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Applied visual anthropology social intervention, visual methodologies and anthropology theory

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Abstract

Applied visual anthropology implies the creation of new methodologies and practices specific to projects that entail some form of social intervention and that are guided by the needs of clients. This article introduces the historical and contemporary development of this subdiscipline and argues that it can make substantive contributions to academic visual anthropology method and theory.

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... The Sawau Project implies the creation of new methodologies and practices specific to a demand that entails some form of social intervention. The Sawau Project, in the comforting words of my mentor, Professor Andrew Arno, is in a certain and collaborative sense a 'unique genre', for it is not a documentary à la Disappearing World, where the anthropologist is a television consultant and the social intervention slant lies in its educational role, evoking empathetic understandings of ways other people experience their worlds (Pink 2004). It is not even an imitation of the more 'glamorous' practice of anthropological filmmaking (Banks and Morphy 1997). ...
... Maybe I like Sarah Pink's simple advice: "where locally accepted, a camera can be an extremely important research tool." (Pink 2004, quoting Beebe 2002. Thus, this project does not aim to be a film-documentary, it's merely a montage of 'documents' that uses persuasive images and participatory multi-media technology to give a face and a voice to the Sawau's cultural patrimony. ...
... Visual anthropological research and representation raise ethical issues that do not figure in written anthropology. It needs to understand the ways visual meanings and notions of visual truth are inferred by the stakeholders, and most important the ways images will be used in order to inform the decisions about access and use of the data (Pink 2001(Pink , 2004). ...
... 11 In UK healthcare clinical practice, critical ethnographic methodology is often employed to explore power structures and relations. 12,13 Ethnographic debate Today there are various disciplinary approaches to ethnography, which supports the assertion that there has been a lack of overarching theoretical perspective and orthodoxy with a resulting plurality of approaches. 8 There are tensions rising from different approaches and opposing perceptions among disciplines which argue that ethnographic field studies should be either long-term, traditionally associated with anthropology or short short-term, traditionally associated with sociology. ...
... Visual research methods encourage the use of metaphor to communicate knowledge and experience. 12 Visual metaphor acts as a conduit that makes it possible to say things in image form that it is hard or impossible to articulate verbally. 35 This provides a means of accessing conscious and subconscious cognitive stores by facilitating processes of emotion and communication. ...
Article
Introduction: The objective of this article is to provide a short review of the research methodology 'visual ethnography'. Method: The review article will provide a summary of the foundations of visual ethnography, outline the key debates and refer to some of the main authors working in this field. Results: Visual Ethnography is both a methodology and a method of research. It should be selected for research in radiography when research questions seek to focus upon aspects or elements of a culture. A research plan that is designed using a visual ethnographic approach should be flexible and take into account the requirements of the researcher and research participants. Visual methods of research include the use of various images, for example, photographs, collage, film or drawings. Visual methods are commonly employed together with interviews, conversations and observation. The approach enables researchers to generate new and unique insights into cultures. Conclusion: This review of visual ethnography provides background information that informs an introduction to the methodology. It demonstrates a methodology with the potential to explore culture and expand knowledge of radiography practice. Implications for practice: The authors suggest that for future studies visual ethnography is a methodology that can expand the paradigm of radiography research.
... Within this new field of visual methodology I situate my film work in the strand of applied visual anthropology, which "specifically attends to the relationship between visual methods, social intervention and/or participatory research" (Pink 2012, 9; see also Pink 2004Pink , 2006Pink , 2007Pink , 2011aMitchell 2011). Applied visual anthropology brings together scholarly and applied practices that potentially enable the "activist anthropologist" (Ginsburg et al. 2002, 8) to make critical interventions outside academia. ...
... As was pointed out in the introduction to this dissertation, what becomes apparent from recent accounts in applied visual anthropology (Pink 2004(Pink , 2006(Pink , 2007(Pink , 2011a is the interventionist quality of the filmmaking process itself. Instead of merely considering the final product as crucial for public intervention and social change, here I want to emphasize the importance of the process of creation and the emancipatory effects that can be gained through it, especially at the individual level. ...
Article
ENGLISCH This dissertation explores the cultural phenomenon of film activism in the context of democratization and Islamization in post-Suharto Indonesia. Focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) cultural producers, namely the organizers of Asia’s largest queer film festival, the Q! Film Festival, and the directors of the collaborative film anthology Anak-Anak Srikandi, it aims to illuminate an aesthetic movement that has played an active part in the construction of the new Indonesian nation since the political reformation in 1998. By demonstrating how film activists in contemporary Indonesia generate new forms of queer knowledge and enable community and alliance building based on affinity, I challenge and ask for the extension of existing notions of the political in LGBT rights activism. I argue that film activism creates inclusive critical sites of resistance where oppressive heteronormative discourses can be subverted and reconfigured in liberatory ways. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork at the Q! Film Festival, interviews with key participants, close ethnographic analysis of Anak-Anak Srikandi and of my own involvement in the film’s production, this work contributes to the study and practice of anthropological filmmaking, to the emerging field of film festival studies, and also to interdisciplinary studies of non-Western media. DEUTSCH Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht das kulturelle Phänomen des Filmaktivismus im Kontext von Demokratisierung und Islamisierung im post-autoritären Indonesien. Die Analyse fokussiert sich dabei auf queere Kulturproduzenten, insbesondere den Organisator_innen des Q! Film Festivals in Jakarta, dem größten schwul-lesbischen Filmfestival in Asien, und den Regisseur_innen des kollaborativen Filmprojekts Anak- Anak Srikandi. Ziel der ethnographischen Arbeit ist es eine bisher wenig betrachtete junge künstlerische Bewegung, die eine wichtige Rolle in der Neugestaltung der indonesischen Gesellschaft seit der politischen Reform im Jahr 1998 gespielt hat, zu beleuchten. Es wird aufgezeigt wie Filmaktivist_innen neue Formen queeren Wissens generieren und die Bildung von Gemeinschaften und Allianzen basierend auf Affinitäten fördern. Die Praktiken der indonesischen queeren Kulturproduzent_innen hinterfragen bestehende Auffassungen darüber welche Strategien in der schwul-lesbischen Bewegungen gemeinhin als politisch betrachtet werden. Auf der Grundlage dieser Erkenntnis wird gezeigt wie durch Filmaktivismus inkludierende politische Orte des Widerstands gegen vorherrschende heteronormative Diskurse geschaffen werden. Die praxisbasierte Arbeit stützt sich auf mehrmonatigen anthropologischen Feldforschungsphasen, auf Experteninterviews und auf die kollektive Produktion des Films Anak-Anak Srikandi. Die Forschung leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Theorie und Praxis ethnographischen Filmemachens, dem noch jungen Forschungsfeld der Film Festival Studies und zur interdisziplinären Erforschung außereuropäischer Medien.
... The history of ethnographic research has its roots in the nineteenth century practice of crafting narratives of peoples designated as non-White as objects of curiosity, and later, scientific study (Becker, 1986(Becker, , 1995Bourdieu, 1962;Chaplin, 2002;Gough, 1968;Harper, 2002;Wagner, 1979). Even though much of the current research using visual methods comes from visual sociology, the use of photos in scientific research has a long tradition of use in anthropology dating back to the beginning of photography itself (Pink, 2007). Explorers and colonizers used photography to document the humans, animals, and geographic features they encountered and these published accounts inspired generations to explore and exploit. ...
