Social Phenomenology

Social phenomenology is an approach within the field of sociology that aims to reveal what role human awareness plays in the production of social action, social situations and social worlds. In essence, phenomenology is the belief that society is a human construction.

The central task in social phenomenology is to explain the reciprocal interactions that take place during human action, situational structuring, and reality construction. That it, phenomenologists seek to make sense of the relationships between action, situation, and reality that take place in society. Phenomenology does not view any aspect as causal, but rather views all dimensions as fundamental to all others.

An example is Atkinson's study of suicide where he concluded that a suicide is not a social fact that can be objectively revealed in death statistics, but rather it is a conclusion reached by a coroner, who collates various pieces of evidence relating to the mode of death in order to reach that conclusion.