The uses of phenomenology and phenomenography: A critical review

• Phenomenology goes beyond hermeneutic phenomenology common in information science.
• Characteristics and trails of phenomenology are assessed and under-utilized areas of phenomenology are identified.
• The rapport of phenomenography with phenomenology is discussed.
• Misunderstandings about phenomenography and phenomenology are dispelled.
• Areas of future work for phenomenography and phenomenology are outlined.

In recent decades, phenomenology and phenomenography have gained traction in a wide range of scholarly journals just as confusion has increased about them. Meanwhile, inquiry examining both approaches has been given far less attention. Each of these approaches considers variation, namely, the qualitatively different ways of experiencing, as a central point of research. This paper examines the characteristics of phenomenology and sketches its rapports with phenomenography. The information science literature in six major scholarly journals of information research is examined to appraise the accounts of phenomenology and phenomenography. For the sake of clarity, uses of phenomenology and phenomenography are discussed in light of the concept positivism. It is observed that phenomenography is a subset of phenomenology. In addition, phenomenographic discourse is shown to relay positivism. Under-utilized areas of phenomenology are identified, and paths of future work for information research are proposed.