... American Anthropologist, John Collier, Jr. (1957) is widely credited as the first to argue that photography was an effective method to do more than "illustrate" the work of observation and interview in ethnography, but could be a tool to gain more data from interviews (Pink, 2007). Collier explained that his role in a study was purely observational until he noticed that photos could create a record that would aid the analysis. ...
Chapter
Although the two have distinct origins, photography and ethnography are linked in history and practice. The technology and application of photography as documenter and driver of society has created a convergence of culture and image not possible in former ages, and Yet in social science, the image has been slow to gain acceptance as a tool for data collection and dissemination. This introduction describes the origins and mechanisms of this powerful union and explains how the use of images in ethnographic work enhances validity. The chapters herein are testaments to the power of using images in ethnographic research as more than a mere mechanism for deeper data collection, but also as an empowering experience for participants.
... künstlerische Verfahren arbeiten daher immer auch an der Veränderung und Verschiebung eines so verstandenen Wahrnehmungsfelds, das die wahrnehmbare Wirklichkeit und deren mediale Darstellungsformen gleichermaßen umfasst und beide Ebenen gerade in ihren Verschränkungen und gegenseitigen Rückkopplungseffekten ernst nimmt. Dieser transformatorische Charakter, insbesondere einer forschenden Tätigkeit mit Film, wird unter dem Begriff visual intervention (Pink, 2009) Formen der transdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit entwickeln, erproben und reflektieren. An (deutschsprachigen) Universitäten gibt es bisher nur wenige Orte, die explizit für die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit audiovisuellen Medien in der Geografie konzipiert sind und diese aktiv in Forschung und Lehre integrieren (Thieme et al., 2019;Winkel et al., Im Druck). ...
Article
gesellschaftlicher Transformationsprozesse wird Care-Tätigkeiten zunehmend eine zentrale politische Funktion zugeschrieben. Dabei spielen im Alltag von Care-und Gesundheitsberufen implizite Wissensformen eine große Rolle, die in der wissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzung unterbelichtet bleiben. Das mLAB am Geo-graphischen Institut Bern und der Masterstudiengang Transdisziplinarität an der Zürcher Hochschule der Künste haben sich diesen Wissensformen mit einem neuen Lehrformat transdisziplinär genähert. Die Arbeit mit Film als reflexivem und partizipativem Medium trägt dabei zu einer besseren Verschränkung von theoretischem und praxis-nahem Wissen bei und eröffnet Möglichkeiten für eine breite gesellschaftliche Diskussion und Rezeption laufender Aushandlungsprozesse über die Care-Krise. Darüber hinaus werden durch die audiovisuelle Bearbeitung des Themas ästhetisch-künstlerische Aspekte zu einem zentralen Bestandteil der Wissensproduktion. Die dadurch entstehenden Perspektiven transzendieren traditionelle disziplinäre Grenzen und versprechen, einen Beitrag für inklusive Formen des Lehrens und Lernens über die Fachgrenzen hinweg zu leisten. Der Beitrag stellt dieses Lehrformat vor und reflektiert die damit einhergehenden Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen kritisch. Schlüsselwörter: Care-Arbeit, Transdisziplinarität, Film, Geografie, Künstlerische Praxis Narrating care-work: negotiating geographical research and artistic practice in transdisciplinary teaching Abstract: In the context of processes of social-transformation, care activities are increasingly being assigned a central political function. In the everyday life of care and health professionals, implicit forms of knowledge play a major role, which so far have remained underexposed in the scientific debate. The mLAB at the Geographical Institute in Bern and the master's program in transdisciplinarity at the Zurich University of the Arts have approached the topic of care in a transdisciplinary manner with a new teaching format. Working with film, as a reflective and participatory medium, contributes to a better interweaving of theoretical and practical knowledge and opens up opportunities for a broad social discussion and reception of ongoing negotiation processes about various dimensions of the care-crisis. In addition , through the audiovisual treatment of the topic, aesthetic-artistic aspects become a central part of knowledge production. The resulting perspectives transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries and promise to contribute to more inclusive forms of teaching and learning. This article presents this teaching format and critically reflects on the opportunities and challenges involved.
... Así, tras trabajos intensos en el predio y al proponer el tema de los altares, se acordaron las visitas a los hogares de los trabajadores de Baxtla que han seguido el proyecto macro citado, logrando la cercanía con los pobladores para establecer un diálogo fructífero. De esta forma, se sigue el método etnográfico tradicional (Smartt, 2015; Robben y Sluka, 2012; Van Maanen, 2011; Hastrup, 1992), con entrevistas abiertas, documentadas por medio de video y fotografía (Concha-Holmes, 2015; Pink, 2004;Collier y Collier, 1986), para conocer los nombres de las diferentes especies empleadas en la elaboración de los altares de Baxtla. Dichas especies, han sido divididas en tres cuadros considerando el lugar donde fueron recolectadas, todas las cuales están asociadas con el sistema agroforestal tradicional milpa-cafetal y el paisaje que este sistema produce. ...
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Dentro de la cosmovisión mesoamericana, el maíz es sinónimo de cuerpo y representa el alimento primario del ser humano, el cual se acompaña de un sistema de siembra complejo conocido como milpa. Dicho sistema, creemos, celebra la interrelación entre diversidad de especies, sirviendo, de esta manera, de metáfora para entender nuestra propia construcción social. En dicha metáfora, ser humano y paisaje quedan interrelacionados en una cadena de cambios que se manifiestan en el cotidiano; es decir, los cambios son visibles explorando el habitar, o la forma en la que producimos y somos producidos por nuestro entorno. A través del rescate de esa interrelación explorando la narración de la vida cotidiana en Baxtla, Veracruz, este artículo se propone desdibujar las finas líneas que separan la milpa de una de las tradiciones ancestrales que acompañan al hombre y la mujer mesoamericanos hasta nuestros días: la celebración de la muerte.
... La investigación social que utiliza en su labor científica la visualidad considera esta dualidad a la hora de explorar temas como el arte, el progreso, la prosperidad o el activismo. En este sentido, la comunicación en el paradigma posinternet ofrece múltiples posibilidades a las técnicas de investigación visual y sensorial, aunque en algunas ocasiones sea de forma experimental (Pink, 2004). ...
Article
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Within the framework of visual studies, we observe a evelopment of singular practices whose technological orientation is based on the innovation of artificial intelligence algorithms. In this context, the research seeks to reveal the emergence of a new interpretation of visuality, specifically, through the analysis of two main lines (whose relationship we try to show): on the one hand, artificial vision and its extension in posinternet universe of social networks and the web, where the image loses its symbolic meaning and its aesthetic dimension to be valued as information that changes the state of a system; and, on the other hand, the social knowledge of the virtual world through the use, attitude and human behavior with intelligent algorithms. Through the multidisciplinary bibliographic review, as the main method, the conclusions point to an important presence of a visuality dependent on intelligent machines, which provide a greater enrichment of the study of both human nature and social reality in the virtual environment
... La investigación social que utiliza en su labor científica la visualidad considera esta dualidad a la hora de explorar temas como el arte, el progreso, la prosperidad o el activismo. En este sentido, la comunicación en el paradigma posinternet ofrece múltiples posibilidades a las técnicas de investigación visual y sensorial, aunque en algunas ocasiones sea de forma experimental (Pink, 2004). ...
