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The Politics of Visibility, Voice and Anonymity: Ethically Disseminating Visual Research Findings Without the Pictures

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Ethics and Visual Research Methods

Abstract

The visual offers a range of possibilities for social research but it also brings particular challenges, and ethical guidelines do not always provide sufficient reference to the dissemination of images. Participants may want some level of anonymity, and some topics may be particularly sensitive; in such cases, being visible and recognisable may not be practical, possible or ethical, both for participants and the non-consenting others they present in their accounts. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the potentialities and challenges associated with visual research dissemination, and considers how we can creatively and ethically communicate our findings without using pictures.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the participants who made this chapter possible, and also Professor John Fitz, Professor Emma Renold and Professor Bella Dicks for supervising my research project. I would also like to thank the editors for their encouragement and invaluable comments on earlier drafts of this chapter. The doctoral research project from which this paper is drawn from was titled ‘Mothers and Daughters on the Margins: Gender, Generation and Education’ and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (PTA031200600088).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK

    Dawn Mannay

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  1. Dawn Mannay
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia

    Deborah Warr

  2. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Marilys Guillemin

  3. Melbourne, Australia

    Susan Cox

  4. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Jenny Waycott

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Mannay, D. (2016). The Politics of Visibility, Voice and Anonymity: Ethically Disseminating Visual Research Findings Without the Pictures. In: Warr, D., Guillemin, M., Cox, S., Waycott, J. (eds) Ethics and Visual Research Methods. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54305-9_17

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