In view of the boom of academic research focused on social aspects, where institutions, organizations and human collectives are involved, it is necessary to assume more adequate and innovative methodological approaches and developments, which allow the appropriate approach to complex social phenomena, immanent to the practice of life. Therefore, the main purpose of this article is to propose a methodically novel systemic model based on Stafford Beer's Viable Systems and Van Manen's Hermeneutic Phenomenology, as a viable and more precise integrative epistemic syntagm than the traditional phenomenological approach, which we call the Phenocomplex Method. For this purpose, through the review of its practical application, in a research that took as object of study the case of two Venezuelan public universities, it became evident as a viable and effective option, in the approach of wide, deep and of course complex qualitative research, like life itself..
1. BASIS OF THE VIABLE SYSTEMS MODEL
If we wish to establish a central aspect to characterize the Viable Systems Model, it would undoubtedly be compliance with the "Law of Required Variety" (Beer, 1979). This establishes that viable systems, like all living organisms, require a relationship of equilibrium with their environment. Beer emphasized that this balance, also called homeostasis condition, implies its performance as a regulator of "variety", i.e., it cancels variety coming from the environment, from the surroundings, while intensifying its own control variety. (Leal, 2009;2020)
From this point of view, assuming for this methodical proposal the Viable System Model, as a way of approaching any social phenomenological structure, means seeing organizations, institutions, collectives and their actors involved, as a "Living Being" that seeks to survive through regulation mechanisms, allowing the indeterminacy of the complexity of social reality to be absorbed throughout its structure. In itself, the idea is to assume social phenomena as living entities that function on the basis of a cyclical structure, whose components feed back to adapt to each situation of change, capable of modeling the organizational, institutional or collective aspect studied, as well as its actors, in such a way that its total action can be understood, by disaggregating the functional structure into different levels, thus allowing to capture the "Macro Phenomenon" and its repercussion in a compound of small recursive "Micro Phenomena", simpler to study and understand.
2. HERMENEUTIC PHENOMENOLOGY OF PRAXIS
The hermeneutic phenomenological method studies realities as they are objectively, allowing them to manifest themselves by themselves, without altering their structure from the outside, keeping it integrated in its totality, and for this, the most adequate way of putting it into practice must be found, in accordance with the research work to be carried out.
From this point of view, we find that one of the most novel methodical conceptions, especially when considering its application to the educational field, is provided by Max Van Manen (2003), for whom the hermeneutic phenomenological method has as its starting point a phenomenology that is the result of the Western European School of Pedagogy and Phenomenological Psychology. The author focuses on life experiences, on intentionality as an essential property of consciousness, by which it tends towards an object.
For Van Manen (2003:198), "consciousness is in the world and is always intentional, being also always conscious of something. In this way, the term "intentionality" indicates the inseparable connection of the human being with the world". The author also indicates to us that, for Husserl, the intentionality of the globality of our thoughts, acts and feelings is what makes them always "about" things that are in the world (Van Manen, 2014).
In this way, the world of experience, or the phenomenology of praxis, has as its central purpose "to promote a certain reflexivity and tact in the practice of professions and daily life" (Ob.cit.:31). This is because in the conception about the world of life, as conceived by Van Manen, the person has an active role, taking into account that (Van Manen, 2003:10):
[...] on the one hand, "the world of life" is already there and, on the other hand, we participate in shaping and creating it; that is, if we reflect on it from a phenomenological point of view, we can be presented with various possibilities of self-knowledge and reflective praxis from an individual and collective point of view.
From this line of thought, the notion of tact and reflexivity are fundamental elements for understanding the phenomenology of practice, as well as the relationship between the knowledge obtained in phenomenological reflection-research and experience. In this sense, for the author, touch is a particular receptivity, with sensitivity to situations and to how we conduct ourselves in them, for which it is not possible to obtain knowledge simply from general principles. (Ob.cit).
For this reason, according to what the author of reference points out, phenomenology "is an 'empirical' science -sui generis- since it is based on experience, but 'it is not derived empirically, but inductively'" (Ob.cit.:40). Thus, the central argument of Van Manen's phenomenology is essentially to take up experiential meanings, aiming to obtain rich, complex and fresh descriptions of a phenomenon, as it is experienced. Indeed, we can say that phenomenology is, fundamentally, a philosophical method of constant questioning in order to reach meanings.
3. THE PHENOCOMPLEX SYSTEMIC APPROACH
In coherence with the above, it should be emphasized that, in the context of the present article, and in line with our own experiences, a systemic approach convenient for the researcher is carried out, observing the phenomenon from the point of view of its complexity, characterizing it as a Viable System that can be modeled according to Stafford Beer's theories. This system can be represented as a complex and recursive phenomenological structure, which we call "Phenocomplex", i.e. the syntagm formed between complexity and praxical phenomenology, where the most external complex structure, related to the phenomenon under study, corresponds to what we designate "Macro Science Cell", which, taking the Venezuelan university system as an example, corresponds to the "National Environment", in other words, to the country and its institutions as a whole, including, obviously, the governing body of university public policy, the Ministry of Popular Power for University Education (MPPEU).
