Page 1 of 17
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 10
September 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 181
How Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) Was
Used To Explore Fiscal Federalism and Alleviation of Poverty
in Nigeria Society
Imuetinyan Press John Ugiagbe (Ph.D., Cert ED)
Department of Business Administration, College of Business and Management Studies,
Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Nigeria.
Abstract:
This paper describes how, Interpretive
phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to
investigate if fiscal federalism has alleviated poverty
in Nigerian society. Nigeria has practiced fiscal
federalism since 1946 and it was hoped that fiscal
federalism practice would help Nigeria to develop
rapidly throughout the country considering the size
of the country and the diverse nature of the peoples
of the country. Instead, development has been
hindered and poverty is not abating. Fiscal
federalism as an integral and essential part of
macroeconomic policy in Nigeria to ensuring
economic stability and growth needs to be examined
to ascertain if it has meaningfully contributed to
Nigeria’s state of development or not. Because this
research examined the perception of participants,
Interpretive phenomenological Analysis (IPA)
research method was deemed most suitable because
it explores in detail how participants are making
sense of their personal and social world, and the
main currency of an IPA study is the meanings which
particular experiences, events and states hold for
participants, what Conrand (1987) referred to as
‘insider’s perspective. Its credential as an alternative
to positivism according to Denscombe (2003) are
further reinforced by the fact that phenomenological
research generally deals with people’s perceptions
or meanings, attitudes and beliefs, feelings and
emotions. Most importantly, this paper specifically
provides an overview of interpretive
phenomenological Analysis, and a description of
how suitable to investigating fiscal federal in
relation to poverty alleviation phenomena, stages
followed in conducting this research, a description
of how the research was conducted, limitation, and
lessons learned. It is hoped that by exposing how this
research was conducted that many students and
professionals thinking about using this research
methodology (IPA) will immensely benefit from it.
Keywords
Keywords: Interpretive phenomenological
analysis, positivist, Post-Positivist, Paradigm, Fiscal
Federalism, Poverty alleviation, Macroeconomic
stability, Development.
Introduction
I did not want to conduct this research using the
deductive positivist paradigm but to conduct the
research inductively, from a post-positive stance,
simply because research conducted in this area
(Fiscal federalism and Poverty) are nearly all
positivists, conducting their research deductively
using quantitative method such as; Wibbels (2000),
Sagay, (2008), Tanzi, (1996), Osinubi (2003) Akpan,
(2000) Alesina and Drazen, (1991) Nelson, (1990 )
Skidmore, (1970) Haggard, (1995) Arowolo (2011)
and very many others and very few research on fiscal
federalism and poverty have been conducted from a
post-positivist stance: Omotola, (2008), Rao (2002)
Ong (2012), Boadway and Shah (2009)
This research study was conducted by Interpretive
phenomenological Analysis hereafter refers at times
as IPA. It was conducted form a post-positivist
stance adopting an interpretive position because of
what Remenyi et al (1998: 35) call ‘the details of the
situation to understand the reality or perhaps a reality
working behind them’ This research method is quite
different from other forms of qualitative research
especially the grounded theory that somehow
excludes extant literature or to be precise substantive
extant literature review before data collection. Some
of its proponents have had these to say: it is a capital
mistake to theorize before one has the data –
Sherlock Homes (1978). The task of scientific study
is to lift the veils that cover the area of life that one
proposes to study. – Blumer (1978). Generating a
theory involves a process of research – Glaser and
Strauss (1967). An IPA study allows the researcher
to plunge and swim in any extant literature before
and after data collection. The emphasis for an IPA
study by a researcher according to Smith and Osborn
(2007) is on the importance of perception, intention
and belief of the participants to the subject matter
being investigated. IPA is an interactive process
between the researcher and the participants and is
grounded in theory. Phenomenology is sometimes
presented as an alternative to positivism and
according to Denscombe (2003) it is a useful
umbrella that covers styles of research that do not
rely on measurement, statistics or other things
Page 2 of 17
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 10
September 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 182
generally associated with the scientific method. In
contrast to positivism it is seen as an approach that
emphasises; subjectivity rather than objectivity,
description more than analysis, agency rather than
structure. Its credential as an alternative to positivism
according to Descombe (2003) are further reinforced
by the fact that phenomenological research generally
deals with people’s perceptions or meanings,
attitudes and beliefs, feelings and emotions. This is
exactly why this research was conducted, to find out
the perception of some Nigerian MPs (policy
makers) if fiscal federalism has alleviated poverty in
Nigerian society and IPA was deemed most suitable
to investigate such little known phenomena.