Article
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En el marco de los estudios visuales, se observa un desarrollo de singulares prácticas cuya orientación tecnológica está basada en la innovación de algoritmos de inteligencia artificial. En este contexto, la investigación busca revelar la emergencia de una nueva interpretación de la visualidad, concretamente, mediante el análisis de dos líneas principales (cuya relación se trata de mostrar): por una parte, la visión artificial y su extensión en el universo posinternet de las redes sociales y de la web, donde la imagen pierde su significado simbólico y su dimensión estética para valorarse como una información que cambia el estado de un sistema; y, por otro lado, el conocimiento social del mundo virtual a través del uso, la actitud y el comportamiento humano con los algoritmos inteligentes. Mediante la revisión bibliográfica multidisciplinar, como método principal, las conclusiones apuntan a una importante presencia de una visualidad dependiente de las máquinas inteligentes, que aportan un mayor enriquecimiento del estudio tanto de la naturaleza humana como de la realidad social en el entorno virtual.
... There is increased interest in knowledge generated through women's embodied experience and its relevance to understanding stigma, distress and subjectivity as examined through qualitative methods, primarily interviews [19,22]. Such complex experiences cannot be fully conveyed via textual data alone, and visual methodologies yield critical, engaging, reflexive media for researchers and participants to generate evidence that other methods cannot [23]. This project uses body mapping to generate both visual and textual data capturing women's embodied experiences of stigma and marginalisation. ...
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This paper outlines a research and dissemination protocol to be undertaken with specific groups of marginalised women in Australia. Women impacted by significant mental distress, disability, or refugee status are among society’s most vulnerable and disenfranchised groups. They can experience significant social exclusion, marginalisation and stigma, associated with reduced help seeking, deprivation of dignity and human rights, and threats to health, well-being and quality of life. Previous research has assessed the experiences of discrete groups of women but has to date failed to consider mental health–refugee–disability intersections and overlaps in experience. Using body mapping, this research applies an intersectional approach to identify how women impacted by significant mental distress, disability, and refugee status negotiate stigma and marginalisation. Findings on strategies to cope with, negotiate and resist stigmatised identities will inform health policy and yield targeted interventions informed by much-needed insights on women’s embodied experience of stigma. The women’s body maps will be exhibited publicly as part of an integrated knowledge translation strategy. The aim is to promote and increase sensitivity and empathy among practitioners and policy makers, strengthening the basis for social policy deliberation.
... Young people often feel defined by past traumas and experience a fragmented sense of self. Creative expression can support new ways of seeing and understanding both the self and so-ciety, which can be a catalyst for countering narratives of being an outsider, and feelings of rejection (Heidenreich-Seleme and O'Toole 2012 ;Pink 2004;Harper 2002). Participatory, arts-based methods take multiple forms and can support visualization and self-representation from corporal expression such as dance and dramatization, to drawing and image creation methods such as body mapping, collages, and photography. ...
Article
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As young people with migration experiences build their lives in new contexts, their connectedness to who they are, to other people, to place and to culture underpin whether and how a sense of belonging is built in their lives. Belonging as a concept matters in young lives as it is underpinned by feelings of acceptance, inclusion and selfdetermination. The realization of belonging can have important implications for young people’s wellbeing and development. This paper shares the barriers to belonging for young migrants in South Africa, and how the pain of past experiences, and the exclusions they are navigating in the present constrain their sense of agency, impacting selfworth and relationship formation. We share how a child and youth care center in Cape Town specializing in supporting young migrants and young people with experiences of trauma, innovated with a group of young women through participatory arts-based methods towards building belonging. We found that layering multiple arts methods can support young people to connect to their cultural roots and personal relationships, re-build trust, reimagine their identities as part of a collective and challenge power relations around gender, nationality and generation. We found that building belonging should be seen as a continuous learning process, that builds young people’s reflective capacities to understand self and others and to make sense of the interaction between past, present and future. In turn, belonging provides an important conceptual tool for youth-led, context-specific approaches to working with young migrants, including on youth transitions.
... Spencer affirms that, '[v]isual culture can be a powerful dimension for affirming personal as well as collective identity […]' and that our engagement 'with the values of society is frequently mediated through an array of visual signs' (Spencer 2011: 111). Drawing on anthropologically informed theories of observation and visual representation (Ruby 2005;Pink 2004;Banks 2001;O'Neill 2008), practical documentary filmmaking can be used in a variety of ways, in conjunction with other art-making techniques, as a part of a case study in its own right, or to elicit further research materials. For instance, in visual elicitation, visual data is used in conjunction with interviewing techniques to elicit responses (Newbury 2005: 2). ...
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This article shares research findings for an Arts and Humanities Research Council project called The Birth Project (grant ref. AH/K003364/1). The Birth Project has been particularly interested to explore women’s personal experience of birth and the transition to motherhood using the arts, within a participatory arts framework. It ran experiential art-based groups for mothers and a further group for birthing professionals, each over a twelve-week period to solicit in-depth qualitative data. An innovative aspect of this endeavour has been the use of film as research data, as a means of answering the research questions (through selective editing) and as the primary mode of dissemination of the research results. Results elaborated and summarized here explore the ways women and birthing professionals found the intervention useful. The project analyses the distinctive contribution of the arts and concludes that arts engagement can play a vital role in both antenatal and postnatal care.
... Some even suggest that there has been a "visual turn" in sociology and narrative research (Faber & Nielsen, 2016;Thomson, 2008). Several researchers point out that visual approaches provide access to other types of narratives and perspectives than research approaches where the focus is solely on the spoken (or written) word (Drew & Guillemin, 2014;Faber & Nielsen, 2016;Harrison, 2002;Pink, 2004). Harper (2002), an American sociology professor and photographer and a central figure in visual sociology, emphasizes that: ...
Article
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Voicing and exploring young pupils’ motivation for learning is a central ambition within the field of education research, which can be strengthened through the use of visual methods. Based on a specific research project on motivation for learning and participation in and outside of school, this article explores both analytical opportunities and challenges concerning the use of visual material, such as everyday-life snapshots, as starting points for individual qualitative interviews focusing on perspectives, experiences, and everyday practices of secondary school pupils. The article shows that visual methods (participant-directed photo elicitation) in educational studies can provide access to situated narratives about both motivation and motives for (non)participation that can supplement methodological approaches such as observations and traditional qualitative interviews.
... Visual methodologies offer a way to engage marginalized individuals from rarely consulted language and cultural groups (Colucci and Bhui, 2015). They can be used to explore experiences and help solve social problems (Pink, 2004). The insights included in this review draw on informal discussions between some participants and coordinators in the months and years following the workshop. ...
Article
Ten individuals of immigrant or refugee background, who had experienced mental health or emotional issues, participated in an immersive workshop to create digital stories as part of a national multicultural mental health initiative. Known collectively as ‘Finding our way’, the stories combine the power of first-person narrative with digital technologies. Three years on, six workshop participants and two coordinators reflect on the project’s effects, and offer recommendations for conducting and evaluating similar projects in the future. Individuals experienced the project as personally empowering. The stories have been used to facilitate community and service-based conversations about diversity, mental health and recovery.
... This was evident in participants describing a sense of belonging, and viewing themselves as capable persons. These findings correlate to reports stating that digital tools can have beneficial effects on social interaction and quality of life [18], and that film-making can result in higher levels of self-awareness [35]. Learning new skills like the making and editing of films also seem to contribute to pride and boost selfconfidence, the feeling of being able to learn new things despite an older age. ...
