ʻ Hermeneutic Practices of Understanding: From “Practical Consciousness” to Reflective Analysis ʼ 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 ʻ Practical Consciousness ʼ ? ʻ Understanding ʼ is fundamentally a process of ʻ practical consciousness ʼ (Giddens, 1979: 2). Understanding ʻ the things which actors know tacitly about how to “go on” in the contexts of social life ʼ (Giddens,1984: xxiii), in ʻ recurrent practices ʼ (Giddens, 1982: 8). Understanding enabled by ʻ rules and resources ʼ (1979: 64). Usually attention directed elsewhere (e.g. touch typing through ʻ muscle memory ʼ ( 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 ʻ teleoaffectivities ʼ (Schatzki, 2015: 2). (ii) practices ʻ fore-understand ʼ (Heidegger) their material objects as ʻ equipment ʼ (or ʻ affordance ʼ , Gibson, 1986). (German: ʻ Zeug ʼ - wide meaning). (iii) practices emplace (put in place) tacit meaning, an affective ʻ horizon of understanding ʼ (Gadamer). Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Practical Consciousness/ The Hermeneutic Practice of Cellphone Use Attention on equipped ʻ teleoaffectivities ʼ (Schatzki, 2015: 2), not the embodied process - emplacing ? Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Reflecting on the Practical Consciousness of Buying Apples ʻ Let ʼ s 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, “it ʼ s just the same. Just grab and go.” ʼ (female Chinese student mall visitor) In this generic recurrent practice of bodily movement, the goal is ʻ flaw ʼ -free apples as supporting health: the practice emplaces a gendered horizon of understanding. Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Chinese New Year Reunion Dinners as Recurrent ʻ Practice ʼ - Reflecting on Practical Consciousness ʻ Well 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 year ʼ s (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
ʻ After a Year of Hard Work We Come Together ʼ - a Practice Embodying a Shared Gaze/ ʻ Horizon of Understanding ʼ (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 ʻ practical engagement with the world ʼ involves our ʻ self-reflection and sociality, affective concern, and a temporal, existential location ʼ . ʻ Understanding ʼ is embodied, equipped ʻ practical engagement ʼ - albeit occasioning (as during an interview) ʻ self-reflection ʼ on shareable thematic perspectives, an emplaced horizon of ʻ affective concern ʼ . Understanding ʻ configures ʼ a narrative. Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Reflecting on the Hermeneutic Practice of Hospital Haemodialysis Illustrating ʻ IPA in practice ʼ (1996), Smith considers hospital haemodialyis where machines replace the function of damaged kidneys (267-270). A participant reflects on her being ʻ really fed up with the repetition ʼ of routine ʻ passive ʼ involvement with the practice. Through this recurrent practice, in ʻ becoming part of this machine ʼ , embodiment and equipment unhappily merge. Emplaced in her haemodialyis is an affective horizon of understanding: - ʼ dialysing at home would be - I ʼ m still being myself ʼ . Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Reflective Consciousness of Coping with Chronic Pain Coping with chronic pain is (i) embodied : it can implicitly assume one ʼ s body to be recalcitrant (ii) equipment - ʻ I always thought you had pain to tell you when there was something wrong ʼ (female research participant, Osborn and Smith, 1998: 69). Coping (iii) emplaces (puts in place) horizons of practical understanding, the ʻ meaning to the sufferer ʼ (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). ʻ Being angry is an experience that is lived through the body ʼ , equipped as a ʻ pre-reflective engagement with the objects and events given to us in our world ʼ (ibid.: 1791) in ʻ pre-figured ʼ , ʻ refigured ʼ (Ricoeur) narrative. ʻ Bullying and her perceptions of unfair treatment by her parents are woven into Debbie ʼ s meaning-making narratives of anger ʼ (Eatough et al.: 1787), emplaced as an affective horizon of understanding. Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Reflective Consciousness of ʻ Masculinity Lost ʼ Nolan, M. (2013) ʻ Masculinity Lost:Qualitative Research on Men with Spinal Cord Injury ʼ , Spinal Cord 1-8. Reflective consciousness of dysfunctional equipment : - ʻ I ʼ ve come to think of my body as part of me and I accept that it doesn ʼ t do things that it could in the past. ʼ I ʻ will do everything to return, I will give everything, you know, to make a step on my own legs ʼ . His ʻ step ʻ would emplace a distant affective horizon of understanding - an embodied narrative equilibrium ʻ refiguring ʼ 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 ʻ chant Koranic verses while preparing herbal medicines ʼ (65)]; (iii) emplacing [ ʻ reinforcing ʼ (ibid.)] their affective shared horizon of understanding - a ʻ sense of belonging to their communities ʼ (61), tacitly ʻ refiguring ʼ (Ricoeur) a ʻ cultural identity of Javanese community ʼ (71). Tuesday, 25 July 2017
ʻ Hermeneutic Practices: From “Practical Consciousness” to Reflective Analysis ʼ IPA as reflective analysis of hermeneutic practices constituting practical consciousness. ʻ Doing IPA inevitably involves being hermeneutic in the general sense; doing it well involves more particular hermeneutics. ʼ (Smith, 2011: 58) Thank you! Tony Wilson tonyjwilson@yahoo.com T.Wilson1@lse.ac.uk Tuesday, 25 July 2017
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