognized approaches for explaining the constitution of social behaviour and the construction of social reality. To this day, phenomenological sociology usually belongs to the tradition of Edmund Husserl's transcendental phenomenology and to Alfred Schütz's mundane phenomenology, thus generally presenting itself as sociology of lifeworld, sociology of everyday life, and sociology of knowledge. In contrast to this, this paper intends to outline an alternative kind of phenomenological sociology that finds its philosophical foundation in Hermann Schmitz's “New Phenomenology”. With regards especially to Schmitz's theory of the felt body (“Leib”) and his theory of situation, the basic principles of Neophenomenological Sociology (NPS) will be introduced. Their main components are (1) felt body and affective involvement as the pre-personal apriori of sociality, (2) felt-bodily communication as the basic unit of sociality, and (3) joint situations as the socio-ontological foundation and empirical manifestation of sociality. With these specific key concepts, NPS proves itself to be a socio-theoretical approach whose foremost strength is that it can identify and properly analyse the pathic dimensions of social behaviour and social situations that social sciences tend to overlook.     

Embodiment and the Construction of Social Knowledge: Towards an Integration of Embodiment and Social Representations Theory

Recent developments in the psychological and social sciences have seen a surge of attention to concepts of embodiment. The burgeoning field of embodied cognition, as well as the long‐standing tradition of phenomenological philosophy, offer valuable insights for theorising how people come to understand the world around them. However, the implications of human embodiment have been largely neglected by one of the key frameworks for conceptualising the development of social knowledge: Social Representations Theory. This article seeks to spark a dialogue between Social Representations Theory and embodiment research. It outlines the position the body occupies in the existing theoretical and empirical social representations literature, and argues that incorporating concepts gleaned from embodiment research may facilitate a more comprehensive account of the aetiology of social representations. The value of analytic attention to embodiment is illustrated with reference to a recent study of social representations of neuroscience, which suggested that embodied experience can shape the extent to which people engage with certain topics, the conditions under which they do so, and the conceptual and affective content of the ensuing representations. The article argues that expanding Social Representations Theory's methodological and conceptual toolkit, in order to illuminate the interplay between embodied experience and social communication in the development of common‐sense knowledge, promises productive directions for empirical and theoretical advancement.     

‘Shared intelligibility’ and two reflexive strategies as methods of supporting ‘responsible decisions’ in a hermeneutic phenomenological study

Hermeneutic phenomenologists propose that researchers inescapably bring themselves into their research because interpretation must inevitably be influenced by their contexts and pre-understandings. They propose that interpretation is a dynamic and active part of the construction of a text’s meaning, and involvement in this construction process leads to deep empathic understanding of others’ experience, reappraisal of accepted social and cultural systems, and a level of self-enlightenment. The strengths of the hermeneutic methodological approach have led to its use in a number of disciplines, however, there remains concerns about interpretative validity. It is widely acknowledged that in order to support rigour and validity in hermeneutic studies, researchers are required to develop and integrate strategies within the research process to promote awareness of the interplay between their pre-understandings and interpretation. This paper discusses how episodic interviewing which capitalizes on ‘shared intelligibility’, and the reflexive strategies of ‘oppositional arrangement of perspectives’ and ‘backgrounding’ were used to shed light on data from a study of the experiences and views of nursing home nurses regarding their occupational role and status, and work identity.     

Will the EU Disintegrate? What Does the Likely Possibility of Disintegration Tell About the Future of the World?

Is it true that either the EU will be democratised or it will disintegrate? I concur that the current policies, principles, and institutions of the EU both generate counterproductive politico-economic effects and suffer from problems of legitimation. These effects and problems, which are not confined to Europe, give rise to tendencies towards disintegration. My second point concerns the timing of the required learning and reforms. Modest policy proposals and tentative steps within the existing EU Treaty framework may be too little too late. The question is whether there is enough time for deeper transformations in Europe—and also globally.     

Recommendations for Hospice Care to Terminally Ill Cancer Patients: A Phenomenological Study of Oncologists' Experiences

The aim of this exploratory study was to better understand oncologists' experiences and their perceptions of hospice care as an end-of-life treatment choice for terminally ill cancer patients. To describe this experience, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted using phenomenological methods with nine oncologists. Four themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) feelings of discomfort and relief, (b) being different from others, (c) experience with nonhospice patients, and (d) factors influencing the decision to recommend hospice. Future research and a flexible interdisciplinary practice model are suggested to better assist with end-of-life care decision making and recommendations for hospice care with oncologists and their terminally ill cancer patients are presented.     