This study is organised in five sections. First I
discuss the origin of Interpretivism, aim and
objective, stages in conducting the phenomenological
study, research method and design and, including an
overview of the history of Interpretive
phenomenological Analysis, here forth sometimes
simply refer to as IPA, how it was applied to fiscal
federalism and failure to alleviate poverty in
Nigerian society, data collection, stages of
developing this research study and the limitation of
using IPA.
Origin of phenomenology
In practice thee exist numerous versions of
phenomenology and there is sometimes disagreement
amongst those that conned themselves
phenomenologists. But in the actual fact it is
probably straightforward according to Descombe
(2003) to characterise phenomenology as consisting
of two main types. One version is the European
tradition and the other, the new phenomenology’ has
a North American origin (Crotty, 1996). The
European version is more steeped towards the
discipline of philosophy and can lay claims to being
the original version, because it owns much to the
founding father of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl.
Husserl (1931) approaches the study of human
experience with the aim of discovering the
underlying, fundamental aspects of experience –
feature that are universal and lie at the very heart of
human experience. It is, though different from other
studies; ‘existence phenomenology’ by Jean – Paul
Sartre (1956) and the ‘hermeneutic phenomenology’
of Martin Heidegger (1962) draw from similar
European philosophical roots and have crucial thing
in common. They share a concern with investigating
the essence of human experience. According to
Denscombe (2003) the sort of experience dealt with
by these writers tend to revolve around issues
relating to around fundamental philosophical
questions about being-in-the world and similar issues
relating to ‘the meaning of (everyday) life’, for
example the researcher could be interested in
Mondale level of event such as bullying and seeking
to know the experience of being bullied and not
wanting to know the causes of bullying. The
researcher would not focus on the extent of bullying
neither would he/her focus on the extent and causes
of bullying but would be interested only on the
experience of bullying. Contrasting with tradition
there is the North American version of
phenomenology which is more commonly linked
with sociology, psychology, education, business
studies and health studies. It came from ‘social
phenomenology’ of Alfred Schutz (1962, 1967).
Schutz was particularly interested in the mental
process through which humans make sense of many
things they experience. According to Schutz (1967)
in order to make sense of social world, people
interpret things through seeing them as specific
instances of more general categories – a process that
involves what is referred to as ‘typifications’. This
shift has important repercussion within the realm of
phenomenology and through Schutz focus on
interpretation of the social world; Schutz’s work
actually spawned a rather different kind of
phenomenology. This kind of phenomenology is less
concerned with revealing the essence of experience,
and more concerned with describing the ways in
which humans give meaning to their experiences.
Here according to Denscombe (2003) lies the
defining characteristic of North American approach:
its concern with the ways people interpret social
phenomena. In practice both schools of thought are
very similar and very difficult to separate indeed
ideas from one are imported to another, not always
reflecting the original very faithfully (Denscombe,
2003).
However, there is total divergence when it comes
to deciding the appropriate methodology to apply to
a research question here IPA employs in-depth
qualitative analysis as against quantitative and
experimental methodology which mainstream
psychology is still very strongly committed.
Therefore IPA can be argued is committed to the
exploration of meaning and sense making. Over the
years, It fair to say that as the approach of
phenomenology continues to grow, different types of
phenomenology has developed overtime and
different proponents of phenomenology often differ
in the emphasis they place on certain aspects of
underlying principles, though the various strands
share certain themes and areas of interest. A
phenomenological approach to research according to
Denscombe (2003) concentrates its efforts on the
kind of human experiences that are pure, basic and
raw in the sense that they have not (yet) been
subjected to processes of analysis and theorizing. In
contrast to other approaches to research that rely on
processes of categorizing things, abstracting them,
Page 3 of 17
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 10
September 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 183
quantifying them and theorizing them,
phenomenology prefers to concentrates its efforts on
getting a clear picture of the ‘things’ in themselves’ –
the things as directly experienced by people.
