Lifeworld, Place, and Phenomenology: Holistic and Dialectical Perspectives David Seamon (original) (raw)
Related papers
Lifeworld, Place, and Phenomenology: Holistic and Dialectical Perspectives
Journal of Philosophical Investigations, 2024
In this article, I clarify the phenomenological concept of lifeworld by drawing on the geographical themes of place, place experience, and place meaning. Most simply, lifeworld refers to a person or group’s day-to-day, taken-for-granted experience that typically goes unnoticed. One aim of phenomenological research is to examine the lifeworld as a means to identify and clarify the tacit, unnoticed aspects of human life so that they can be accounted for theoretically and practically. Here, I discuss some key phenomenological principles and then draw on phenomenological renditions of place as one means to clarify some of the lifeworld’s social, environmental, spatial, and geographical aspects. To concretize my discussion, I draw descriptive evidence from British writer Penelope Lively’s Spiderweb, a 1990s novel describing one outsider’s efforts to come to inhabit a place—a fictitious present-day village in the southwestern British county of Somerset.
A Way of Seeing People and Place: Phenomenology in Environment-Behavior Research
This review examines the phenomenological approach as it might be used to explore environmental and architectural issues. After discussing the nature of phenomenology in broad terms, the review presents two major assumptions of the phenomenological approach: (1) that people and environment compose an indivisible whole; (2) that phenomenological method can be described in terms of a "radical empiricism." The review then considers three specific phenomenological methods: (1) firstperson phenomenological research; (2) existential-phenomenological research; and (3) hermeneutical-phenomenological research. Next, the article discusses trustworthiness and reliability as they can be understood phenomenologically. Finally, the review considers the value of phenomenology for environmental design.
Well-being and Phenomenology--Lifeworld, Natural Attitude, Homeworld and Place (2018)
ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF WELL-BEING, Kathleen T. Galvin, ed., 2018
In this chapter, I draw upon the phenomenological concepts of lifeworld, natural attitude, homeworld and place to clarify what human-immersion-in-world and lived obliviousness might mean for research in well-being. To provide a real-world context for my argument, I present three narrative accounts of ordinary and out-of-the-ordinary place experiences written by interior designer Jane Barry (2012); British-African novelist Doris Lessing (1984); and sociologist Eric Klinenberg (2002). Using these three examples as evidence, I contend that place is an integral, non-contingent aspect of human life and helps to explain why well-being can typically be out of sight and thus not recognized as a significant dimension of one’s day-to-day experience. I conclude that, because of the always-already-present reciprocity between human-immersion-in-place and lived obliviousness, professional efforts to enhance well-being might sometimes be more successfully accomplished indirectly by changing aspects of place, including creative neighborhood design and planning that facilitate place attachment and a strong sense of environmental belonging. FULL REFERENCE: Seamon, David. Well-being and Phenomenology: Lifeworld, Natural Attitude, Homeworld and Place, a chapter in Kathleen Galvin (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Well-being (pp. 103-111). London: Routledge, 2018.
PHENOMENOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON PLACE, LIFEWORLDS, AND LIVED EMPLACEMENT, 2023
THIS BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK--https://www.routledge.com/Phenomenological-Perspectives-on-Place-Lifeworlds-and-Lived-Emplacement-The-Selected-Writings-of-David-Seamon/Seamon/p/book/9781032357324 This volume is a compilation of 17 previously published entries that focus on the significance of places and place experiences in human life. Chapters are broken into three parts. Part I includes four chapters that consider what phenomenology offers studies of place and place making. These chapters illustrate the theoretical and practical value of phenomenological concepts like lifeworld, homeworld, natural attitude, and bodily actions in place. Part II incorporates five chapters that aim to understand place and lived emplacement phenomenologically. These chapters consider Merleau-Ponty's thinking on place-as-situatedness, the value of phenomenology for a pedagogy of place making, how architecture might be understood phenomenologically, and the significance of place serendipity in human life. Part III presents phenomenological explications of real-world places and place experience, drawing on photography (André Kertész's Meudon), television (Alan Ball's Six Feet Under), film (John Sayles's Limbo and Sunshine State), and imaginative literature (Doris Lessing's Four-Gated City, Penelope Lively's Spiderweb, and Louis Bromfield's The World We Live in).
Book Review, Life Takes Place: Phenomenology, Lifeworlds, and Place Making
Prof. Seamon starts his latest masterpiece by asking the question of why life requires place? Drawing on real-world examples, real-life experiences, and supporting synergistic relationality as a holistic way of understanding a place, he describes the place as "any environmental locus that gathers human experiences, actions, and meanings spatially and temporally". Contributing to the progressive approximation method, developed by John G. Bennett (1897-1974)-British scientist, mathematician, and philosopher, best known for his 4-volume The Dramatic Universe-David Seamon examines the place and place experience, regarding dialectical, holistic, and processual dimensions. Given that places are ever-changing, he defined six place processes namely, interaction, identity, release, realization, intensification, and creation, to examine their processual dimensions. As concluded by him, understanding the six place processes is helpful for more rigorous placemaking. This book is highly recommended to researchers of place and place-making. The main focus of the book is the importance of place in human life and argues that how to do place-making to strengthen human-wellbeing.
Dwelling, Place and Environment: Towards a Phenomenology of Person and World
Geographical Review, 1987
When the first edition of Dwelling, Place and Environment was published in 1985, phenomenological research on environmental and architectural issues was in its infancy. Already, scholars working independently from each other had laid conceptual foundations for understanding how environments, places, and buildings might have bearing on human identity, wholeness, and life.
Lifeworld, Place, and Phenomenology: Holistic and Dialectical Perspectives (forthcoming, 2018?)
first draft of an invited chapter prepared for a volume, Lifeworlds: Space, Place, and Irish Culture, edited by Tim Collins and Nessa Cronin; © 2014/2015 David Seamon
In this chapter, I examine directions for lifeworld research today, giving particular attention to recent phenomenological studies on place. I identify four important assumptions that underlie a phenomenological understanding of lifeworld and then draw on the concept of place to clarify some of the lifeworld’s social, environmental, spatial, and geographical aspects. As a means to concretize my discussion, I draw on descriptive evidence from British writer Penelope Lively’s Spiderweb, a 1990s novel describing one outsider’s efforts to come to inhabit a place—a fictitious present-day village in the southwestern British county of Somerset (Lively 1998).