Freedom Works! The Vision and Broken Heart of Jack D. Douglas

It gives me particular pleasure to publish this review of a major but neglected figure in the recent history of symbolic interactionism. I only heard Jack Douglas speak once, when he gave a plenary address to the British Sociological Association annual conference in Lancaster in the mid‐1980s. The audience treated him quite disgracefully on that occasion. Douglas made two subtle points about the need for sociologists to take contemporary research in primate ethology more seriously and to reconsider spontaneous order theories in social science. His listeners assumed that he was talking about the crasser forms of sociobiology and praising the laissez‐faire ideologies of Thatcherism, and booed him off the stage. I declined to renew my membership to the BSA for about ten years after this episode. I only rejoined when I became a department chair and it was important to be engaged with the professional association, whatever my personal views. John Johnson's paper reminds us of Douglas's important and challenging legacy of ideas, and of the support and inspiration that he gave to a whole generation of outstanding scholars. Robert Dingwall Jack Douglas published 26 books and many articles between 1967 and 1989, and by his intellectual charisma influenced a productive cohort of young scholars who have produced over 70 books and 700 articles and chapters since the 1970s. He combined phenomenology, existentialism, and naturalistic field work to create an approach he termed Existential Sociology, also the title of a 1977 anthology. His thinking has undergone significant changes during the course of a long intellectual career. Following his 1992 retirement, the development of the internet and new technologies of communication afforded Jack a “second life” with a transdisciplinary intellectual community outside of the university environment. This paper briefly summarizes a small part of his life and intellectual project.     

新现象学对海德格尔“在世存在”思想的扬弃

在新现象学奠基人施密茨看来,海德格尔在《存在与时间》中的生存论分析是刻画严格主体 性的杰作,然而这种主体性却是被异化的。海德格尔尽管突破了内心世界假说,超越了胡塞尔的主体性,但由于忽略了身体在严格主体性中的基础地位,使在他那里已萌芽的情景存在论终至“扭曲”,错失了凭 切身的“在世存在”(in-der-Welt-sein)奠立一种恰如其分的主体性学说的机遇。新现象学深入探究身体在 “在世存在”中的意义,正式提出一种较为完备的情景存在论学说,并在(身体)情绪震颤的主观事实基础 上提炼出新现象学视域下的“在世存在”即严格主体性。     

声音制作技术的现象学解读

声音是自然界存在的一种属性,也是人类最古老的交流方式之一。声音制作技术是对声音的录制、传播过程,它的发展与人类发展、进步的历史是息息相关的,经历了从原始社会、近代乃至当代社会漫长的历史时期。技术现象学是有关技术与人类关系的学说,运用伊德的技术现象学理论,可以把声音制作技术发展的历史分为萌芽阶段、产生阶段、发展阶段、成熟阶段与后现代阶段。声音制作技术前进、发展过程中的基本规律就是通过对声音的制作与传播,使意识得到了延绵,其本质是＂声音现象学＂,制作一种＂存在＂。声音制作技术还具有改变人的存在方式的深层次哲学意义,哲学的基本命题＂存在＂也许将成为一种新的存在方式。     

后现代公共行政理论的哲学之维

后现代公共行政理论是公共行政领域中一种具有批判和建构意义的先锋派理论。维特根斯坦的日常语言哲学、哈贝马斯的日常语言和交往行为理论为后现代公共行政理论奠定了语言哲学基础;后现代公共行政理论学家借鉴当代西方哲学成果,吸收了胡塞尔和梅洛-庞蒂现象学的思想内容,为后现代公共行政理论找到了本体论和认识论合一的哲学基础,从而完成了从本体论、认识论、方法论的哲学基础的建构,实现了对传统西方行政理论的全面解构和超越。     

汉英存现句中的存现主体

汉语存现句和英语there be结构在汉英两种语言中都具有存现意义,在两种语言中都是一种重要而且特别的句型。以汉英语言中的存现主体为研究对象,从认知及语法方面发现汉英存现句的共同点,同时,在存现主体为有定这一新的角度下研究两种语言中存现主体的差异。