One of the central frontiers in the further development of qualitative method focuses on the involvement of visual methods and material in qualitative research designs. While visual material in the shape of, for instance, vignettes and stimulus material have, for some years, been widely spread and well developed in market surveys, they have in a sense been marginalized in the world of research. This, however, has changed, and in recent years creative input has flourished in qualitative studies.

The workshop focuses upon this methodological development within sociology. Which breakthroughs have taken place since sociologists began, for instance, to supply children with disposable cameras in phenomenological studies of their everyday lives?  Which opportunities are opened up by the use of visual material in a research design, and which challenges does one face in both the process of gathering data and in the analytical process? The workshop wishes to bring together researchers in order to present and discuss the ways in which visual elements have gone into their research.

Therefore, we call for papers which applies visual materials or methods in qualitative analyses, that presents suggestions for analyses of visual data, and discusses the benefits of such research designs.

Abstract TBA

This paper “To (un)veil and Envision” is an argument for the use of visual sociology intending to show how visuals may add texture and nuance to a research project.  The paper suggests that the field of visual sociology is both sovereign and versatile field within the social sciences, which has its own legitimacy as a unique genre that offers the conceptual framework for experimental and social investigation.

Firstly this paper sets out to organise a set of visual methods in a visual toolbox. This visual toolbox is intended to direct, organise and present visually based investigations. It emphasizes a discussion on how working with an art-based methods and aesthetics, which work as metaphor and allegory rather than literal data might be a fruitful path to enter when combined with critical theory. Focusing on a symbolic depiction of the ethnography, the aim has been to anchor images with critical theory, while holding on to an artistic and symbolic representation of the researched.  The focus is not pure registration; instead, testimonies are reflected in images with a poetic, symbolic and aesthetic quality. These images are to be looked upon as messages that are translated into another mode in order to confirm an understanding.

Secondly, the testing ground for this visual toolbox is a case study of Muslim identity construction through dress. The paper seeks to shed light on how life is like for young Muslim girls living in global cities in late modernity. How important is fashion in the creation and maintenance of identity? How are changing patterns of migration, along with shifting gender roles and expectations, made visible in their use of clothing? How does these girls experience and shape their world through the way they dress? What does the clothes - the girls wear and present themselves in - say about who they are or who we think they are? Why are ethnic Danish girls embracing Islamic dress and how does it differ from the way ethnic Arab girls use Islamic clothing? Fashion and clothing is to be viewed as an important social sphere of identity construction, and this dissertation seeks to highlight how fashion-practices provide a unique avenue for metaphoric self-expression and re-negotiation of the discursive debates around Islamic dress.