5 Using photography to research the ‘other’: the validity of photography for social work research – a visual case study from China
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Peter Szto
Abstract
This chapter will examine the role of arts-based approaches for social work research. Art is understood as the human impulse to express ideas, emotions, and experience through various forms such as painting, music, architecture, or poetry. The art seeks to reflect and convey cultural sensibilities, a spiritual zeitgeist, and artistic meaning. Art is important because the dominant discourse in social work research has privileged positivist-framed data to explain human experiences. Seeking to understand why social work education has largely ignored art as a tool of research that motivates his chapter. The art form of photography, in particular, is highlighted as a reliable and valid tool of social work research. Its advantages and disadvantages are examined based on the premise that seeing is critical to what one is trying to ameliorate. A case study based on in vivo field research in China is discussed to demonstrate the value of photographic inquiry. Specifically, China’s floating population – the mass internal migration of Chinese labourers from rural to urban areas – is studied as an unprecedented socio-cultural phenomenon in need of a social work response. A visual study is appropriate to clearly see the floating population for its mitigation.
Abstract
This chapter will examine the role of arts-based approaches for social work research. Art is understood as the human impulse to express ideas, emotions, and experience through various forms such as painting, music, architecture, or poetry. The art seeks to reflect and convey cultural sensibilities, a spiritual zeitgeist, and artistic meaning. Art is important because the dominant discourse in social work research has privileged positivist-framed data to explain human experiences. Seeking to understand why social work education has largely ignored art as a tool of research that motivates his chapter. The art form of photography, in particular, is highlighted as a reliable and valid tool of social work research. Its advantages and disadvantages are examined based on the premise that seeing is critical to what one is trying to ameliorate. A case study based on in vivo field research in China is discussed to demonstrate the value of photographic inquiry. Specifically, China’s floating population – the mass internal migration of Chinese labourers from rural to urban areas – is studied as an unprecedented socio-cultural phenomenon in need of a social work response. A visual study is appropriate to clearly see the floating population for its mitigation.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents ix
- List of figures and tables xi
- Notes on contributors xiii
- Introduction 1
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Arts-based research as a method to understand and give voice to marginalised groups
- Using arts-based methods to explore existential issues around ageing 13
- Arts- and music-based activities and nondeliberative participatory research methods: building connection and community 24
- Arts-based methods to co-create knowledge and reconstruct power relations with marginalised women in and through research 33
- Autoethnographic playwriting and performance for self-healing and advocacy 45
- Using photography to research the ‘other’: the validity of photography for social work research – a visual case study from China 55
- Mixed arts-based methods as a platform for expressing lived experience 68
- Arts-based methods to support and reveal new mothers’ and families’ experiences: a positive parenting and feminist approach 77
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Using arts-based research to listen to, and give voice to, children in social work
- “I don’t like the cameras in the house. They’re looking at us all the time”: the contribution of Photovoice to children in a post-hospitalisation programme 89
- Arts-based research work with migrant children 102
- Using creative art research approaches to assess arts-based interventions with children in post-disaster contexts 117
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Arts-based research as a way for researchers and community members to understand communities
- Murals and photography in community engagement and assessment 129
- Forum theatre as participatory action research with community workers 139
- A/r/tography, rhizomatic storytelling, and ripple effects mapping: a combined arts-based and community mapping methodology to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 expressive arts support groups for frontliners in the Philippines 148
- Art and artefact: displaying social work through objects 162
- Building research capacity: scaffolding the process through arts-based pedagogy 170
- Art as a way of improving participatory action research: an experience with youngsters with an intellectual disability and their families 181
- Epilogue 198
- Index 200
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents ix
- List of figures and tables xi
- Notes on contributors xiii
- Introduction 1
-
Arts-based research as a method to understand and give voice to marginalised groups
- Using arts-based methods to explore existential issues around ageing 13
- Arts- and music-based activities and nondeliberative participatory research methods: building connection and community 24
- Arts-based methods to co-create knowledge and reconstruct power relations with marginalised women in and through research 33
- Autoethnographic playwriting and performance for self-healing and advocacy 45
- Using photography to research the ‘other’: the validity of photography for social work research – a visual case study from China 55
- Mixed arts-based methods as a platform for expressing lived experience 68
- Arts-based methods to support and reveal new mothers’ and families’ experiences: a positive parenting and feminist approach 77
-
Using arts-based research to listen to, and give voice to, children in social work
- “I don’t like the cameras in the house. They’re looking at us all the time”: the contribution of Photovoice to children in a post-hospitalisation programme 89
- Arts-based research work with migrant children 102
- Using creative art research approaches to assess arts-based interventions with children in post-disaster contexts 117
-
Arts-based research as a way for researchers and community members to understand communities
- Murals and photography in community engagement and assessment 129
- Forum theatre as participatory action research with community workers 139
- A/r/tography, rhizomatic storytelling, and ripple effects mapping: a combined arts-based and community mapping methodology to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 expressive arts support groups for frontliners in the Philippines 148
- Art and artefact: displaying social work through objects 162
- Building research capacity: scaffolding the process through arts-based pedagogy 170
- Art as a way of improving participatory action research: an experience with youngsters with an intellectual disability and their families 181
- Epilogue 198
- Index 200
