The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods
- Luc Pauwels - University of Antwerp, Belgium
- Dawn Mannay - Cardiff University
The second, thoroughly revised and expanded, edition of The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods presents a wide-ranging exploration and overview of the field today. As in its first edition, the Handbook does not aim to present a consistent view or voice, but rather to exemplify diversity and contradictions in perspectives and techniques.
The selection of chapters from the first edition have been fully updated to reflect current developments. New chapters to the second edition cover key topics including picture-sorting techniques, creative methods using artefacts, visual framing analysis, therapeutic uses of images, and various emerging digital technologies and online practices. At the core of all contributions are theoretical and methodological debates about the meanings and study of the visual, presented in vibrant accounts of research design, analytical techniques, fieldwork encounters and data presentation.
This handbook presents a unique survey of the discipline that will be essential reading for scholars and students across the social and behavioural sciences, arts and humanities, and far beyond these disciplinary boundaries.
The Handbook is organized into seven main sections:
PART 1: FRAMING THE FIELD OF VISUAL RESEARCH
PART 2: VISUAL AND SPATIAL DATA PRODUCTION METHODS AND TECHNOLOGIES
PART 3: PARTICIPATORY AND SUBJECT-CENTERED APPROACHES
PART 4: ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORKS AND PERSPECTIVES
PART 5: MULTIMODAL AND MULTISENSORIAL RESEARCH
PART 6: RESEARCHING ONLINE PRACTICES
PART 7: COMMUNICATING THE VISUAL: FORMATS AND CONCERNS
There is nothing to match this handbook in terms of the breadth and quality of its coverage of visual research methods. From quantitative to qualitative to digital methods, from photography and film to Geographical Information Systems and figurines, a very wide range of visual research methods are succinctly discussed by their leading practitioners. If you use or teach any kind of visual research method, you need this book.
This revised collection offers essential resources for researchers interested in penetrating the common cliché that the present is increasingly ‘visual’. Drawing on a wide range of interdisciplinary approaches, the book traces the full spectrum of visual experience from the process of looking at everyday objects to new considerations of the role of drawing, photography, digital and media images in contemporary visual culture. Carefully curated from contributions by leading researchers in the field, it provides an invaluable primer in established and emergent visual research methods.
The Sage Handbook of Visual Research Methods provides an indispensable overview for researchers aware of how the ‘visual’ pervades contemporary social life. The book takes into account the study of the production context of ‘visuals’, the visual artefacts/phenomena and the context of use. It offers a wide plurality of theoretical approaches and it includes research accounts of scholars working in different disciplines (sociology, anthropology, psychology…). The new edition extends the opportunities to engage research participants as active agents (i.e. through digital storytelling, photovoice and drawing) and to practice a more multimodal and multisensorial research approach. The handbook is an essential guide to teaching visual methods!
This timely collection offers an exciting and comprehensive overview of contemporary visual research studies, methodologies and practices. Written by leading and emerging scholars, this edition brings together an exceptional range of essays that reflect and explore significant continuities, developments and challenges within the robust, expansive, and interdisciplinary field of visual research methods. Through its structure and content, the collection invites visual dialogue across diverse and established schools of thought. The reader is challenged to think about how ‘the visual’ operates as a complex and pervading aspect of everyday life, that is not reducible to ‘images’ or products of visual media. This will be a vital resource for visually oriented researchers and scholars across the social sciences and humanities, and a valuable addition to any university or college library.
"Overall the book is highly informative because it documents diverse aspects of visual research methods in considerable detail. It is a vital resource for scholars engaging in visually oriented research projects, even for those readers unfamiliar with the field."