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Background: The potential to influence the design of one’s local environment is especially important to older people since age-related problems, in combination with a less supportive environment, can prevent the performance of meaningful activities. It is unclear how best to tailor a participatory approach to support the task of collaborating with older persons about their local environment. Life filming was used in such a project. Objective: To describe Life filming as a means of participatory approach in relation to older community-dwelling persons and the design of their local environment. Material and method: A descriptive single case study. Data were generated through field notes and memos, and analyzed utilizing thematic analysis. Participants have validated the findings. Findings: Five themes describe central aspects of Life filming in the given context: Anchoring the concept of participation, Practical application of Life filming, The film as a product, Making a real difference, and An identity as a capable older person. Conclusion: Life filming supported participation, both as a process and an outcome. It had benefits on multiple levels: for the individual person, for older persons as a group, and for the municipality. Life filming could constitute a useful digital tool for practice when a participatory approach is desired.
... Whether or not one is operating psychoanalytically, this central premise has similarities with visual research, where images are widely recognised as having the potential to evoke emphatic understandings of the ways in which other people experience their worlds (Belin 2005;Fink 2012;Mizen 2005;Pink 2004;Rose 2001). Arguably, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990), including the right for children 'to express views in all decisions that affect them', has also acted as a precursor for the development of more participatory approaches (Payne 2009;James and Prout 1997). ...
Article
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Social science research has witnessed an increasing move towards visual methods of data production. However, some visual techniques remain pariah sites because of their association with psychoanalysis; and a reluctance to engage with psychoanalytically informed approaches outside of therapy-based settings. This paper introduces the method of ‘sandboxing’, which was developed from the psychoanalytical approach of the ‘world technique’. ‘Sandboxing’ provides an opportunity for participants to create three-dimensional scenes in sand-trays, employing miniature figures and everyday objects. Data are presented from two studies conducted in Wales, UK. The first, exploring mature students’ accounts of higher education, and the second, exploring the educational experiences of children and young people in public care. The paper argues that psychoanalytical work can be adapted to enable a distinctive, valuable and ethical tool of qualitative inquiry; and illustrates how ‘sandboxing’ engendered opportunities to fight familiarity, enabled participatory frameworks, and contributed to informed policy and practice.
... From a methodological stance: having later access to an observed situation for analysis is desirable (cf. Knoblauch & Tuma, 2011;Pink, 2007). In the current methodology, observations of the film editor were combined with recordings of her work, in order to closely follow the editing process and procedures, to be able to ask about choices or difficulties she faced while working, yet being able to scrutinize the observations afterwards. ...
Article
This article presents an audio-visual methodology, VOSMET, designed to address activities of the craft of film editing, with a focus on the use of perception, and its implications. The methodology employs 13 different visual aspects and five different audio aspects, starting with video-recording observations of an editor, and ending with the analysis of eye-tracking data from film viewers. Craft research needs methodologies that address craft activities and cognitive approaches. Design practices share a similar need for reaching deeper understanding. It is neither established how film editors achieve perceptual precision in continuity editing in practice. The VOSMET methodology simultaneously captures bodily actions, utterances, software events, and keystrokes, along with the audiovisual material under processing, and uses graphics to distinguish between what takes place. The methodology also contributes by grasping what a film editor attends to, how this attention functions, as well as how perceptual factors are handled by the film editor. Finally, the methodology can evaluate editorial intentions against film viewer perceptions.
... Photographs serve as symbols of meaning that people explain during the interview process. Photo-elicitation is a collaborative process that places an emphasis on individuals' personalized meanings, which are co-constructed in collaboration with the researcher (Birkeland, 2013;Clark-Ibáñez, 2004;Harper, 2002;Margolis, 2011;Pink, 2007, Richard & Lahman, 2015. "In photo elicitation, this exchange is stimulated and guided by images" (Birkeland, 2013, p. 456). ...
Article
p>Findings are presented from a qualitative research study that used photo-elicitation methods to explore faculty members’ beliefs about play and learning for children in Early Childhood Education and Care environments when teaching preservice early childhood educators in recognized post-secondary Early Childhood Education programs in Canada. Participants believe that play is a vehicle for learning, advocate for children’s free play in Early Childhood Education and Care settings as well as express concerns about the decline of play in children’s lives. Implications of findings and the benefits of using images to elicit teacher beliefs in research will be discussed. Research on faculty members’ beliefs is limited and findings come at an opportune time as advocacy for play in the early years is needed.</p
... Photography, a special form of visual arts, has been successfully used in medical anthropology and health research (Pink 2004) and public health field via a participatory research method called photovoice as a way for people to identify, represent, and enhance their community (Wang, Cash, and Powers 2000). Through documenting their community strengths and concerns, and engaging in critical dialogue with community members (Foster-Fishman et al. 2005), project participants have experienced empowerment, the process of facilitating self-directed behavior change (Anderson and Funnell 2010). ...
Article
Using the visual arts to aid healing is a common therapy for people with critical illness, yet the use of art to improve the lives of people with HIV is under-utilised. Eight male and 20 female participants living with HIV in urban areas of the Midwest, United States, participated in three group photovoice photo-sharing and discussion sessions, post-project individual interviews and a community photo exhibit. We used a grounded theory approach to analyse interview data and identified three key themes: (1) health and wellness, (2) fear and stigma and (3) restoring a threatened identity. Participants identified how taking photos, reflecting on and sharing them in focus groups helped them express themselves while living with and coping with HIV. Offering photography as form of expression is a way to foster strength and, consequently, improve the lives of people living with HIV. Our participants benefitted from the process of telling their story with images. They were able to express positive aspects of their lives which could be a healthy form of catharsis in and of itself. Future research should continue to investigate how participants in participatory approaches like photovoice actually do benefit from the research. Although we focused this analysis on resilience, photovoice is flexible and participants’ responses to it are varied. Additional outcomes such as impact on mental and physical health are worthy of additional exploration.
... This visual culture reveals a web of socially constructed narratives which, taken altogether as a whole, make up a socially visible standardised identity (Haywood, 2007). Visual methods help document and represent the social world creatively, with a view to developing new ways of understanding individual and social relations and knowledge of social science per se (Banks, 1998;Becker, 1974;Collier and Collier, 1986;Pink, 2004;Rose, 2001). ...
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This article reflects on the use of participant photography as a methodological component of a qualitative research study into student intercultural relations in four secondary schools in Spain. Forty boys and girls took part and we selected over 400 photographs they had taken. The article draws attention to the importance of student ‘voices’ to show the interaction processes and the value of participatory photography as an approach that encourages their participation beyond the traditional interviews and field observations. The results acknowledge the value of photography to reflect the relationships among adolescents. However, while the experiment was positively rated by the participants, the study recognises the risks taken and the achievements, constraints, dilemmas and difficulties encountered by the investigators carrying out the research.
... This visual culture reveals a web of socially constructed narratives which, taken altogether as a whole, make up a socially visible standardised identity (Haywood, 2007). Visual methods help document and represent the social world creatively, with a view to developing new ways of understanding individual and social relations and knowledge of social science per se (Banks, 1998;Becker, 1974;Collier and Collier, 1986;Pink, 2004;Rose, 2001). ...
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How can we, as women university workers, assert collective writing as a form of resistance to embody our collective and individual struggles and convert them into words? We are a collective of five professional service and three academic women workers who came together to answer this question through writing about our performance of office housework and the gendered invisibility we experienced. We share our collective writing practices as a methodology to create connections and healing between workers divided along neoliberal and patriarchal university structures. Our work offers feminist epistemic resistance through the intentional joining of women university workers as co‐producers of knowledge, following the tradition of feminist consciousness‐raising groups. Our analysis problematizes the individualization of office housework. It illustrates how saying “no” individualistically is often elusive, because doing so displaces the work onto colleagues with less structural power; nor enough if we are to advance the goal of collectively reimagining how this crucial, yet invisible work can be redistributed more equally amongst all workers. Our collective writing affirms the need for office housework to be recognized and revalued as important and indispensable work that sustains the functioning of our higher education institutions, especially in times of uncertainty and crisis.
