Visual Representations of Development: Practices and Possibilities

In addition to the conventional mode of studying development which entails evaluation of the state of development of a country or a region, or on-site field ethnography, it is important to take cognizance of the fact that visual documentation about the variegated issues of development can be poignant for both research and teaching. There is also the study of many kinds of development that has happened through the lens of the visual--camera--still or moving. Photographs, films, and posters play a very important role in mapping the project of development either from the perspective of the state or that of civil society groups who may resist state-based development initiatives or remain in the margins of it (Karlsson and Kikon 2017). The visual is not understood as a substitute of the written, rather complimenting, co-existing. Still photographs, diagrams, maps have always formed important parts of ethnographies, but sometimes also have not been able to be part of the final book. This session has the objective of engaging with ongoing interdisciplinary research where the method of the visual forms a core component of the practice of 'visualizing development'. In a post-pandemic social world, and a planet disrupted by climate change, the role of the visual has become ever so pronounced. Visual sociology of development can be an effective component of teaching development studies. This session will engage with practices, possibilities, ethics, and encounters in the visual representations of development.