ʻHermeneutic Practices of Understanding: From “Practical Consciousness” to Reflective Analysisʼ Tony Wilson Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
What is ʻPractical Consciousnessʼ?
ʻUnderstandingʼ is fundamentally a process of ʻpractical consciousnessʼ (Giddens, 1979: 2). Understanding ʻthe things which actors know tacitly about how to “go on” in the contexts of social lifeʼ (Giddens,1984: xxiii), in ʻrecurrent practicesʼ (Giddens, 1982: 8). Understanding enabled by ʻrules and resourcesʼ (1979: 64). Usually attention directed elsewhere (e.g. touch typing through ʻmuscle memoryʼ (Wikipedia)!)
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Understanding-In-Use - Practical Consciousness or Hermeneutic Practices Hermeneutic Practices/ Practical Consciousness: (i) practices are embodied, generic and goal directed*; attention on the goal not the process. *on ʻteleoaffectivitiesʼ (Schatzki, 2015: 2). (ii) practices ʻfore-understandʼ (Heidegger) their material objects as ʻequipmentʼ (or ʻaffordanceʼ, Gibson, 1986). (German: ʻZeugʼ - wide meaning). (iii) practices emplace (put in place) tacit meaning, an affective ʻhorizon of understandingʼ (Gadamer). Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Practical Consciousness/ The Hermeneutic Practice of Cellphone Use
Attention on equipped ʻteleoaffectivitiesʼ (Schatzki, 2015: 2), not the embodied process - emplacing?
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Reflecting on the Practical Consciousness of Buying Apples ʻLetʼs say, a simple one: apples. Maybe the apples look the same to the guys (laughter). No offence. But, we, we, we pick the apple that looks nicer with no flaws. ( ... ) Like this apple looks fresher. Something like this. Normally, they would say, “itʼs just the same. Just grab and go.”ʼ(female Chinese student mall visitor) In this generic recurrent practice of bodily movement, the goal is ʻflawʼ-free apples as supporting health: the practice emplaces a gendered horizon of understanding.
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Chinese New Year Reunion Dinners as Recurrent ʻPracticeʼ Reflecting on Practical Consciousness • ʻWell it is a get together, you know, once in a
year we have our dinner together, and just to usher in the New Year the next day. But the most important, the significant part of it, is because, you see after a yearʼs (sic) of hard work that we come together, and we have dinner - and then we can share all the things among ourselves, family members especially.ʼ (Cheam, 75, M) (Extract from PhD: Sia Bee Chuan)
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
ʻAfter a Year of Hard Work We Come Togetherʼ - a Practice Embodying a Shared Gaze/ʻHorizon of Understandingʼ (Gadamer) the Extended Chinese Family as United
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Reflecting on Practical Consciousness Substantiating this hermeneutic perspective on understanding, Smith et al. (2009: 17) argue that a ʻpractical engagement with the worldʼ involves our ʻself-reflection and sociality, affective concern, and a temporal, existential locationʼ. ʻUnderstandingʼ is embodied, equipped ʻpractical engagementʼ - albeit occasioning (as during an interview) ʻself-reflectionʼ on shareable thematic perspectives, an emplaced horizon of ʻaffective concernʼ. Understanding ʻconfiguresʼ a narrative.
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Reflecting on the Hermeneutic Practice of Hospital Haemodialysis Illustrating ʻIPA in practiceʼ (1996), Smith considers hospital haemodialyis where machines replace the function of damaged kidneys (267-270). A participant reflects on her being ʻreally fed up with the repetitionʼ of routine ʻpassiveʼ involvement with the practice. Through this recurrent practice, in ʻbecoming part of this machineʼ,embodiment and equipment unhappily merge. Emplaced in her haemodialyis is an affective horizon of understanding: -ʼdialysing at home would be - Iʼm still being myselfʼ. Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Reflective Consciousness of Coping with Chronic Pain Coping with chronic pain is (i) embodied: it can implicitly assume oneʼs body to be recalcitrant (ii) equipment - ʻI always thought you had pain to tell you when there was something wrongʼ (female research participant, Osborn and Smith, 1998: 69). Coping (iii) emplaces (puts in place) horizons of practical understanding, the ʻmeaning to the suffererʼ (ibid.: 65): it can be reflected on or explored through interviewing.
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Reflective Consciousness of Anger (Eatough et al. (2008) Journal of Interpersonal Violence 23(12): 1767-1799).
ʻBeing angry is an experience that is lived through the bodyʼ, equipped as a ʻpre-reflective engagement with the objects and events given to us in our worldʼ (ibid.: 1791) in ʻpre-figuredʼ,ʻrefiguredʼ (Ricoeur) narrative. ʻBullying and her perceptions of unfair treatment by her parents are woven into Debbieʼs meaning-making narratives of angerʼ (Eatough et al.: 1787), emplaced as an affective horizon of understanding.
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Reflective Consciousness of ʻMasculinity Lostʼ
Nolan, M. (2013) ʻMasculinity Lost:Qualitative Research on Men with Spinal Cord Injuryʼ, Spinal Cord 1-8. Reflective consciousness of dysfunctional equipment: - ʻIʼve come to think of my body as part of me and I accept that it doesnʼt do things that it could in the past.ʼ I ʻwill do everything to return, I will give everything, you know, to make a step on my own legsʼ. His ʻstepʻ would emplace a distant affective horizon of understanding an embodied narrative equilibrium ʻrefiguringʼ identity. Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Hermeneutic Practices: Javanese-Malay bomoh (traditional healers) Healthcare practices involve (Rofil et al. (2015)): (i) Javanese-Malay bomoh embodied generic narratives; (ii) equipped understanding-in-use [they ʻchant Koranic verses while preparing herbal medicinesʼ (65)]; (iii) emplacing [ʻreinforcingʼ (ibid.)] their affective shared horizon of understanding - a ʻsense of belonging to their communitiesʼ (61), tacitly ʻrefiguringʼ (Ricoeur) a ʻcultural identity of Javanese communityʼ (71).
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
ʻHermeneutic Practices: From “Practical Consciousness” to Reflective Analysisʼ IPA as reflective analysis of hermeneutic practices constituting practical consciousness. ʻDoing IPA inevitably involves being hermeneutic in the general sense; doing it well involves more particular hermeneutics.ʼ (Smith, 2011: 58)
Thank you!
Tony Wilson
[email protected] [email protected] Tuesday, 25 July 2017