Article
Ella Spencer (my mom) was born in 1908 and died in 2002. She once told me that people of color were treated worse than farm animals, especially when they died. “They didn't get funeral rites like White folks,” she said. I contend the problem is that no one is keeping vital records such as photographs, maps, and burial ledgers of where African Americans were buried. After numerous years, several American states, cities, and counties had reported bountiful discoveries of unknown African American remains of all ages during constructions or demolitions. In 2023, more than a few news outlets were continuously reporting the findings of African American remains from beneath buildings, parking lots, overgrown vegetation, and woods. This qualitative research project was based on digital archival data research methodology and theoretical visual anthropology framework adding creativity components (e.g., photography, painting, and photo bashing technique) to effectively collect data of Alachua County, Florida African American cemeteries. This paper aims to add to the academic literature and fill the gap in African American life after death acknowledgment. In conclusion, this is a project that has many branches that need to be researched to get the whole story of African American cemeteries' survival.
Chapter
The protection of cultural heritage must, at present, be seen as a determining factor, taking an active role with local communities, resident populations and the environment, for local development, in what is now known as sustainable tourism, articulating all stakeholders. Institutions, organisations, private industries and local populations should play, in close coordination with each other, an active role in the socio-cultural development of the region(s) either as a place of construction and representation of intangible cultural heritage, or as a place of valorisation and revaluation of this same heritage, transforming it into a factor of self-esteem and cultural resource of the populations, considering the potential development of local communities. The Cultural Heritage Digital Media Lab (CHDML) is an ongoing project and aims to contribute to the participatory governance process, to the rescue and enhancement of cultural heritage and memory and to the creation of opportunities for economic development and appreciation of local products, bearing in mind the market potential. New modalities of appropriation and reappropriation of the popular and the traditional emerge, now shaped under the designation of “heritage”. Cultural industries are born and developed around the concept of culture, now considered fundamental in the creative economy, tourism and sustainable development. The main goal of this paper is to present and introduce the CHDML as a platform that supports the development of projects and activities related, mainly, with the preservation of intangible cultural heritage of Portuguese-speaking countries. In this context, the authors present some examples of projects that follow the methodological approach presented in this article and underline the three main characteristics that are essential to the CHDML: (i) it is focused just on Portuguese-speaking countries; (ii) the educational aspect of working with students; (iii) the importance of working on heritage reinterpretations.
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Resumen A pesar del aumento exponencial de la presencia de la juventud refugiada y solicitante de asilo, en las sociedades de recepción su realidad y necesidades socioeducativas siguen siendo escasamente contempladas, tanto por las políticas públicas como por los estudios científicos sociales. En esta tesis doctoral, se analizan los factores institucionales, contextuales e individuales que influyen sobre el proceso de integración e inclusión social de la juventud refugiada y solicitante de asilo en Cataluña (España) desde un enfoque holístico y multinivel (Uptin et al., 2016; Clycq et al., 2014, entre otros), basado en la teoría ecológica (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). Este enfoque nos permite analizar la interrelación entre los sistemas macro, meso y micro que, de manera directa o indirectamente, están relacionados a los entornos en los que la persona se desenvuelve. Asimismo, desde un acercamiento a la perspectiva interseccional (Collins, P.H., 1990, 2017; Crenshaw, 1991) se analizan las opresiones estructurales y las desigualdades sociales a las que está sujeta la juventud refugiada y solicitante de asilo, tanto en origen como en destino, y que se entrelazan con marcadores sociales como el género, la etnia, la clase social, y la religión, entre otros, operando como patrones de subordinación y opresión a lo largo de redes o sistemas de poder que se intersecan mutuamente (Crenshaw, 1991), dentro de una matriz de dominación (Collins, P.H., 1990). La investigación etnográfica multimodal se realizó de octubre de 2019 a mayo de 2021 mediante estudios de caso, con 12 jóvenes participantes de 12 a 24 años que, con sus familias o sin referentes familiares, entraron en el Sistema de Acogida de Protección Internacional en Cataluña (España). Para las entrevistas, se ha primado el uso de métodos visuales participativos (Pink, 2013) y la técnica de la foto-elicitación (Harper, 2002), con el fin de promover una mayor implicación de los y las jóvenes como co-productores de conocimiento. Poniendo el foco en la agencia de la juventud refugiada y solicitante de asilo, nos aproximamos a la noción de navegación social (Vigh, 2006, 2009a,b) para explorar como, a pesar de saber navegar en contextos cambiantes, imprevisibles y a menudo hostiles, las fuerzas sociales multiescalares (Nunn et al., 2014) - como políticas y programas de asilo e integración, procesos de discriminación y racialización, deficiencias estructurales - que se materializan a través de políticas de pertenencia (Yuval-Davis, 2010, 2011a,b), generan formas diversas de vulnerabilidad interseccional (Mendola y Pera, 2021) que determinan una movilidad social descendente de estas y estos jóvenes, en destino. La investigación pretende aportar conocimiento a una realidad social y educativa escasamente analizada, con el objetivo de contribuir a la mejora del sistema de inserción socioeducativa y laboral de la juventud refugiada y solicitante de asilo. La tesis doctoral aborda un tema novedoso, hasta ahora inexplorado en el contexto de estudio y, pretende ser difundida no tan sólo a través de canales académicos, sino también, promoviendo procesos de devolución democrática de los resultados entre las personas jóvenes que participaron en el proyecto y las y los profesionales que trabajan en la acogida de esta población. Abstract Despite the exponential growth in the presence of young refugees and asylum seekers, however, their social reality and their socio-educational needs are still scarcely addressed in the host societies, both in terms of public policy and social science studies. From a holistic and multilevel approach (e.g., Uptin et al., 2016; Clycq et al., 2014) based on ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1994), in this Ph.D. research, we analyze the institutional, contextual, and individual factors that influence the integration and social inclusion of young refugees and asylum seekers in Catalonia (Spain). This approach allows us to analyze the interrelationship between macro, meso, and microsystems that, directly or indirectly, are related to the environments in which the person operates. Besides, from an approach to the intersectional perspective (Collins, P.H., 1990, 2017; Crenshaw, 1991) we explore the structural oppressions and the social inequalities to which young refugees and asylum seekers are subjected, both in the country of origin and in the host society, and which are intertwined with social markers such as gender, ethnicity, social class, and religion, among others. These social markers operate as patterns of subordination and oppression along mutually intersecting networks or power systems (Crenshaw, 1991) within a matrix of domination (Collins, P.H., 1990). We conducted multimodal ethnographic research from October 2019 to May 2021 through case studies, with 12 young participants in the age group 12 to 24 years who, with their families or without family members, entered the International Reception System in Catalonia (Spain). We implemented participatory visual methods (Pink, 2013) and the technique of photo-elicitation (Harper, 2002) for the interviews to promote greater involvement of young people as co-producers of knowledge. Focusing our Ph.D. research on the agency of young refugees and asylum seekers, we approach the notion of social navigation (Vigh, 2006, 2009a,b) to explore how, despite the ability to navigate in changing, unpredictable, and often hostile environments, these young people face multiscale social forces (Nunn et al., 2014) (asylum and integration policies and programs, processes of discrimination and racialization, and structural deficiencies) which materialize through the politics of belonging (Yuval-Davis, 2010, 2011a,b). These multiscale social forces generate multiple forms of intersectional vulnerability (Mendola & Pera, 2021) which cause downward social mobility of these young people in the host society. The purpose of this Ph.D. research is to contribute to the knowledge of a poorly analyzed social and educational reality, intending to contribute to the improvement of the socio-educational and labor insertion system of young refugees and asylum seekers. This Ph.D. research addresses a novel topic, hitherto unexplored in the context of the study and, aims to be disseminated not only through academic channels but also, through promoting processes of democratic devolution of the findings among the young people who participated in the project and the professionals working in the reception of refugees and asylum seekers.
