Visual research methods in social science exemplify the view that valid and unique insight into culture and society can be acquired by carefully observing, analyzing and theorizing its visual dimensions and manifestations: visible behavior of people and aspects of material culture. This array of methods ranges from analyzing existing or ‘found’ visual data of a variety of sources, to the production of visual materials by the researcher (as intermediate ‘data’ or as end products to communicate results). But visual methods also include approaches that try to more actively involve the field under study through using visual materials in interview situations to trigger partly unanticipated factual information and projective comments (‘visual elicitation’), or to prompt the subjects of research to become producers of their own visual data and views (‘respondent-generated visuals’) for scholarly or activist purposes. Visual approaches in social science do not just provide tools to collect or produce visual data but also embody opportunities to ‘communicate’ insight in culture and society in novel ways (through data visualizations, visual essays, films and multimedia products).
Selected Publications