Participatory Visual Methodologies in Global Public Health

Participatory Visual Methodologies in Global Public Health focuses on the use of participatory visual methodologies such as photovoice, participatory video (including cellphilming or the use of cell phones to make videos), drawing and mapping in public health research. These approaches are modes of inquiry that can engage participants and communities, eliciting evidence about their own health and well-being, as well as modes of representation and modes of production in the co-creation of knowledge, and modes of dissemination in relation to knowledge translation and mobilization. Thus, the production by a group of girls or young women of a set of photos or videos from their own visual perspective can offer new evidence on how, for example, they see sexual violence. Unlike other data such as those collected through surveys or even conventional interviews, the images they have produced not only inform the empirical evidence, but also do not need to remain in a laboratory or the office of a researcher. They can, through exhibitions and screenings, reach various audiences: school or health personnel, parents and community members, and perhaps also policy-makers. This collection offers a critical overview for students, practitioners, researchers and policy-makers working in or concerned with the use of participatory methodologies in public health around the globe. This book was originally published as a special issue of Global Public Health.

Claudia Mitchell is a James McGill Professor in the Faculty of Education and Director of the Institute for Human Development and Well-being at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Her research cuts across visual and other participatory methodologies in relation to youth, gender and sexuality, girls’ education, teacher identity and critical areas of international development linked to gender and HIV and AIDS.

Marni Sommer is an Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA. She is also the Executive Editor of the Global Public Health journal. Her research includes the use of participatory methodologies to explore how gender, sexuality, and the transition through puberty intersect with education among young people in low-income countries.