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Η παρούσα έρευνα μελετά τις αντιλήψεις και τις κοινωνικές δεξιότητες των μαθητών/τριών της προσχολικής και πρώτης σχολικής ηλικίας στην πόλη της Φλώρινας, σε σχέση με την πρόσληψη της έννοιας της ιδιότητας του πολίτη. Συγκεκριμένα, η μελέτη επικεντρώνεται (α) στη δυνατότητα αναγνώρισης κοινωνικών- πολιτειακών αξιών σε οπτικό υλικό, (β) στη δυνατότητα αναγνώρισης πολιτικών αξιών, (γ) σε δεξιότητες ανάπτυξης/εκδήλωσης κοινωνικής-πολιτειακής δράσης, (δ) σε δεξιότητες ανάπτυξης/εκδήλωσης κοινής ομιλίας-δράσης, (ε) στη δυνατότητα αναγνώρισης συγκεκριμένων πολιτικών ηγετών/πολιτικής ιδιότητας και (στ) στη συσχέτιση όλων των παραπάνω με τις μεταβλητές του φύλου, της ηλικίας, της τάξης φοίτησης και της εθνικότητας των μαθητών/τριών. Οι λόγοι που οι συγκεκριμένες δεξιότητες μελετώνται στην παρούσα διατριβή είναι επειδή: (i) θεωρούνται απαραίτητες για την επιτυχή συμμετοχή των πολιτών σε συλλογικές δράσεις που αφορούν πολιτικά και κοινωνικά ζητήματα, (ii) παρέχουν γνώσεις στους πολίτες σχετικά με τα δικαιώματα και τις υποχρεώσεις που έχουν απέναντι στην κοινωνία, αλλά και τις αξίες που πρεσβεύει το πολίτευμα της δημοκρατίας και (iii) προάγουν τη συνεργασία ανάμεσα στα μέλη της κοινωνίας για την επίτευξη κοινών στόχων. Ακόμα, πολλές έρευνες (π.χ. Verba et al., 1995. Moely et al., 2002. Schur, 2003) επισημαίνουν ότι οι συγκεκριμένες δεξιότητες συνδέονται με υψηλότερα ποσοστά πολιτικής και κοινωνικής συμμετοχής των πολιτών και όπως είναι γνωστό, η δημοκρατία συνεπάγεται υψηλά επίπεδα συμμετοχής στη λήψη αποφάσεων. Ειδικότερα, (α) η αναγνώριση των κοινωνικών-πολιτειακών αξιών συνδέεται με τις πραγματικές και βαθύτερες ανάγκες της κοινωνίας και επιπλέον αποτελούν θεμελιώδες συστατικό για τη συνοχή και την πρόοδο των κοινωνιών, (β) η αναγνώριση των πολιτικών αξιών στο οπτικό υλικό συνδέεται με τους πολιτικούς θεσμούς, τις σχέσεις, τους οργανισμούς, τα δικαιώματα και τις υποχρεώσεις του πολίτη και το πολίτευμα της δημοκρατίας που πηγάζει και ασκείται από τον λαό, (γ) οι δεξιότητες ανάπτυξης/εκδήλωσης κοινωνικής-πολιτειακής δράσης και κοινής ομιλίας-δράσης θεωρούνται από τις σημαντικότερες δεξιότητες των ενεργών πολιτών, καθώς συνδέονται με τη δυνατότητα συνεργασίας με άλλα μέλη, το ομαδικό πνεύμα, την ενότητα και την κοινή δράση για την επίλυση προβλημάτων σε μια κοινωνία και (δ) η δυνατότητα αναγνώρισης συγκεκριμένων πολιτικών ηγετών/πολιτικής ιδιότητας, αφορά την αναγνώριση πολιτικών ζητημάτων -όπως ακριβώς και στην περίπτωση για τις πολιτικές αξίες. Ως ερευνητική στρατηγική επιλέχθηκε η μελέτη περίπτωσης, ενώ για τη συλλογή του υλικού κατασκευάστηκαν δύο οπτικά ερωτηματολόγια που βασίστηκαν στο Ευρωπαΐκό πρόγραμμα imago 2010 -«Μάθηση με εικόνες. Εναύσματα για την εργασία στην προσχολική ηλικία και στην ηλικία δημοτικού» του Πανεπιστημίου Gießen, του Πανεπιστημίου της Σόφιας και του Βόλου, καθώς και του Mozarteum στο Salzburg. Όσον αφορά την ανάλυση και επεξεργασία του πολυτροπικού υλικού εφαρμόστηκαν (α) η κοινωνικοσημειωτική και η ερμηνευτική μέθοδος, ως τεχνικές που ερμηνεύουν το οπτικό και γλωσσικό υλικό και υποστηρίζουν την έρευνα και την ανάλυση των παιδικών ιχνογραφημάτων και (β) η ποσοτική και ποιοτική ανάλυση περιεχομένου, ως αναλυτική τεχνική για τις απαντήσεις των μαθητών/τριών στη δομημένη συνέντευξη. Η ερευνητική διαδικασία έδειξε ότι οι μαθητές/τριες που συμμετείχαν στην έρευνα ανέπτυξαν ένα βαθμό οπτικού γραμματισμού όταν αναγνώρισαν τα σενάρια, τους ρόλους και τις ιδιότητες των εικονιζόμενων προσώπων μέσα από τα ποικίλα είδη εικόνων που τους προσφέρθηκαν και ταυτόχρονα οδηγήθηκαν σε προσωπικές μορφές κατανόησης, ερμηνείας και αξιολόγησης του κόσμου. Επιπλέον, έγινε η υπόθεση ότι τα παιδιά μέσω των ιχνογραφημάτων αποτύπωσαν τις αντιλήψεις τους για την ιδιότητα του πολίτη όπως τη βίωσαν και όπως την είδαν, δηλαδή, παρήγαγαν και αφηγήθηκαν μέσω των εικόνων ιστορίες, ανάλογα με τον τίτλο-θέμα που τους έδωσαν. Παράλληλα, το υλικό της έρευνας μπορεί να αξιοποιηθεί από/και για το παιδί, τον εκπαιδευτικό και τον/την ερευνητή/τρια ως υλικό πληροφόρησης για την πολιτική κοινωνικοποίηση του παιδιού, για τα στερεότυπα που συνειδητά ή ασυνείδητα έχει ενστερνιστεί ή όχι, ενώ συγχρόνως αποτελεί ερευνητική και διδακτική πρόταση για την ιδιότητα του πολίτη στην προσχολική και πρώτη σχολική ηλικία. Συνοψίζοντας, θα πρέπει να επισημανθεί ότι επιχειρείται μια πολυτροπική ανάλυση με τη μετατόπιση του ενδιαφέροντος από το ιχνογράφημα ως αντικείμενο και ως εργαλείο έρευνας στο ίδιο το παιδί - δημιουργό, στη διαδικασία της ιχνογράφησης και στις διαδικασίες που συντελούνται την ώρα της ιχνογράφησης, καθώς και στην εξέταση των πλαισίων επικοινωνίας και των σχέσεων με στόχο να ανιχνευθεί η επιρροή συγκεκριμένων διαδικασιών στα συναισθήματα και στις αντιλήψεις τους.
