Five Threats to Phenomenology’s Distinctiveness

Abstract

Phenomenology is a distinct philosophical approach that attends to the ways our experiencing bodies participate in the constitution of meaning. Its description, however, in qualitative research texts is often reduced to its association with first-person accounts of lived experience in ways that mislead and threaten its distinctive contributions as a research approach. By examining five common misperceptions in more detail, I demonstrate phenomenology’s continued relevance for qualitative researchers interested in a critical examination of the constitution and circulation of meaning.