Visual Methods of Inquiry: Images as Research

Visual Methods of Inquiry: Images as Research presents qualitative researchers in the social sciences with the benefits, applications, and forms of visual research methods. It includes a wide variety of images to illustrate the many uses of visual methods for social research.

Contemporary visual culture theory and practice offers wide-ranging opportunities for methodological advancement in the social sciences. This book covers the basics of image use in visual research methods and explores how these methods can be used effectively in social science research by surveying the conditions of visual forms, materials, and concepts, and the ways these represent and influence social conditions, phenomena, beliefs, and actions. It examines the roles and processes of interpretation in visual research and discusses ethical considerations that arise when using visual research methods.

Students of social science and the visual arts will find this book useful in expanding and improving their methods of inquiry. Artists and researchers already familiar with visual methods will find that this book clarifies the ways the visual works in various research contexts and provides helpful language to describe and explain those methods.

Kerry Freedman is a professor and coordinator of Doctoral Programs in Art and Design Education at Northern Illinois University, USA. She is the author and editor of several books and many articles, and has won numerous awards for her work.

Richard Siegesmund is a professor of art and design education at Northern Illinois University, USA. He is the co-author (with Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor) of Arts-Based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice, second edition (Routledge, 2018).