‘I'm gonna show you what it's really like out here’: the power and limitation of participatory visual methods

Packard, Josh

doi:10.1080/14725860801908544

Cited by 228 publications

(198 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(35 reference statements)

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“…PDPE practitioners need to recognise and attempt to address such limitations to the extent possible. We agree with Packard (2008) that visual methods are not a "cure-all for power imbalances" (p. 75) and that care must be taken to design projects such that they do not reinforce traditional power dynamics, but PDPE does represent a promising alternative.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Visualising community: using participant-driven photo-elicitation for research and application

2010

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Despite a contemporary socio-culture revolving around cultural consumption of imagery, metaphors, representations and "gaze", photo-elicitation is a rarely used method for social scientists and planners to acquire knowledge. In this paper, we discuss participant-driven photo-elicitation, a process in which participant photos are paired with in-depth interviews. Based upon a review of the literature on photo-elicitation and our own transnational fieldwork experiences with it, we argue that this method has four primary advantages: photos can provide tangible stimuli for more effectively tapping into informants' tacit, and often unconscious, consumption of representations, images and metaphors; produces different and richer information than other techniques; and may also help to reduce differences in power, class and knowledge between researcher and researched. Finally, we argue that this method has unique potential to empower participants' involvement in activities related to local planning for sustainable community development and natural resource management efforts.Keywords: photo-elicitation; public participation; sustainability; community IntroductionNo matter how familiar the object or situation may be, a photograph is a restatement of reality; it presents life around us in new, objective, and arresting dimensions, and can stimulate the informant to discuss the world about him as if observing it for the first time. (Collier 1957, p. 859) In an era in which consumption of imagery, "gaze" and metaphors are central to individuals' construction and comprehension of themselves (Urry 1990), of nature (Sack 1997, Macnaghten and Urry 1998), of rurality (Urry 1990, Crouch 2006, and of social life (Rose 2001), it is paradoxical that photo-elicitation is so seldom used. If people understand their world more and more through images, using graphical representations as stimuli for reflection would seem to be a logical development in social science research and participatory planning.Our particular focus is on better understanding the interplay between people and their natural and built environments, which is central to many issues facing communities impacted by tourism, resorts, summer communities, recreation and retirement migrants. Amenity-led development relies on natural beauty and resources to produce what it sells, but the production of amenities may threaten those same resources (Urry 1995, Goe et al. . Simultaneity also characterises social life; migrants often choose to live in amenity communities to enjoy the quality of life, which can lead to population growth and economic diversification (Krannich and Petrzelka 2003). Increased seasonality and extra-local investment, however, may reduce the year-round availability of goods and services and undermine local influence over the shape of the community (Luloff and Bridger 2003).In this context, research methods must capture the visual, so that perceptions of amenities, of changes, of people and their various and conflicting roles can be explored. Power is central ...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Visualising community: using participant-driven photo-elicitation for research and application

2010

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“…El acercamiento al campo se realiza a través de la cámara fotográfica, explí-citamente utilizada por los participantes para realizar unas imágenes en torno a los temas que consideraron más importantes o significativos (Luttrell, 2010;Packard, 2008), que fueron definiéndose durante el proceso en los talleres, bajo la guía y orientación del investigador. Una observación participante en la interacción entre el observador y los informantes, donde se recogen datos de modo sistemático y no intrusivo (Taylor y Bogdan, 1998).…”

Section: Métodounclassified

“…Diseñamos y aplicamos este método para establecer unas relaciones más equilibradas, brindando el poder de la investigación a los alumnos, los adolescentes, con la intención de establecer una situación más ética y generar nuevas formas de conocimiento que quizá no puedan desarrollarse de otra manera. Unas prácticas de investigación para trabajar con en lugar de trabajar en, sobre o para los intervinientes (Luttrell, 2010;Packard, 2008).…”

Section: Recogida De Datos Y Análisisunclassified

Traces identity and imaginary teens

Rabadán

2016

Anàlisi

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ResumenMediante esta investigación se reconoce, desde el punto de vista metodológico, la utilización de la fotografía participativa como proceso de comunicación en un centro de enseñanza secundaria obligatoria, con el objetivo de recabar información relevante generada durante los procesos dialógicos y de comunicación, facilitando así la reflexión de los participantes sobre la relación con su entorno, sobre sí mismos y sobre los otros, para promover la configuración de su identidad en un contexto de educación formal.Por ello, para llevar a cabo una metodología participativa en la investigación social con medios audiovisuales, el proceso de tomar fotografías y compartirlas se convierte, para los adolescentes, en una manera de decir algo, de comunicar un punto de vista que, de otra manera, quizá quedaría silenciado, pues puede recogerse información significativa de los alumnos para contribuir a las políticas y acciones desarrolladas en el contexto educativo del centro.Palabras clave: fotografía participativa, identidad, comunicación, participación, investigación acción participativa, adolescentes. Abstract. Traces identity and imaginary teensThrough this research, from the methodological point of view the use of participatory photography as a communication process in the secondary education center is recognized, in order to collect relevant information generated during the dialogic processes and communication, facilitating reflection by participants on the relationship with their environment, about themselves and about others, promoting the configuration of one's identity in a context of formal education.Therefore, to carry out a participatory methodology in social research with audiovisual media, for adolescents the process of taking pictures and sharing them becomes a way of saying something, of communicating a point of view that would otherwise perhaps be muted, since 85

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“…For example, Packard (2008) explains the difference in the findings between his photovoice study with homeless people and those documented by Wang et al (2000) in terms of the degree of instruction and training given to participants. Comparing his work to the Wang et al study (2000), Packard (2008, p.75) …”

Section: Photovoice: Epistemological Tensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Others (Packard 2008, Pauwels 2010, Prins 2010 have called into question the assumed empowering and democratising effects of such instruction, suggesting instead that instruction skews the data toward the researcher's agenda. For example, Packard (2008) explains the difference in the findings between his photovoice study with homeless people and those documented by Wang et al (2000) in terms of the degree of instruction and training given to participants.…”

Section: Photovoice: Epistemological Tensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rural youth and emotional geographies: how photovoice and words-alone methods tell different stories of place

Power

Norman

Dupré

2014

Journal of Youth Studies

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In this paper we discuss how photovoice and words-alone methods used in a study with young people living in communities on the west coast of Newfoundland, Canada helped tell different stories of rurality. Instead of the dominant narrative of rural decline in the focus groups and interviews with youth, through photovoice young people talked more positively about their home places. Drawing on recent work on emotional geographies and combining realist and constructionist frameworks, we argue that the photographs represent culturally accepted and appropriate ways of thinking, talking and feeling about place, and that these shared affective practices provide a sense of community and continuity in a context of uncertainty in fisheries communities. It is our contention that such shared practices offer a strategy to deal with, indeed to heal, the damaging impact of the near extinction of fisheries stocks by maintaining a stable sense of self and place.

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‘I'm gonna show you what it's really like out here’: the power and limitation of participatory visual methods

Abstract: To cite this article: Josh Packard (2008) 'I'm gonna show you what it's really like out here': the power and limitation of participatory visual methods, Visual Studies, 23:1, 63-77,

Cited by 228 publications

References 28 publications

Visualising community: using participant-driven photo-elicitation for research and application

Visualising community: using participant-driven photo-elicitation for research and application

Traces identity and imaginary teens

Rural youth and emotional geographies: how photovoice and words-alone methods tell different stories of place

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