Applied Phenomenology


Applied Phenomenology recognizes that various knowledge types are applied to getting work done. These forms of knowledge can simultaneously serve to enlighten and foreclose action to the task at hand. At the level of the individual, these forms of knowledge are shaped through experience and cultural sensitivities that provide clues or pointers not only to what needs to get done, but how it gets done. An individual attuned to a task in a given situation means he/she has a feel and/or fit for a situation from which the action he/she undertakes simply makes sense at their deepest level of understanding and meaning. Some have referred to this as intuition or subconscious behavior. We choose to think in terms of applied phenomenology – the ability to know what to do while being completely emerged in a situation (everydayness).