Aims and Objectives of (IPA)
Interpretive phenomenological Analysis (IPA)
aims to explore in detail how participants are making
sense of their personal and social world and the main
thrush for an IPA study is the meanings particular
experiences, events, states hold for participants
(Smith and Osborne, 2007). The approach to this
research studies is phenomenological in that it
involves detailed examination of the participant’s
life-world; it attempts to explore personal experience
and is concerned with an individual’s personal
perception or account of the subject or event relating
to seeking to unravel the underlying reasons why
fiscal federalism has failed to alleviate poverty in
Nigerian society as opposed to an attempt to produce
an objective statement of the object or event itself.
The research data collection by the researcher uses
semi- structured interview attempting to elucidate the
perception of policy makers (MPs) in Nigeria about
fiscal federalism and poverty alleviation in Nigeria.
This type of research is particularly useful and
important to this research being conducted, using
qualitative methodology, conducted from a
phenomenological perspective that places emphasis
on the individual’s views and personal experiences.
IPA also emphasises that the research exercise is a
dynamic process with an active role for the
researcher in that process. According to Smith and
Osborn (2007) one is trying to get close to the
participant’s personal world which Conrad (1987)
describe as an “insider’s perspective; but one cannot
do this directly or completely because of problem of
gaining access, which depends on researcher’s own
conceptions; that are a must in order to make sense
of that other personal world through a process of
interpretative activity. Therefore a two - stage
process of interaction of interpretation process of
double hermeneutic is involved, the participants are
trying to make sense of their world; the researcher is
trying to make sense of participants trying to make of
their world. Hence Packer and Addison, (1989);
Palmer (1969) contend that IPA is intellectually
connected to hermeneutics and theories of
interpretation. Smith and Osborne (2007)
acknowledge that both styles of interpretation are
part of sustained qualitative inquiry but that the
degree of emphasis will depend on the particularities
of the IPA study concerned.
Allowing for both aspects in the inquiry is likely
to lead to a richer analysis and to do a greater justice
to the totality of the person. IPA according to Drazin
(1995) also acknowledges a debt to symbolic
interactionism with its concern to how meanings are
constructed within social and personal world. IPA
has a theoretical commitment to the person as a
cognitive, linguistic, effective and physical being and
assume a chain of connection between people’s talk
and their thinking and emotional state. At the same
time IPA researchers realise this chain of connection
is complicated, because people struggle to express
what they are thinking and feeling, there may be
reason why they may not want to self-disclose, in
this situation the researcher has to interpret people’s
mental and emotional state from what they say.
Hence smith and Osborne (2007) contends that IPA
emphasises on sense-making both participant and
researcher, consequently can be describe as having
cognitive alliance as a central analytic concern just
like in psychology where theoretical and cognitive
paradigm alliance is most common and IPA shares
with the cognitive psychology and social cognition
approaches in social clinical psychology (Fiske and
Taylor 1991).
However, there is total divergence when it comes
to deciding the appropriate methodology to apply to
a research question here IPA employs in-depth
qualitative analysis as against quantitative and
experimental methodology which mainstream
psychology is still very strongly committed.
Therefore IPA can be argued is committed to the
exploration of meaning and sense making.
Research (Developing, collecting and
Analysing Research)
The research question that formed the basis of this
critical analysis is: What is the nature of
interpretive/qualitative fiscal federalism and poverty
research with respect to whether alleviation of
poverty was the corner stone or main reason for
transfer of revenue from the central government to
other tiers of government in Nigeria? The analysis
seeks to identify interpretive research inquiries into
social phenomenon, of fiscal federalism and
alleviation of poverty in Nigerian society.
Interpretivist argues that we cannot understand why
people do what they do, why particular institutions
exist and operate in characteristic ways, without
grasping how people interpret and make sense of
their world- in other words, the distinctive nature of
their beliefs and attitudes. The emphasis
underpinning Interpretivist is on the importance of
perceptions, intentions and belief. Therefore, the
perception of the Member of Parliament (MPs) was
cardinal to this research. As I have indicated before
IPA is a suitable approach when one is trying to find
out how individuals are perceiving the particular
situations they are facing, how they are making sense
of their personal and social world (Smith and
