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Photovoice as Emancipatory Praxis: A Visual Methodology Toward Critical Consciousness and Social Action

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Methodologies in Peace Psychology

Part of the book series: Peace Psychology Book Series ((PPBS,volume 26))

Abstract

Visual methods, eliciting the sensory and aesthetic dimensions of meaning-making, are inherent to participatory enactments of peace psychology. Visual methods recognize and contest the exclusionary influences of language-based modalities, and simultaneously imagine the research and associated development process as a participatory one. They create both conceptual and physical spaces for the marginalized in particular to challenge their exclusion and assert themselves as meaning-makers, knowledge-creators, and activists. This chapter draws attention to Photovoice as an illustrative visual method that has been adopted across diverse settings and social issues. The authors present a multi-country Photovoice project to enunciate how visual methods may be used successfully to support a participatory social justice approach to peacebuilding. The multi-country Photovoice project offered a method enabling youth to assert voice, engage in critical dialogues, raise consciousness about their social realities, and enact activism as part of the process of contributing to peace and safety.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa & Medical Research Council-University of South Africa Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Mohamed Seedat

  2. Medical Research Council-University of South Africa Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit, Cape Town, South Africa

    Shahnaaz Suffla

  3. Department of Psychology, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

    Umesh Bawa

  4. Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Umesh Bawa

Authors
  1. Mohamed Seedat
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  2. Shahnaaz Suffla
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  3. Umesh Bawa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohamed Seedat .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Diane Bretherton

  2. Victoria University, Melbournne, Victoria, Australia

    Siew Fang Law

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Seedat, M., Suffla, S., Bawa, U. (2015). Photovoice as Emancipatory Praxis: A Visual Methodology Toward Critical Consciousness and Social Action. In: Bretherton, D., Law, S. (eds) Methodologies in Peace Psychology. Peace Psychology Book Series, vol 26. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18395-4_16

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