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Methodological Imaginations pp 75–94Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Every Picture ‘Tells a Story’: Uses of the Visual in Sociological Research

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Part of the book series: Explorations in Sociology ((EIS))

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed a revival of interest in sociology’s broad heritage of research methodologies and in the use of techniques and data sources which have, for too long, been on the margins of research practice in the discipline. The cause of the life history method was taken up by Ken Plummer (1983) in the early 1980s, and we are now witnessing the growth of a range of auto/biographical approaches. It now seems timely to consider a neglected history within the social sciences of using visual methods and data, building on important recent texts (notably, Fyfe and Law 1988; Ball and Smith 1992). It is my contention that the value of visual imagery and visual methods to the sociological enterprise is such as to warrant a more central location in research training and research practice. In doing so we will inevitably draw on, and benefit from, an increasing multidisciplinarity in research methodologies available for our use.

Visual social science isn‘t new… but it might as well be (Becker 1974: 7)

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Authors
  1. Barbara Harrison
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Sociology, South Bank University, London, UK

    E. Stina Lyon

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Essex, Colchester, UK

    Joan Busfield

Copyright information

© 1996 E. Stina Lyon and Joan Busfield

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Cite this chapter

Harrison, B. (1996). Every Picture ‘Tells a Story’: Uses of the Visual in Sociological Research. In: Lyon, E.S., Busfield, J. (eds) Methodological Imaginations. Explorations in Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24547-5_5

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