Phenomenological social research: some observations from the field

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to undertake a phenomenological study of the working conditions and living standards of private security guards (private police) in New Delhi. The focus here is to bring forth their lived experiences as security guards.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper touches briefly upon the theoretical formulations on phenomenological sociology. The principal emphasis here is on the field application of phenomenology as a methodology of social inquiry – how phenomenology was put to use, the research problems encountered and how these research conundrums were navigated. The research makes use of interview as the technique of data collection. The study uses purposive and convenience sampling.

Findings

The research has tried to bring forth the lived experiences of the private security guards as regards to their job and living conditions, by “bracketing off” the author’s biases to the best of the author’s capacity. From the interview responses, some higher level concepts have been formulated, called the “essence” of lived experiences.

Research limitations/implications

As the sample size is small, the research cannot be considered a peremptory account of the “lived experiences” applicable to all the private security guards in Delhi. Such sweeping generalizations need to be avoided.

Practical implications

Besides highlighting the lived experiences of the private security guards, the larger purpose of this paper to solicit critical comments from the readers so that the field application of phenomenology could be better understood and refined further.

Originality/value

This is an original research work carried out by the author. During the fieldwork, “reflexivity” has been the author’s constant companion, where the author has tried best to keep the author’s prejudices at bay. Its value is twofold: first, as phenomenological research works on private security guards are few in India, this study can stimulate further research works in this field and second, the research can carry forward the debate on how to improve further phenomenological research works.

Citation

Priya, A. (2017), "Phenomenological social research: some observations from the field", Qualitative Research Journal, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 294-305. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-08-2016-0047