Abstract
In this chapter, we present an exploration of a digital visual method we have called “vignethnography”, which combines “vignette” and “ethnography” to produce a brief but detailed visual story that provides insights into the everyday lives of participants by focussing on a single aspect. By collaboratively generating research knowledge, vignethnography effectively draws on the contemporary digital moment, where due to the ease of producing and circulating images afforded by smartphones, populations of all ages increasingly share routines and events with relatives and friends, visually. We argue that vignethnography is effective for researching with older adults because of its capacity to gauge insights into their digital practices as well as narratives of place. We position vignethnography as an emergent methodology that contributes to experimentation and innovative methods in the social sciences and research in visual techniques afforded by digital devices.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abad, L. (2014). Media literacy for older people facing the digital divide: The e-inclusion programmes design/Diseño de programas de e-inclusión para alfabetización mediática de personas mayores. Comunicar, 21(42), 173.
Axtell, B., & Munteanu, C. (2016, July). Speech-enabled intelligent mobile interfaces to support older adults’ storytelling around digital family pictures. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 401–406). Springer International Publishing
Back, L., & Puwar, N. (Eds.). (2012). Live methods. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Bates, C. (2014a). Intimate encounters making video diaries about embodied everyday life. In Bates, C. (Ed.), Video methods: Social science research in motion (Vol. 10). London: Routledge.
Bates, C. (2014b). Video methods: Social science research in motion. London: Routledge.
Berry, M. (2017). Creating with mobile media. Berlin: Springer.
Dwyer, R. (2009). Agency and exchange: An ethnography of a heroin marketplace (unpublished Doctoral dissertation). Western Australia: Curtin University.
Friemel, T. N. (2016). The digital divide has grown old: Determinants of a digital divide among seniors. New Media & Society, 18(2), 313–331.
Horst, H. A. (2006). The blessings and burdens of communication: Cell phones in Jamaican transnational social fields. Global Networks, 6(2), 143–159.
Gómez Cruz, E., & Lehmuskallio, A. (Eds.). (2016). Digital photography and everyday life empirical studies on material visual practices. London: Routledge.
Gómez Cruz, E., & Sanin, J. (2017). Analogue renaissance: Remediation of the photographic field. Paper presented at the ANZCA Conference.
Gómez Cruz, E., Sumartojo, S., & Pink, S. (Eds.). (2017). Refiguring techniques in visual digital research. London: Palgrave.
Guillemin, M., & Drew, S. (2010). Questions of process in participant-generated visual methodologies. Visual Studies, 25(2), 175–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586x.2010.502676.
Hage, G. (1997). At home in the entrails of the west: Multiculturalism, ethnic food and migrant home-building (pp. 99–153). Home/world: Space, Community and Marginality in Sydney’s West.
Heng, T. (2016). Visual methods in the field: Photography for the social sciences. London: Taylor & Francis.
Kubitschko, S., & Kaun, A. (2016). Innovative methods in media and communication research. Berlin: Springer.
Law, J. (2004). After method: Mess in social science research. London: Routledge.
Lury, C., & Wakeford, N. (2012). Inventive methods: The happening of the social. London: Routledge.
Malefyt, T. D. W. (2009). Understanding the rise of consumer ethnography: Branding technomethodologies in the new economy. American Anthropologist, 111(2), 201–210.
Mannay, D. (2016). Visual, narrative and creative research methods: Application, reflection and ethics. London: Routledge.
Miller, D., Costa, E., Haynes, N., McDonald, T., Nicolescu, R., Sinanan, J., et al. (2016). How the world changed social media. London: UCL Press.
Miller, D., & Sinanan, J. (2014). Webcam. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Oke, N., Sonn, C., & McConville, C. (2016). Making a place in Footscray: Everyday multiculturalism, ethnic hubs and segmented geography. Identities, 1–19
Plush, T. (2012). Fostering Social Change through Participatory Video: A conceptual framework. In Mitchell, C., & de Lange, N. (Eds.), Handbook of participatory video. Lanham, New York, Toronto, Plymouth: AltaMira Press.
Prendergast, D., & Garattini, C. (2015). Aging and the digital life course. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Sayago, S., Sloan, D., & Blat, J. (2011). Everyday use of computer-mediated communication tools and its evolution over time: An ethnographical study with older people. Interacting with Computers, 23(5), 543–554.
Schreiber, M. (2016). Amplification and heterogeneity. Seniors and digital photographic practices. In Cruz, E. G. & Lehmuskallio, A. (Eds.), Digital photography practices and everyday life. Empirical studies in material visual practices. London: Routledge.
Schreiber, M. (2015). ‘“The smartphone is my constant companion”. Digital photographic practices and the elderly’. In Kramp, L., Carpentier, N., Hepp, A., Tomanić Trivundža, I., Nieminen, H., Kunelius, R., Olsson, T., Sundin, E., & Kilborn, R. (Eds.), Journalism, representation and the public sphere. Bremen: edition lumière.
Sumartojo, S., & Pink, S. (2017). Empathetic visuality: GoPros and the video trace. In Gómez Cruz, E., Sumartojo, S., & Pink, S. (Eds.), Refiguring techniques in visual digital research (pp. 39–50). Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.
Vannini, P. (2014). Video methods beyond representation: Experimenting with multimodal, sensuous, affective intensities in the 21st century. In Charlotte Bates (Ed.), Video methods social science research in motion. London: Routledge.
Viviani, N. (1996). The Indochinese in Australia 1975-1995: From burnt boats to barbecues. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Yuan, S., Hussain, S. A., Hales, K. D., & Cotten, S. R. (2016). What do they like? Communication preferences and patterns of older adults in the United States: The role of technology. Educational Gerontology, 42, 163–174.
Warr, D., Guillemin, M., Cox, S., & Waycott, J. (2016). Ethics and visual research methods: Theory, methodology, and practice. Berlin: Springer.
Watt, S., & Wakefield, C. (2017). Teaching visual methods in the social sciences. London: Taylor & Francis.
White, S. A. (Ed.). (2003). Participatory video: Images that transform and empower. Chicago: Sage.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge RMIT University’s Enabling Capabilities Platforms (ECP) initiatives for funding Digital Footscray.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gómez Cruz, E., Noske-Turner, J., Sinanan, J. (2019). Vignethnographies: A Method for Fast, Focused and Visual Exploration. In: Neves, B., Vetere, F. (eds) Ageing and Digital Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3693-5_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3693-5_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-3692-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-3693-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)