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El presente esfuerzo editorial reconoce la existencia de múltiples itinerarios que se pueden transitar para que una persona logre adentrarse en el enfoque etnográfico al realizar trabajo de campo. En efecto, no hay un camino predefinido para responder la pregunta que alguna vez se hizo el célebre antropólogo Claude Lévi-Strauss: ¿cómo se llega a ser etnógrafa/o? Las trayectorias diferenciadas de quienes colaboran en este libro confirman esta premisa, pero en sus intersticios también salen a relucir destrezas y habilidades adquiridas, ya sea por poner en práctica lo aprendido en un curso de metodología, por emular las estrategias de investigación empleadas en alguna etnografía clásica o contemporánea, o por el simple hecho de comenzar el trabajo de campo echando a volar la imaginación antropológica. La síntesis de estas diferencias y convergencias son el eje rector de las propuestas presentadas a lo largo de los capítulos que dan forma a esta obra, la cual tiene por objetivo acompañar los procesos de práctica-aprendizaje de cualquier persona interesada en incursionar en el oficio de la etnografía.
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This research investigated dining behaviors from the perspective of eating comfort foods when traveling internationally. Individual in-depth interviews, supported by the photo elicitation technique, were conducted with thirteen participants who had traveled abroad within the past year. Content analysis was used and thirteen comfort food characteristics emerged in three main dimensions: past experience, pleasure and well-being, and palatability. The results may serve as a valuable reference for future studies on the roles of comfort foods in travel.
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Two different ethnographic methodologies are interwoven in this text: the textile art and the audiovisual documentation, both of them as aesthetic experiences that call forth social organization and collective action within contexts of violence. The exercising of memory and the bodily work that these ethnographic proposals imply, have allowed me to conduct research on such dreadful subjects as forced disappearance from a perspective of affection, sensitivity and full commitment. It was through the art of weaving that I got to know the People-Searching Collective from the state of Michoacán, Mexico. Meeting this collective encouraged me to create an audiovisual document from the Fifth Searching-for-the-Disappeared Caravan, which took place in the above-mentioned state, in May 2019. This experience shows the importance of interdisciplinary methodologies to document memory. The valuation of textile and audiovisual testimonies contributes to the recognition of the victims as creators and agents of social chance.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate if crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) in Leicester affects DMU student's perception of safety. This study aimed to contribute to eliminating the gap of knowledge in the field. The currently available literature has limited information surrounding CPTED and the perception of safety for university students. The research was also chosen to aid De Montfort University and Leicester in addressing any safety concerns mentioned in the study. This study systematically analysed data collected from an online survey that was conducted. An online mixed-method survey approach was taken and distributed via DMU Facebook group platforms. The survey was then thematically analysed. The data highlighted that students have a multitude of safety concerns that often overlap each other, including, but not limited to: lack of lighting, limited surveillance, large amounts of homelessness, antisocial behaviour and the lack of proactive policing/security. The findings of this study demonstrate that there is a link between CPTED and the perception of safety for DMU students. Recommendations for improvements will be made for Leicester and De Montfort University to action at their discretion.
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As the adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Yet, anthropologists have not typically sought study‐participant drawings. Using a protocol in which a request for a drawing was embedded, this study captures the internal dynamics of three successful university‐based teams. Our questions followed a specific Describe–Draw–Explain sequence. All interviewees offered some novel element in their drawings (Draw step) beyond what they conveyed in their verbal descriptions (Describe step), while 85 percent of them again offered additional detail in the Explain step. The data also revealed stark and surprising cultural contrasts across teams, including one that was understood best as a network that could be activated upon demand. Gathering drawings is a fast yet valid and reliable method when the prescribed sequence of questions is followed. Another virtue of this approach is that the interviews can be conducted virtually, essential during the COVID‐19 era.
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A uniquely robust multi-part qualitative study methodology is presented from a study which tracked the transformative journeys of four career-changing women from STEM fields into secondary education. The article analyzes the study’s use of archived writing, journaling, participant-generated photography, interviews, member-checking, and reflexive analytical memos. An exploration into the interconnectedness of the methodologies used reveals a robust framework from which the first stages of grounded theory emerged. A detailed explanation of the methodological aspects of conducting the study is discussed with the purpose of making this combination of qualitative methods replicable.
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This case study discusses how the interpretive photographer, Lewis W. Hine (1874-1940), and his Child Labor series (1908-1918) during the Progressive Era in America (1890-1920) could be considered a precursor to applied visual anthropology. Identifying his work as interpretive of reformers’ values rather than documented evidence demonstrates one method of photographic ethnography, which drives the approach of applied visual anthropology. This paper analyzes the successes and limitations of Hine’s approach, and will identify examples of his work in order to show how his investigations contributed towards the development of an applied visual anthropological approach.
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This chapter looks at what could be considered visual ethnographic work in education and how photographs and videos, as opposed to other kinds of visual materials like maps and drawings, have been used in ethnographic work. It focuses particularly on participatory visual methods as an ethnographic method, particularly in education. Participatory photography enables the researcher to get a sense of what the participants want to show as important or interesting from their own worlds. Photo-elicitation interviews are the most common participatory method used in social sciences. The chapter also looks at participatory video research done in education and explores the ethnographic aspects of visual ethnographic studies. In some countries, institutional review boards (IRBs) make it difficult to do visual ethnographies by having very strict rules. The chapter discusses issues related to gaining access, gatekeepers, and ethical issues.
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This paper introduces an approach of Participatory Ethnographic Filmmaking the author developed by making films together with rural dwellers in Namibia, Botswana and Angola. Grounded in the field of ethnographic filmmaking, it aims at making anthropologically informed films together with groups of people with no previous filmmaking experience. Workshop participants shape the form and content of the film and contribute to its practical making. In this paper, the author explains how such films can be made in a wide range of different settings. Participatory Ethnographic Filmmaking gives the participants the possibility to shape their own media image and generates new forms of collaborative knowledge.
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The chapter turns to interpersonal and ethical issues in visual psychological anthropology (VPA), self-reflexively using the Afflictions films as examples. First addressed are models of collaboration with filmmakers, professionals, and local colleagues in the field; next come interactions with and impacts on film participants. The authors question academic and personal outcomes of using VPA; whether or not participation in VPA could be considered “therapeutic”; and how to approach covering long-debated issues of compensation and intervention. The subsequent ethical discussion follows American Anthropological Association guidelines. Topics covered include the expression of these in VPA, and how to adhere to them when conducting research in contexts of violence and trauma; the complexity of obtaining true consent from film participants who are also friends and who may be at times compromised due to mental illness; shifting motivations for participation and the way off-screen relationships impact filmmaking process and final choices made in film.
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The visual offers a range of possibilities for social research but it also brings particular challenges, and ethical guidelines do not always provide sufficient reference to the dissemination of images. Participants may want some level of anonymity, and some topics may be particularly sensitive; in such cases, being visible and recognisable may not be practical, possible or ethical, both for participants and the non-consenting others they present in their accounts. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the potentialities and challenges associated with visual research dissemination, and considers how we can creatively and ethically communicate our findings without using pictures.
