Phenomenology as Qualitative Research - A Critical Analysis of Meaning Attribution

‘Phenomenology’ is now also used to denote an empirical form of qualitative research (PQR), especially in health, psychology and education. This book examines these methods closely, offering a detailed analysis of worked-through examples in three influential textbooks by Giorgi, van Manen, and Smith, Flowers and Larkin. Paley argues that the methods described in these texts are radically under-specified, and suggests alternatives to PQR as an approach to qualitative research, referring to Heideggerian alternatives to interviewing. This book also analyses, and aims to develop, the implicit theory of ‘meaning’ found in PQR writings.