PROJECT: Phenomenological Conversations

When I started my fieldwork in São Paulo (Brazil) for the project on intersectional agency, I intended to use ‘participant observation’ as a method for data collection. From previous stays, I was familiar with the ‘field’ – i.e. the feminist or women’s movement. While ‘observing’ and jotting down notes, I realised that what I was observing actually wasn’t agency. People’s actions are external and can be observed, but agency itself – which I define as ‘the capacity to act or to not act’ (e.g. Huijg, 2012; 2020) – is internal to the individual. The method didn’t significantly help me understanding intersectional agency better; in other words, the method and theory were incompatible.

This meant that I needed a method of data collection that would give me ‘access’ to participants’ internal experiences. in a way that would convey, as much as this is possible the ‘phenomenology’ of their experiences – taking into account that everyone’s access to their own and to others’ experiences is always partial and perspectival. (Note: I use ‘phenomenology’ here in its simplified methodological form, not philosophically.) Without this access, I would not be able to make sense of intersectional agency and complete fieldwork.

I looked into other approaches – e.g. interviews, diaries and life stories – but none offered me, for various reasons, what I needed. Gradually, I developed a method that I started to call ‘phenomenological conversations‘. I will continue to develop this method in my current project on ADHD Women. In the meanwhile, I am also preparing a journal article on ‘phenomenological conversations’.