Getting it quite wrong: Van Manen and Smith on Phenomenology

Dan Zahavi

doi:10.1177/1049732318817547

Getting it quite wrong: Van Manen and Smith on Phenomenology

Dan Zahavi

Department of Communication

29 Citations (Scopus)

246 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Max van Manen and Jonathan Smith have recently had an exchange in Qualitative Health Research concerning their respective use of phenomenology. I welcome the attempt to get clearer on what phenomenology amounts to and I agree with van Manen that an overly arbitrary use of the term will lead to an erosion of the reputation of phenomenology. However, I think both of them are to blame for promoting various confusions concerning the nature of phenomenology. The aim of my article is to make some critical remarks concerning van Manen’s and Smith’s understanding of phenomenology and to suggest alternative resources for qualitative researchers interested in phenomenology

Original language	English
Journal	Qualitative Health Research
Volume	29
Issue number	6
Pages (from-to)	900-907
Number of pages	8
ISSN	1049-7323
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732318817547
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2019

Keywords

Faculty of Humanities
phenomenology
research strategies
methodology
theory development
research evaluation
qualitative

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Getting it quite wrong: Van Manen and Smith on Phenomenology

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