To visualize the above, Figure 1 shows a picture of a Human Cell (A) and its equivalent to the Venezuelan University System (B), taking into account for the purposes of the article, as an example, only two university institutions in the Municipality of Valera, Trujillo State: the Universidad Politécnica Territorial del Estado Trujillo "Mario Briceño Iragorry" (UPTTMBI) and the Universidad Nacional Experimental "Simón Rodríguez" (UNESR), with no limits in this sense to expand the model to more institutions.
In the previously assumed example, the "Local Environment" corresponds to the Municipality of Valera, Trujillo State, for being the geographical area in which the headquarters of the universities in which the studied social phenomenon is developed are located, as the telos, the very essence, of the university educational effort of interest to the researcher. In this environment, there are some external institutions, which in one way or another influence the development of the same, which is why we will consider it as a "Science Cell" at the "Macro Local" level.
Graph 1. Phenocomplex Structure: Human Cell (A) and its equivalent in the Venezuelan University System (B).
Source: Own elaboration, based on Beer's MSV.
Already more focused on the phenomenon of the different facets that define the "Sein" of this article, we define the aforementioned university environments as "Cells of Praxis", environments where the "Vital Experiences" (VE) are developed. In them, we find their own "Fundamental Cells", in which they basically define and create the different processes and activities corresponding to the essential functions. In the example these are recognized, for most of the universities worldwide, as:
- The Academy (A): where we include Management, Teaching and Administration functions.
- Research (I): referred to all its variants, at the level of permanent teacher training, tutoring, in participation with external public or private institutions, among others.
- Extension (E): based on the three approaches that are given, commonly intra and extra muros outside the formal academic activities, in the cultural, social and business, and;
- Socio-Community (S): arising from the need to broaden the context and scope of university outreach.
4. THE PHENOCOMPLEX METHOD
The proposed method bases its empirical operationalization on the principles of phenomenology-hermeneutics (FH), which, as proposed by Van Manen (2003:48), are based on the consideration that "the method of FH is that there is no method". Although this statement may seem paradoxical, what the author points to is the fact that there cannot be a unique or prefixed method, because phenomenology-hermeneutics is carried out thanks to a "way" (methodos), which is basically based on the researcher assuming a firm intellectual orientation, where he is completely aware of any valuable feature, on what is most significant and essential, of the phenomenon under investigation.
Nevertheless, the same author specifies that a series of practical recommendations can be generated to facilitate the orientation during the development of a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach research. In the first place, the author considers that the practical activities of this methodology can be both empirical and reflexive in nature.
Secondly, Van Manen warns, it is essential to concentrate on a phenomenon that sincerely matters to us and that engages us with the world of life, making us question ourselves in relation to it, conferring relevant importance to the "theorization-practical life of the researcher" linkage. (Ob.cit)
Thirdly, it must be ensured that the research is developed from the perspective of the experience as it is lived. The whole research must revolve around and have as its center, from beginning to end, the lived experience, avoiding focusing on how we conceptualize it. For the author it is of utmost importance to reflect on the essential aspects that characterize the phenomenon, describing it through the art of writing and rewriting.
Finally, in order to carry out a hermeneutic phenomenological research fulfilling its stated purposes, it is necessary to balance the context of the research considering the parts and the whole, taking into account that the fruit of the phenomenological research will be the writing of a "phenomenological text" (Van Manen, 2003:37), in other words, writing a story that gathers cognitive and emotive, descriptive and illustrative elements, in its intention to uniquely narrate the nature or essence of a dimension of the lived experience.
These recommendations can be summarized in three phases, as follows (Van Manen, 2003; Ayala, 2008):
- Phase I Phenomenological Description: In this phase the aim is to collect the lived experience in a direct way, therefore, it is of a more descriptive nature, integrating the process of collecting the lived experience from diverse sources, for example: accounts of one's own personal experience and anecdotal protocols of the experience of the actors directly involved with the phenomenon. In the example given above, these are the professors who collaborate with the university research activity.
Then, taking into account the epoché, that is, the disconnection of all a priori content of consciousness, with which the notion of intentionality as a shaping element of experience according to the conception developed by Husserl (1962) is apparently confronted, a "first analysis" is developed, leading to the development of questionings, which allow the development of a series of questions that are used to expand and rewrite the anecdotes, in subsequent conversational interviews, also known as phenomenological interviews, between the researcher and those involved, the teachers collaborating in the example, with which the aim is to verify the "fidelity" of the story to the experience lived by them and to go deeper into it.
