Visual Research in Community Psychology

Relational ethics blurs the line between methodology and methods.
It uses phronetic knowledge (practical experience).
Psychologists collaborate with participants to address issues.
It prioritizes transformative praxis, where research leads to actionable change.
Relational ethics requires researchers to act with empathy, acknowledge relationships, and take responsibility for their actions (Ellis, 2007, p. 3).

L1: Making the invisible visible.
- What are visual materials?
- What is considered 'data' in visual qualitative research?
- What are the methods of data collection?
- What should be considered when navigating community relationships?
L2: Democratizing the method.
- How can research methods be democratized, and why is it important?
- How is the visual conceptualized?
- What does accountability in research look like (e.g., relational ethics)?
L3 & L4: Bringing order to chaos.
- What are we 'eliciting' through imagery?
- How can images be useful for formulating responses?
- How to bring coherency to data and academic rigor.

What am I wanting to find out?
Who, what, where, when & why?
How does the visual material (photos, maps…) fit with a broader methodological mix (observations, notes, interviews, discussions, patient records etc.)?
Status of images & talk?
Audiences?
Uses?

Visual data is produced by the researcher as part of their project.
Arts-based projects (Mau Moko book).
Questions to consider:
- What historical forces shaped the artist’s work, and how do they and their creative output artistic, political, and social events?
Objects created by different cultures that convey meaning through visual representations.
Relevant theories: Feminist, Marxist, critical race theory, Indigenous, Queer, and postcolonial theories.

Photographs, film, video, drawings, poetry, or objects are introduced as part of an interview.
The aim is to explore the meaning of the images or objects with research participants.
Useful as ‘icebreakers’ and breaks down the power differential.
People are generous with their time and knowledge, and the researcher becomes someone who listens.
Images/objects act as a neutral or third party.

Visual stimuli can be researcher-created, researcher-generated, or researcher-found (e.g., from comics or magazines).
Use respondents' own cultural artifacts (e.g., favorite clothes, cell phones, icons, books, jewelry, symbols or spaces they frequent).
People’s own artwork e.g., drawings, doodles, sketches, posters, photographs, or videos they have created for the research ~ maybe also record their creation.
Intellectual property and ethics should be considered.

The “go-along” qualitative interview methodology is useful for studying the health issues of a community within a particular local area or neighborhood (understanding how place matters for health).
‘Streeties’ went out to picture their worlds.
Urban commentators asked to re-transit, re-consider & convey their street lives.
Experiential knowledge (phronesis).
The task was not to simply code, analyze & interpret photos, but to theorize how homeless people appropriate mundane spaces (under bridges, alleyways, public toilets) & add new meanings.
Trying to see homelessness more from people’s own perspectives and use this information to inform responses.
Imaginative journeys take us out beyond street life.

Adopting a wide range of tools which are modelled on different questions and individually suited to participants’ own preferences:

The macro is reproduced in the micro (Or how the social is reproduced through the personal)
LARGE SYSTEMS
- Nations
- Legal Systems
- Economies
MEDIUM SYSTEMS
- Organizations
- Communities
- Political Parties
- Ethnic Groups
SMALL SYSTEMS
- Families
- Relationships
- Individuals

This combination of methods is particularly suited where respondents are spatially mobile, and where the research requires a narrative that retains a strong sense of context.
Provide insights into the practices through which he constructs himself as a socio-geographically located and mobile human being across time and space (cf., Hodgetts et al., 2006).
We openly discussed our analysis with him.

Studying social interactions.
Understanding organizational culture.
Exploring mental health.
Examining cultural practices.
Researcher or participant-created visual data can be a powerful tool that can be used to explore, document, and analyze a wide range of phenomena in a qualitative research setting.