Researching the visual. Images, objects, contexts and interactions in social and cultural inquiry.

Ein gutes und sauberes Exemplar. - Researching the Visual provides a comprehensive introduction to the entire field of 'visual research', exploring a range of approaches to visual inquiry that have previously been considered in isolation. The contributions of traditions as diverse as semiotics, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism and material culture studies are reviewed and their potential application for the visual researcher are demonstrated. The first part of the book deals with the more traditional themes in visual research: these centre on the use of photographic images in ethnographic inquiry and the cultural interpretation of texts such as advertisements. The authors then argue that visual inquiry should also embrace the analysis of everyday objects, places and forms of social interaction. Accessibly presented, yet methodologically rigorous and theoretically grounded, the relevance of leading theorists such as Foucault, Bordieu, Goffman and Hall is also discussed. Numerous student exercises and projects (over 60 in total) are included, which demonstrate that 'low-tech, low-budget' visual research can provide methodologically sophisticated ways of testing and developing cultural theory. Generously illustrated with images and diagrams, the text serves to bring the various theoretical points into focus. ISBN 9780761958468