XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 13-19, 2014)

July 13 - 19, 2014

JS-50

Using Visual Material for Knowledge Creation: The Process of Analysis and Interpretation

WG03 Visual Sociology (host committee)
RC37 Sociology of Arts

Language: English

Visual methods are becoming more common within scholarly research and provide a wide range of creative and innovative forms of data collection. But what happens after the visual material has been collected? The papers in this session outline the epistemological and analytical frameworks used to interpret visual material in the process of producing scholarship. Particularly, papers in this session detail the analytical process used to draw knowledge from visual material. This includes consideration of the theories that inform the analytical process, and the actual tools and techniques used to treat visual materials. This session will address the following questions: Do researchers use coding software, video editing techniques, or interpretive strategies? Are visual materials used to identify discrete behaviors by informants, to record sensory material, or are they considered cultural artifacts? Once researchers have analyzed the material, how do they present their findings? Are visual and textual materials integrated or are they presented separately and independently? Ultimately, this session seeks to consider the consequences of using different frameworks for analyzing visual material and how these produce different forms of knowledge.