Scissors, sand and the cutting room floor: Employing visual and creative methods ethically with marginalised communities

Mannay, Dawn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7368-4111, Lomax, Helen and Fink, Janet 2015. Scissors, sand and the cutting room floor: Employing visual and creative methods ethically with marginalised communities. Presented at: British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Glasgow, UK, 15-17 April 2015.

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Abstract

In our visually saturated culture there is a growing recognition that visual images have the potential to evoke emphatic understanding of the ways in which other people experience their worlds. There has been an increasing shift towards employing techniques of visual data production with participants, which is often seen as a panacea for the problems of power hierarchies, representation and voice in sociological research. However, the easy marriage between the visual and the participatory needs to be questioned when we are working with marginalised groups and communities. This panel session introduces three presentations that explore both the opportunities, and the ethical and practical difficulties, raised by visual research approaches. Drawing on studies that employed the techniques of sandboxing, collaging and film making, the panel considers the visual as a vehicle for participatory research whilst acknowledging the power relations inherent in the processes of design, production and dissemination. Each presentation focuses on one of these three aspects of the research process. Dawn Mannay discusses design by reflecting on the sandboxing approach, ‘the world technique’; and responds to the argument that therapeutic methods should not be taken out of the consulting room. Janet Fink presents insights into data production drawing on community based inquiry and the process of creating collages. Helen Lomax considers the challenges of employing a participatory approach to the editing and dissemination of filmed data, images and text. Together the three papers respond to current debates around visual methodologies, participatory research and situated ethics in work with marginalised communities.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR T Technology > TR Photography
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Qualitative Research; Visual Methodologies
Funders:	CUROP
Last Modified:	27 Oct 2022 10:09
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/69102

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