© British Association of Social Workers
The Limits of Phenomenology and Objectivity: On the Encounter between Scientism and Practice
Correspondence to Dr Anders Bergmark, Department of Social Work, Stockholm University, S-106 91. Stockholm Sweden.
Summary
In this paper we discuss the tension that exists between scientific and more clinically oriented discourses, originating from the failure of both to observe and pay heed to the essential difference between phenomenological and more objective data and to make their analytical limits explicit. Of special interest for the practice and teaching of social work is the situation where ‘objective’ (scientific) data contradict the subjective experiences of practitioners and clients. The scientific tradition, with few exceptions, gives priority to objective data, and is therefore less inclined to view its object of study as a more composite one—an object which may in some situations be constituted by a contradiction between the two types of data. When interpreting their historical actions, people may not accurately report these actions and their original intentions. Thus, to an observer, they do not seem to do what they say they do. This does not mean that individuals descriptions of their experiencesare falsified by observation data, but rather that they may be more difficult to interpret.