Visual Sociology

Dennis Zuev and Regev Nathansohn

Subject Sociology » Sociology of Culture and Media

DOI: 10.1111/b.9781405124331.2007.x

The starting premise of visual sociology is that what we see and how we record,
interpret, and react to what we see in the social world is no less important than what
we say and how we record, interpret, and react to what we say about the social reality.
One of the grounding ideas of visual sociology is that “valid scientific insight in
society can be acquired by observing, analyzing and theorizing its visual
manifestations: behavior of people and material products of culture” (Pauwels 2010:
546). Visual sociology aims to normalize the use of visual imagery as a valid and
relevant type of data for sociological research. Visual sociology allows for using
mixed methods, where quantitative and qualitative ones show different aspects of the
studied phenomenon. Some recent studies on modern media, such as YouTube,
demonstrate that both quantitative and qualitative methods can be combined (Vergani
& Zuev 2011). One of the important postulates in sociological analyses is
consideration of image as data, and not as an illustration or embellishment of a
sociological argument. A single image, a sequence of images, and even a repository of
images cannot serve as visual sociology arguments in themselves without analyzing
them utilizing sociological theory (thereby also developing the theoretical tool).
Visual sociological analysis can be also presented with no images at all. Radically
speaking, visual sociology can even analyze non-visual data, for example, when
interviewing people on how they create, interpret, and circulate images. In this case
visual sociologists analyze data related to the social world around images and not
specific images themselves.

Visual sociology can be seen as standing on the shoulders of some of the works that
were based on photographic and ethnographic studies, such as “Balinese Character”
by Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead (1942) and “Gender Advertisements” by
Erving Goffman (1987). Goffman's study on frames and frame-analysis, with
“frames” understood as contextual packages within which an image is presented to the
viewer, has been even more important in terms of methodological guidelines it
provided for future analysis of the visual data.

In his 1974 essay, “Photography and Sociology,” Howard Becker provided

commentary on the two occupational groups of photographers and sociologists, their
ideologies, and how both groups could contribute to each other's field of enquiry.
Becker's focus is on the common ground for both groups in the study of organizations,
institutions, and communities (Emmison & Smith 2007).

Visual sociology has remained on the margins of mainstream sociology journals and
mainstream sociology in general. However, recently, with the proclaimed visual and
iconic turns, some of prominent sociologists have directed their attention to the
increasing importance of visual methodologies (see Sztompka 2008), iconic
phenomena of contemporary culture (Alexander 2010), or at least have demonstrated
a willingness to point at the important status of visuals for micro-sociological research
(see Collins 2004). Some of the most recent volumes dedicated to visual sociology
have been dedicated to diverse social issues such as ethnic conflicts, perception of
urban landscape, collective identities, and gender (Nathansohn and Zuev 2012) or
have focused on a particular method such as participatory video used in different
contexts (see Milne et al. 2012).

The Scope of Visual Sociology

The variety of social issues that have been studied within visual sociology
demonstrates the need to normalize visual analysis as an integral part of modern
sociological research. Such normalization also means that to prove most efficient
methods of visual sociology should be utilized in conjunction with other methods of
social enquiry. Such a conjuncture can allow a more nuanced attention to the
ambivalent nature of the photographic image, to the socio-historical contexts of the
image, and to any commentary that may be provided by producers and consumers of
the image.

Many of the classic fields of inquiry in sociology have already been looked at through
the lens of visual sociology: class, gender, nationalism and multiculturalism, ethno-
racial relations, work and organizations, urbanism and family, to name a few. Visual
sociology is shown to be relevant also in more recent fields of inquiry, such as protest
and social movements (Doerr & Teune, forthcoming) and most prominently in the
study of new media (Vergani & Zuev 2012).

One of the methodological strands in sociology that has employed visual data has
been ethnomethodology, which has been preoccupied with the practices of
visualization and practices of seeing among other topics. The photographic practice
and practices of visualization as an object of sociological interest is perhaps best
represented in Bourdieu's Photography: A Middle-brow art (Bourdieu et al. 1990).
The subject of the book is not photographs but picture-taking as a social practice.
Bourdieu shows how photographic practice of family photos may increase group
solidarity, and suggests that people engaged in different types of photographic
activities can delimit class boundaries.

