Is phenomenology enough?

Lately I’ve been thinking about whether a phenomenological account can ever be enough. It started when I read a post on LinkedIn that was based on research with children. I don’t want to identify the researchers because I don’t want to appear unduly critical or to use them as a straw man. Nevertheless, the post was arguing that a certain policy idea was not a good idea because the children they interviewed saw things differently than the policy makers.

It’s great, and important, to have children’s views. Indeed, for any qualitative research, it seems essential to include the perspectives of the participants. But I am not sure that the participants’ perspectives are enough on their own for the development of policy. For that, we need some understanding that contexts, as well as perceptions, shape actions. Furthermore, what people say in an interview might not be the same as what they (would) do given changed circumstances. Participants are not the only source of motivations – people can lie, even to themselves.

Additionally, the participants of any situation or action are usually part of some community of practice, and their actions and choices (and even their desires) are shaped by those around them. It is even possible to change perceptions by changing conditions.

“In the end, for our work to be useful, we need to explicitly interpret our findings. Heidegger, through the concept of Dasein (see Giddens 1984), locates presence and daily life within wider structural conditions and thus gives us the logic with which to understand how we might go beyond simply what people tell us, and to interpret or make sense of livedexperience in the context of the human need to adapt to those around us. This is why some interpretivists argue that human behaviour needs to be understood in the context of a particular society or culture (as in ethnography), or that social structures (norms, rules, laws, finances) are always present in experience, meanings and emotions (as in practice theory)” (Misquote from O’Reilly 2025)