Session: Thursday 10th July PM (14.15 - 15.30)

Title: KEY LECTURE Douglas Harper: Visual Methods: Sociology and Beyond (Chair: Professor Graham Crow)

Convenor:

Professor Douglas Harper (Duquesne University)

Abstract Details

The multi-disciplinary relevance of visual methods emerges in recent sociological research and theorising. Visual methods draw on visual ethnography as well as 'visual fact finding' that facilitates study of previously hidden regions of social life. Additionally, following a phenomenological direction, researchers adapt photographic methods originating in the fine arts to the study of identity and other subjectivities. Finally, the reflexive turn in sociology leads to photo elicitation and photo voice. Current visual researchers embrace digitally based visualisation, both interactive and otherwise. Visual methods have led to new ways of knowing, and new ways of presenting what is known.

Douglas Harper, Professor of Sociology at Duquesne University; has written seven books (three co-authored) and edited or co-edited four books. His books are primarily visual ethnographies, using innovative methods that integrate photographic imagery with field studies, elicitation interviews, historical reconstruction and quantitative analysis of historical memory. His recent book, Visual Sociology (Routledge, 2012) is the first comprehensive overview of the field. His books and articles have been published in Italian, French, German, Russian and Polish, and is forthcoming in Korean. He has twice been a visiting professor of sociology at the University of Bologna, the setting of his co-authored book (with Patrizia Faccioli), The Italian Way: Food and Social Life, and his current research, a twenty-six year study of public life in an Italian piazza, will be completed this summer. Harper is the founding editor of Visual Studies, a position he held for thirteen years, and he is now President of the International Visual Sociology Association.

The level of the session is: Accessible

Presentation details

Presentation 1

Start time: 14:15

Presentation title:KEY LECTURE Visual Methods: Sociology and Beyond

Author: Professor Douglas Harper (Duquesne University)