Blackwell Reference Online

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A quick search of Sociological Abstracts would bring the reader to hundreds of articles with variations on the word “phenomenology” in their titles. It is impossible, of course, to examine this large and disparate literature within the confines of a single chapter. Nonetheless, the sheer size of this literature is instructive, for it shows us that phenomenology has a seat at the sociological table. How did it get there, and what might the future hold? These are the questions I address in this chapter. I do so by reviewing the major contributions from Edmund Husserl, Alfred Schutz, Peter Berger, and Thomas Luckmann. In addition, I canvass some recent developments that presage continued growth. Joseph Kockelmans (1967 : 24) describes phenomenology as “a sphere of ambiguity.” He points out that the term has a long history in philosophy, with scholars defining it in divergent ways. Still, there is consensus that Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) was the first to use this term as the name for a systematic and distinctive philosophical position. Most of his writings were not translated into English until decades after his death (1960 [1931], 1965 [1910], 1970 [1936]). And, in any event, his unadulterated thinking would not have been conducive to the further development of the social sciences. The upshot is that his influence on sociology has been almost entirely indirect. What we know about ... log in or subscribe to read full text