Stephen Spencer - Visual Research Methods in the Social Sciences

Visual Research Methods is a guide for students, researchers and teachers in the social sciences who wish to explore and actively use a visual dimension in their research. This book offers an integrated approach to doing visual research, showing the potential for building convincing case studies using a mix of visual forms including: archive images, media, maps, objects, video and still images. The book offers a critical review of some of the key theoretical ideas which underpin visual research and in particular the critical analysis of urban landscapes and visual identities.

Examples of the visual construction of place, social identity and trends of analysis are given in the first section of the book, whilst the essays in the second section highlight the astonishing creativity and innovation of four visual researchers. Each detailed example serves as a touchstone of quality and analysis in research, with themes ranging from the ethnography of a Venezuelan cult goddess to the forensic photography of the skeleton of a fourteenth-century nobleman. They give a keen sense of the motives, philosophies and benefits of using visual research methods.

This volume will be of practical interest to those embarking on visual research as well as more experienced researchers. Key concerns include the power of images and their changing significance in a world of cross-mediation, techniques of analysis and ethical issues, and how to unlock the potential of visual data for research.

Stephen Spencer is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Sheffield Hallam University. He has worked in both Further and Higher Education in Australia, with a background in anthropology and cultural and media studies. His previous works include Social Identities: Multidisciplinary Approaches with Gary Taylor (Routledge, 2004); Race and Ethnicity: Culture, Identity and Representation (Routledge, 2006); and A Dream Deferred: Guyanese Identity Under the Colonial Shadow (Hansib Press, 2006).

First published 2011
by Routledge
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2011 Stephen Spencer

The right of Stephen Spencer to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Spencer, Stephen.
Visual research methods : in the social sciences / by Stephen Spencer.1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Visual sociology. 2. Social sciencesResearch. I. Title.
HM500.S64 2010
302.222dc22 2010018743

ISBN 0-203-88386-1 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN: 978-0-415-48382-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-48385-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-88386-0 (ebk)

All photographs, and models, by Stephen Spencer unless otherwise attributed.

Cover image: Public artback wall of Rare and Racy, Sheffield, by Phlegm (Spencer, 2010).

SECTION I

1 Visualising social life

2 The research process and visual methods

3 Mapping society: a sense of place

).

4 Visualising identity

5 Visual analysis

36 Eight images from a case study:
1Front page Northern Territory News, 2003. With permission of Newspix.
2Nature/ Civilization, Queensland Figaro, 6 August 1887. With permission of Ross Woodrow, University of Newcastle, NSW.
3PostcardAustralian Aborigines. With kind permission of Visit Merchandise Pty Ltd.
47 Stills from a video, Framing the Fringe Dwellers.
8Sign outside One Mile Dam, retrieved from Pariah.com.

SECTION IIPRACTITIONER ESSAYS

Panizza Allmark

Sarah Atkinson

Roger Brown

Roger Canals

Glossary

Stephen Spencer has a background in Communications and Cultural Studies and is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Sheffield Hallam University, having worked as a lecturer in both Higher and Further Education in Australia and the UK. His research into ethnic conflict in the Caribbean led to the publication of A Dream Deferred: Guyanese Identity Under the Colonial Shadow (Hansib, 2006). In the same year Race and Ethnicity: Culture, Identity and Representation (Routledge, 2006) was especially concerned with the way in which people are classified, and in particular the role of images in popular culture as a means of circulating mythical concepts of race and multicultural identity. As well as these sole authored texts, a co-edited monograph for CSAP, Reflecting on Practice: Teaching Race & Ethnicity in Further and Higher Education (2006) sought to capture the experiences of teaching issues of race and ethnicity in diverse settings. More recent research has focused on visual methodologies for research and teaching and the production of videos on consumerism, media representation of the Iraq conflict, homeless Aborigines in Darwin and the complex meanings of multiculturalism. Research in Nova Scotia in 2007 led to the publication of Identities in Transition: Five African Canadian Women Discuss Identity, a video published in EliSS Journal, CSAP, Online Publication, Vol. 1, Issue 2, Autumn 2008.

Dr Panizza Allmark is a senior lecturer and course coordinator for Mass Communications and Media and Cultural Studies at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. Panizza is a documentary photographer and has exhibited widely and published in the field of cultural studies. She is also the co-editor of Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies. Her output has included articles on gender and sexuality, art and photographic discourse, and her work has been exhibited in New York, Urbino in Italy, Buenos Aires and in several galleries in Australia. Panizzas current work includes a photographic study of border towns on the ThaiBurma border and interviewing and photographing Burmese Buddhist peace freedom activist Ashin Sapaka.

Dr Sarah Atkinson is Principal Lecturer in Broadcast Media at the University of Brighton. Sarah is also a new media practitioner working within the field of interactive visual and sonic arts. She has a PhD from Brunel University. Telling Interactive Stories is a practice-based thesis, which theoretically and practically investigates the field of digital fictional interactive storytelling. Sarah has also published articles around the area of interactive film, video and cinema. Dr Atkinsons