Some of the visual sociology's conventional techniques of collecting data, such as

photo-elicitation interview (PEI), have been employed within large-scale projects
aiming to study social changes in the realm of photographic practices and the effects
of infrastructural changes on the ways of visual self-presentation among diverse social
and ethnic groups. See, for instance, the project on “Conditions and Limitations of
Lifestyle Plurality in Siberia,” conducted by Max Planck Institute for Social
Anthropology in 2008–12 (Habeck 2008).

Collecting and Analyzing Visual Data

Visual sociology is concerned with studying the seen as well as the unseen aspects of
social reality with the use of tools that allow production, collection, and analysis of
visual data. These tools include photo documentary, PEI, participatory video, and
photography, data generated by the research subjects, as well as other classical
methods such as surveys, interviews, and participant-observation. The visual data can
also include three-dimensional data, such as objects and setting, about which
sociologically relevant inferences can be made. One of the challenging techniques of
collecting original data, which has been actively promoted and elaborated on by
visual sociologists (Schwartz 1989; Harper 2002) is PEI. PEI involves the use of
images produced by researcher or the research subjects to facilitate elicitation of
information that without the use of images would not have been extracted. It can
engage individual or group responses on different topics and it provides an
equilibrated visual-oral research tool.

Some of the recent sociological studies demonstrate the need of amalgamation of

methods towards equalizing the researcher and researched relationship by means of
participatory visual data production (see Anzoise & Mutti 2012). This can be also
explained by increasing ethical concerns in some national contexts which do not allow
visual research without undergoing complex review procedures towards permitting
visual research (see Wiles et al. 2012). This factor has been considered as a
formidable obstacle towards using certain methods of data collection practiced by
visual sociologists, but at the same time forced thinking of creative solutions toward a
more ethical research setting.

There are also other oppositions to using visual data in visual sociology analysis. For
instance, Emmison and Smith direct the visual sociological concern towards “what
can be seen rather than what has been photographed” (2007: 17). They argue that the
features of the social world do not have to be materialized in order to be analyzed, and
contend that the necessity to provide visual images is not always necessary for the
visual enquiry. While such prominent advocates of visual sociology as Douglas
Harper argue for a wider use of the photographic images as the source of data,
Emmison and Smith represent the strand favoring the use of living visual data (body,
gazes, gestures, postures, displays, three-dimensional material objects). Thus, they
contribute to the strand of qualitative sociological research that follows the tradition
of analysis of non-reactive measures (Webb et al. 1966) or the use of visual data
exemplified by Schwartz and Jacobs in their study on the “signs of prohibition”
(1979).

Visual Sociology: Institutional Infrastructure

Currently, visual sociology is represented by two major international groups of

researchers. The International Visual Sociological Association (IVSA) was
established in 1983 and organizes conferences on annual basis. IVSA also established
the journal Visual Sociology with Douglas Harper as the founding editor (the journal
was later renamed Visual Studies, to appeal to a wider and an interdisciplinary
audience of writers and readers), with current editor Darren Newbury.

The second group works under the International Sociological Association (ISA). This
Thematic Group on Visual Sociology (TG05) was established by Dennis Zuev and
Regev Nathansohn and had its inaugural sessions in 2008 at the 1st ISA Forum of
Sociology in Barcelona with the first elected president Regev Nathansohn (2010–14).
ISA's TG05 organizes sessions at ISA World Forums and ISA World Congresses
every two years and publishes biannual newsletters. Currently, major research
journals related to the field of visual sociology are Visual Studies, Visual
Anthropology, Visual Anthropology Review, Visual Communication, Journal of Visual
Culture, and Visual Methodologies. At the time of writing in 2012 the only institution
offering a PhD in visual sociology was Goldsmiths College, University of London.

SEE ALSO: Consumption, Visual; Media; Methods, Visual

References and Suggested Readings

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Cite this article

Zuev, Dennis and Regev Nathansohn. "Visual Sociology." Blackwell Encyclopedia of
Sociology. Ritzer, George (ed). Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Blackwell Reference
Online.