Abstract
This chapter explores the ways in which participatory visual methodologies such as PhotoVoice and participatory video can deepen an understanding of risk. At the same time it seeks to implicate researchers to take action or to do something about the issues represented. We might call this ‘the risk of risk’ and the idea that when as researchers we engage with participatory visual research, we need to be prepared to deal with the impact of the images—on ourselves and others. The chapter grapples with issues of method and interpretation in relation to visual ethnography in critical risk studies, but in particular the question: How can the work in visual culture or visual studies contribute to and expand the significance of researcher reflexivity in visual ethnography?
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Notes
- 1.
Mitchell (2015b) highlights a section of this case study but does not take up issues of risk.
- 2.
These questions were developed as part of the Networks for Change and Well-being: Girl-led ‘from the ground up’ policy making to address sexual violence in Canada and South Africa project.
- 3.
See the image of Rare Historical Photos 2013. ‘The vulture and the girl’. Available at http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/vulture-little-girl/. Accessed 2 May 2018.
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Acknowledgements
This work for this chapter was supported through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) grant (award number 895-2013-3007) and an International Development Research Centre (IDRC) grant (award number 107777-001).
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Mitchell, C. (2019). Seeing Risk and Risking Seeing: Studying Audiences in Participatory Visual Research. In: Olofsson, A., Zinn, J.O. (eds) Researching Risk and Uncertainty. Critical Studies in Risk and Uncertainty. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95852-1_2
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