SEEING IS BELIEVING
STUDIES IN QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGY VOLUME 7
SEEING IS BELIEVING? APPROACHES TO
VISUAL RESEARCH
EDITED BY
CHRISTOPHER J. POLE
University of Leicester, UK
2004
Amsterdam – Boston – Heidelberg – London – New York – Oxford Paris – San Diego – San Francisco – Singapore – Sydney – Tokyo
SEEING IS BELIEVING? APPROACHES
TO VISUAL RESEARCH
STUDIES IN QUALITATIVE
METHODOLOGY
Series Editor: Robert G. Burgess
Volume 1: Conducting Qualitative Research
Volume 2: Reflection on Field Experience
Volume 3: Learning about Fieldwork
Volume 4: Issues in Qualitative Research
Volume 5: Computing and Qualitative Research
Series Editors: Robert G. Burgess and Chris J. Pole
Volume 6: Cross-Cultural Case Study
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CONTENTS
VISUAL RESEARCH: POTENTIAL AND OVERVIEW Christopher J. Pole 1
HISTORY THROUGH THE LENS: EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY
John Martin and Ruth Martin 9
SNAP HAPPY: TOWARD A SOCIOLOGY OF “EVERYDAY ” PHOTOGRAPHY
Barbara Harrison 23
RECORDING THE “HABITUS” Tim Dant 41
PERFORMANCE, SELF-REPRESENTATION AND NARRATIVE: INTERVIEWING WITH VIDEO
Sarah Pink 61
ON USING VISUAL DATA ACROSS THE RESEARCH PROCESS: SIGHTS AND INSIGHTS FROM A SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY OF PEOPLE’S INDEPENDENT LEARNING IN TIMES OF EDUCATIONAL CHANGE
Pat Allatt and Caroline Dixon 79
IMAGES, INTERVIEWS AND INTERPRETATIONS: MAKING CONNECTIONS IN VISUAL RESEARCH
Alan Felstead, Nick Jewson and Sally Walters 105
v
vi
POWER, INEQUALITY, CHANGE AND UNCERTAINTY: VIEWING THE WORLD THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT PRISM
Matt Smith and John Donnelly 123
USING VISUALS TO RELEASE PUPILS’ VOICES: EMOTIONAL PATHWAYS INTO ENHANCING THINKING AND REFLECTING ON LEARNING
Andrea Raggl and Michael Schratz 147
THE USE OF THE VISUAL MEDIUM FOR PROGRAM EVALUATION
Rosalind Hurworth 163
ABOUT THE AUTHORS 183
VISUAL RESEARCH: POTENTIAL
AND OVERVIEW
Christopher J. Pole
In assembling a collection of papers which address issues relating to the visual
image as the medium through which we might come to know the social world,
we are in a sense, merely drawing on something that most of us do and take for
granted during all of our waking hours. For most of us, the world in which we
live is experienced through our capacity to see and to make sense of what we see.
At its most fundamental, visual research draws on our basic capacity to interpret
the world through our sense of sight. In this respect, for those of us who are not
in anyway visually impaired visual research might be seen to be little more than
something that we do all the time in order to go about our everyday lives. We
might also argue that all or at least the great majority of social research relies on
our capacity to interpret and to make sense of visual images. This is true not only in
cases where methods of observation and participant observation are used, but also
in respect of the need to read written data of various kinds, to interpret statistics
and merely to orient ourselves within any given research location. Whilst there is
no intention here to deny or overlook the contribution that blind or partially sighted
researchers may make to our understanding of social life through their work with
the written medium or through their capacity to give accounts of their personal
experiences of research sites and locations via other, perhaps more developed,
senses such as hearing, touch and smell, it remains a fact that most social research
relies on the capacity of the researcher to see and to interpret on the basis of what
is seen.
