Reframing Visual Social Science: Towards a More Visual Sociology and Anthropology

352 Pages·2015·9.27 MB·English

by  Luc Pauwels

Reframing Visual Social Science
Theburgeoningfieldof‘visualsocialscience’isrootedintheideathat
validscientificinsightintocultureandsocietycanbeacquiredbyobser-
ving,analyzingandtheorizingitsvisualmanifestations:visiblebehavior
of people and material products of culture. Reframing Visual Social
Science provides a well-balanced, critical-constructive and systematic
overview of existing and emerging modes of visual social and cultural
research.Thebookincludesintegratedmodelsandconceptualframe-
works,analyticalapproachestoscrutinizingexistingimageryandmulti-
modal phenomena, a systematic presentation of more active ways
andformatsofvisualscholarlyproductionandcommunication,anda
numberofcasestudieswhichexemplifythebroadfieldsofapplication.
Finally,visualsocialresearchissituatedwithinawiderperspectiveby
addressing the issue of ethics; by presenting a generic approach to
producing,selectingandusingvisualrepresentations;andthroughdis-
cussingthespecificchallengesandopportunitiesofa‘morevisual’social
science.
LucPauwelsisProfessorofVisualResearchMethodsintheFacultyof
SocialSciences(DepartmentofCommunicationStudies)andDirector
of the Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (ViDi) at the
UniversityofAntwerp.

Reframing Visual Social Science
Towards a More Visual Sociology
and Anthropology
Luc Pauwels
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107008076
©LucPauwels2015
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2015
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
ISBN978-1-107-00807-6Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
Inmemoryofmyfather
(1926–1996)

Contents
Listoffigures pageix
PartI Remodelingvisualsocialscience
1 Prologueandoutline:(re)framingvisualsocialscience? 3
2 Anintegratedframeworkforconductingandassessing
visualsocialresearch 16
PartII Thevisualresearcherascollectorandinterpreter
3 Researching‘found’or‘pre-existing’visualmaterials 47
4 Avisualandmultimodalmodelforanalyzingonline
environments 65
PartIII Thevisualresearcherasproducer,facilitator
andcommunicator
5 Themimeticmode:fromexploratorytosystematicvisual
dataproduction 97
6 Visualelicitationtechniques,respondent-generatedimage
productionand‘participatory’visualactivism 117
7 The‘visualessay’asascholarlyformat:artmeets(social)
science? 139
8 Socialscientificfilmmakingandmultimediaproduction:
keyfeaturesanddebates 167
PartIV Applications/casestudies
9 Familyphotographyasasocialpractice:fromtheanalogue
tothedigitalnetworkedworld 193
vii
viii Contents
10 Avisualstudyofcorporateculture:theworkplaceas
metaphor 220
11 HealthcommunicationinSouthAfrica:avisualstudy
ofposters,billboardsandgrassrootsmedia 236
PartV Visualresearchinawiderperspective
12 Ethicsofvisualresearchintheofflineandonlineworld 257
13 Ameta-disciplinaryframeworkforproducingand
assessingvisualrepresentations 280
14 Advancingvisualresearch:pendingissuesandfuture
directions 309
Index 328