On the other hand, to enrich the experience and adapt it to the current interconnected reality, it is recommended that the interviews be recorded on video and published on the Internet through a recognized platform such as YouTube, Vimeo or Dailymotion, among others, seeking to obtain other points of view, perceptions or reactions from people interested in the subject matter, which can be considered, as defined by Van Manen, relevant "Experiential Material".
Likewise, since the writing of the anecdotal protocols by the collaborators must be adequately oriented, it is necessary to provide them with a "Guide to develop the Anecdotal Protocol", as detailed as possible. The collaborators, once they have answered with the material provided, must proceed to validate a commitment act that, in our case, we call "Informed Consent", in which they are fully identified, and through which they acknowledge their agreement to participate in the different phases of the research, under the conditions they were informed of and making use of the different mechanisms or techniques required to achieve the purposes of the same.
- Phase II or Hermeneutics: Here we seek to interpret, by means of a reflective exercise, the lived experience gathered through the experiential material collected in the previous phase. It begins with the Thematic Analysis (Ayala, 2008: 418; Van Manen, 2003:108-113), seeking to detect those "sententious phrases" that seek to capture the fundamental meaning or importance of the text as a whole, in a holistic and sententious approach, the authors mentioned above call it the most general or "Macro-thematic Reflection" level.
At the next level, called "Microthematic Reflection", the aim is to "apply a selective or marking approach and a detailed or line-by-line approach to obtain a set of sentences that "capture", so to speak, the essential meanings of the experience" (Ayala, 2008:418). (Ayala, 2008:418)
Continuing with the phase, the so-called "Eidetic Reduction" is developed, which is nothing more than the deep questioning of the meanings previously extracted, that is, of each of the statements made in the thematic analysis, which were considered essential in the context of the phenomenon studied, "It is about making an imaginative effort of hypothetical suppression of a theme that appears to be essential to the being of the phenomenon itself (Ibidem). This is achieved by applying what van Manen defined as "the method of imaginative variation" (Van Manen, 2003: 125).
To conclude this phase, the so-called "Heuristic Reduction" is applied, through which it is intended to direct the reflective effort to the detection of presuppositions, prejudices, whether positive or negative, unfounded personal ideas, or similar that intervened in this interpretative stage. In the words of Ayala (Ob.cit,:420) "Once made explicit, these ideas are subjected to a critical self-awareness that uncovers their psychological or ideological nature", thus achieving an undeniable openness to the social phenomenon under study.
It should be noted that the actions described above must be applied to the totality of the data collected from each of the collaborators, in order to subsequently, in a complex correlation effort, generate the Holo-heuristics of the phenomenon, as if it were observed through a crystal.
- Phase III or Bildung: This is the last stage, where the result of the phenomenological-hermeneutic research takes shape. Regarding the meaning of the term bildung Van Manen (2003:25) points out the following:
By transferring to reflective consciousness the nature of events experienced in our natural attitude, we can transform or remake, in the authentic sense of Bildung (formation)... In this sense, research in the human sciences is itself a kind of Bildung or paideia; that is, the curriculum of being and becoming. We could say that hermeneutic phenomenology is a philosophy of the personal, of the individual, which we exercise against a prior knowledge of the elusive character of the logos of the "other," the "all," the "common" or the "social."
In this way, it is a matter of writing-reflecting on the lived experience, so that during the reflective process and, intensively, at the end of it, to manage to write the phenomenological text collecting the findings of the research, in the context of a vocational dimension, using for this purpose philological methods or vocatio, such as (Van Manen:2014):
- Method or revocative turn: To remember is to bring the experience to the present in an experiential way, allowing the reader to explore the phenomenon in a non-reflective way, so that it can be recognized as a human experience.
- Evocative method or turn (proximity): the experience is brought vividly into presence, making possible our activity of reflecting phenomenologically on it (Van Manen, 2003). A text is evocative when it evokes vivid images and associations that provoke our attentive reflection.
- Method or invocative turn (intensification): It is to try to be sensitive to the ways in which words and expressions can acquire intensification if and when it is desirable within the phenomenological text.
- Convocative (pragmatic) method: It is to create a conversational space in which the other can be found, it is intended to make a transformative appeal to the reader by bringing meanings from the world of life and thus achieve that the text has an (em)pathic power of attraction and that its meanings speak to the reader.
- Provocative method (epiphany): The aim is to provoke actions, that is, to articulate the type of ethical issues that are mentioned in the study.
The operationalization of the Phenocomplex Methode, described above, can be summarized as follows (Graph 2):
Phenocomplex Methode: Beer's Viable Systems Model (A) and Systemic Model for the University Example (B).
Source: Own elaboration, based on Beer's MSV and Van Manen's Phenomenology.
Eng. José Javier Leal Dr.
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