Sociology of the Visual Sphere

Visual Sphere as an object of sociological enquiry must be understood in terms of its complex interconnections with social relations, within which visual materials and visual knowledge are produced, circulated and consumed. This book aims to build a bridge between scholars in practice-based visual research, visual methodologists and researchers dealing with conceptual issues in visual sociology. It discusses how the visual is played out in different methodologies and in the possibilities of their integration: spatial semiotics, visual sensoring, participant observation, collaborative research, walking and "site-seeing," working with Photo Maps using Mental Elicitation. The critical examination offered in this book also explores how the visual sphere is intertwined with the political sphere and power relations, focusing on the study of urban spaces and conflict spaces using examples from Mexico to the U.K, from Israel to Iraq, from Sri Lanka to Italy, and from one global city to another. Questions addressed by this text include: How is the visual relationship of the urban dwellers to the urban landscape being established? How are images of conflict being disseminated, what are the politics of their dissemination, and what limits and potential do they carry? What are the paradoxes of the phenomenon of iconoclasm? How can we visually access the phenomenon of urbanization? What are the major challenges for visual researchers using photo-elicitation interviews, focus groups or computer-based methods?