Phenomenology

Alfred Schütz (1899–1959) based his work on the

philosophy of Edmund Husserl and offered an
understanding of the social world that clearly differentiates it from the natural sciences and
the positivist method. His ideas are based on the notion that human beings have
consciousness (awareness, being able to perceive) and so they have experiences in which they
actively construct their own meanings and interpretations. The world as individuals see it is
what they have constructed. These constructions depend to a large extent on the socially
derived meanings that people have from their stock of experiences. Phenomenological study
in sociology therefore focuses on human experience – what is called the lifeworld – for
example, ‘motherhood’ or ‘being a student’. The sociologist has to bracket or suspend his or
her own everyday ways of thinking or beliefs in order to focus on the phenomenon in itself,
unadorned by any of its symbolic meanings. Attention is paid to the subjective meanings
(beliefs, intentions, interests, and interpretations) that individuals and others have for
something