Intention and epochē in tension: autophenomenography, bracketing and a novel approach to researching sporting embodiment

This article considers a novel approach to researching sporting embodiment via what has been termed ‘autophenomenography’. Whilst having some similarities with autoethnography, autophenomenography provides a distinctive research form, located within phenomenology as theoretical and methodological tradition. Its focus is upon the researcher’s own lived experience of a phenomenon or phenomena. This article examines some of the key elements of a sociological phenomenological approach to studying sporting embodiment in general before portraying how autophenomenography was utilised specifically within two recent research projects on distance running. The thorny issues of epochē and bracketing within phenomenological and autophenomenographical research are addressed and some practical suggestions tentatively posited.