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The genesis and evolution of participatory video are examined in the contexts of documentary filmmaking, visual studies, and community development. Participatory video is then discussed in relation to the discourse on participatory culture that has emerged since the advent of interactive digital media and technology. Based on this literature review, I elaborate on the potential contributions that participatory video can make to social science research, social intervention, participatory culture, and community-based adult education, respectively.
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Visual ethnography implies integrating the video camera into fieldwork practices. In this article, visual ethnography is understood as a research methodology, the underlying theoretical proposition of which is to produce films with participants rather than produce films about them. The two central elements of this proposition, namely, a shared responsibility for filming and a shared responsibility for what is to be represented in the ethnographic film are explained and then illustrated, in order to focus on better integrating the participants' points of view.
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Ethnography involves a series of competencies, methods, and theoretically anchored stances whose composition shift as they are moved from one context to another. This article works to delineate new ways of explaining the manner in which academics have tended to work with ethnographic practices in an attempt to produce illuminative cultural analyses. As part of this endeavor the text goes beyond the realms of the traditional classroom setting to examine the manner in which ethnography is used outside of the academy as a mode of expression, and it reflects upon the implications these movements may have for what is ultimately taught in the classroom. While doing this, the paper proposes a need to rethink ethnography as compositional practice.
Chapter
Ethnography at its heart seeks to elucidate participants' voices and to represent their world as authentically as possible. Recently, researchers have accepted that the notion of pure objectivity is a myth and that at least some representations of the self will be present regardless of one's intentions. Traditionally, ethnographic research has focused heavily on researchers' observations coupled with interview data.
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Applied Anthropology: An Introduction(3rd edition) is a text focused on the use of the methods and theories of anthropology to solve the practical problems of human communities. It addresses a wide range of problem-solving practices in two large categories: development and research. The development-focused chapters include action research/participatory action research, cultural action, collaborative research, cultural brokerage, and social marketing. The research-focused chapters include social impact assessment, evaluation, and cultural resource management. Each chapter includes a defining statement about the approach considered and discussion of key concepts, a discussion of the basic process, and one or more case studies. These materials are supplemented with chapters on many domains of application and roles which applied anthropologists activate. These are coupled with chapters on the history of the development of applied anthropology, ethics, anthropology in development, and policy. The book concludes with a chapter on work-related issues such as employment and funding opportunities.
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Grimshaw's exploration of the role of vision within modern anthropology engages with current debates about ocularcentism, investigating the relationship between vision and knowledge in ethnographic enquiry. Using John Berger's notion of 'ways of seeing', the author argues that vision operates differently as a technique and theory of knowledge within the discipline. In the first part of the book she examines contrasting visions at work in the so-called classical British school, reassessing the legacy of Rivers, Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown through the lens of early modern art and cinema. In the second part of the book, the changing relationship between vision and knowledge is explored through the anthropology of Jean Rouch, David and Judith MacDougall, and Melissa Llewelyn-Davies. Vision is foregrounded in the work of these contemporary ethnographers, focusing more general questions about technique and epistemology whether image-based media are used or not in ethnographic enquiry.
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What follows is text of a talk given in the context of an exhibit and it is organized in terms of movement through that exhibit, a format that can only partially be reconstructed here. The images reproduced here include photographs from the exhibit as well as others that were felt to be related to the theme of the original talk. All photographs are courtesy of the Collier Family Collection.
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A selection of pages is presented from an unpublished book layout of photographs made by John Collier Jr. and Mary E.T. Collier in Peru during the 1950s, with a brief introduction and afterword by Malcolm Collier.
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Abstract In this article I draw from my research about gender, identity, and the home, to discuss the visual and the other senses in ethnographic experience and anthropological representation. First, I discuss how visual ethnographic research might appreciate the sensory nature of experience. Seeing the home as both the context and subject of fieldwork, I shall introduce the idea of the `sensory home'. This refers to the home as a domain composed of different sensory elements (smell, touch, taste, vision, sound) that is simultaneously understood and created through the sensory experience and manipulation of these elements. I then explore how such visual and sensory research might best be represented as text that is conversant with mainstream anthropology. I shall suggest that while film and writing have both tackled this theme, hypermedia offers new possibilities that might bridge the gap between written and visual anthropology.
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Despite the enthusiasm of the pioneer generation of anthropologists for the camera as a means of ethnographic research, filmmaking remained marginal to the anthropological project for most of the course of the last century. However a combination of technological developments and recent theoretical paradigm shifts within anthropology generally now offers the possibility of greater integration of filmmaking into ethnographic research. This article1 seeks to identify the basis for this theoretical incorporation and discusses some of the practical ways in which film can now be used as a means of generating ethnographic understanding,
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This article is a reflexive account of an applied commercial video ethnography project and its subsequent applied and academic texts. My aim is threefold: to describe the project and methodologies used in the particular type of applied research and representation I developed; to reflexively describe and discuss the skills that I brought to, and learned from, this work; and to provide a case study from which to critically comment on the relationship between applied and academic visual anthropology.
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A partir de son experience personnelle en tant qu'ethnographe-videaste, l'A. s'interroge sur les consequences de l'utilisation de la video digitale, d'une part pour la recherche ethnographique, d'autre part pour la relation entre la production de films ethnographiques et l'economie des medias, et plus particulierement la television. En quoi l'innovation technologique du numerique peut-elle renouveler les genres filmiques de l'anthropologie visuelle ? Quelles en sont les consequences intellectuelles et methodologiques ?
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To better understand the issues and needs of adolescents with chronic health conditions, the Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA) integrates video technology with qualitative research methods to obtain a patient-centered perspective on illness and health care. Young people with chronic disease are interviewed for condition-specific verbal reports (CSVRs) of their medical and psychosocial histories. Standardized health-related quality of life (HRQL) instruments are administered. Trained to use video camcorders, participants record visual narratives of their illness experiences. They document their daily lives, interview families and friends, and record personal monologues regarding their observations, behaviors, understandings, and beliefs about their disease. On completion of the visual narratives, HRQL is again evaluated. Verbal, scaled, and visual data are analyzed from three perspectives: medical, psychosocial, and anthropological. Data from the CSVRs, HRQLs, and visual narratives are triangulated to validate and enrich findings. Investigating the illness experience from the adolescent patient's perspective, the VIA method was pilot-tested with children and adolescents with asthma. As a research tool, VIA found environmental risk factors, medication adherence problems, and outcome-affecting illness beliefs and psychological states that were not identified by standard clinical tools. As an intervention, VIA showed that it may be an effective tool for health-related environmental surveys. Participants' condition-specific quality of life showed measurable improvement after the self-examination process of VIA. As communication, VIA made apparently counterproductive patient behaviors understandable by showing them in context with the adolescent's experience of illness and health care. VIA can enhance medical history-taking and management strategies, improve adolescents' self-management skills, and educate clinicians, families, and students of the health care professions about the realities of the adolescent living with a chronic health condition.
Taller de las cuatro estaciones. Madrid: Alas de Colibri Ediciones
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Communications and Development: Using Television to Raise Public Awareness about Tourism as a Poverty Alleviation Tool in the Gambia
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At the Edge Visual Anthropology and HIV Prevention
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Applied Anthropology: A Career-Oriented Approach
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Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media and Representation in Research
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Picturing Culture: Explorations of Film and Anthropology
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Anthropology in Practice: Building a Career Outside the Academy
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Indigenous Imagination, and Advocacy in North America
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