Striving for experiential resonance: Critique, postcritique and phenomenology

Abstract

Given that qualitative researchers have (rightly) abandoned the ideaof social scientific truths as mirrors of nature, what kind of truth dowe hope to provide to our readers? In other words, what is the pointof reading qualitative research? Taking inspiration from Paul Ricoeur’sdistinction between a hermeneutics of suspicion and a hermeneuticsof faith, this article sketches out two possible answers. It firstpresents a critical approach that exposes hidden truths to educate andemancipate its readers. The concept of ‘critique’ has recently comeunder scrutiny, however, with postcritical scholars denouncing its tautologicalreasoning, its reductionist analytical strategies and its arrogantapproach to other people. Acknowledging these criticisms, thearticle then goes on to present a phenomenological approach thatpoints out unnoticed truths to reverberate and resonate with its readers.It is argued that this self-consciously ‘weak’ approach helps uscircumvent the analytical issues currently associated with critique.