{"id":14831,"date":"2017-10-27T11:29:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T18:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=14831"},"modified":"2017-10-27T11:30:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T18:30:16","slug":"ethnography-our-new-word-of-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/ethnography-our-new-word-of-the-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethnography our new word of the day…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I like to think I know have a vast knowledge about many things.\u00a0 Growing up I would watch the T.V. show Cheers with my father.\u00a0 One of the characters was named Cliff Claven.\u00a0 Cliff was a Postal worker who had a vast knowledge of a great many things, but it was all surface level, he did not really have knowledge to back up his explanations.\u00a0 I felt a little like Cliff in that I thought I could figure out what Visual Ethnography was just by word association. Visual, something to look at, ethnography, ethnic people.\u00a0 So looking at ethnic people right?\u00a0 Not so much, I actually enjoyed learning something that is outside of my knowledge base in Sarah Pink’s book\u00a0Doing Visual Ethnography.<\/em>\u00a0 I was especially interested in chapter 4\u00a0Photography In Ethnographic Research\u00a0<\/em>because I felt it was the meat of the book.<\/p>\n

“Why should researchers in the social sciences focus their attentions on visual methods?\u00a0 There are two compelling reasons for becoming a \u2018visualista\u2019.\u00a0 Firstly, that the visual is recognized as central to the human condition and to expressions of humanity which pre-date language, affecting our emotions, identities, memories and aspirations in a most profound way.\u00a0 We are visual beings in a world which is a visual array of meaning.\u00a0 Secondly, despite this, social sciences have undervalued the visual, or relegated its use to mere subsidiary illustrations to written text.”[1] In his review of Pink’s book Stephen Spencer asks why we should even focus on visual methods.\u00a0 The two reasons are compelling.\u00a0 Humans are nothing if we are not visual as seen in the picture below.\u00a0 We have used drawings and visual representations to color our culture for as long as we have been here.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To deny\u00a0 the use of visual representation is to deny our very existence.\u00a0 The second reason is because of the first.\u00a0 Our recorded representation of what we see should not merely be a side note to what we research.\u00a0 It is not to say the written word is not valuable.\u00a0 It is, and it is the reason we have been able to advance to where we are today.\u00a0 Communication is vital, but to say visual communication is not necessary would be a mistake.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Picture This: A Review of Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media, and Representation in Research by Sarah Pink\u00a0<\/em>Diana Riviera states<\/p>\n

“To Pink (2001), visual ethnography is not simply combining words to produce a desired result. Pairing narrative with photographs and video assists the researcher in documenting and symbolizing the self-representations of the participants. Photography and video also afford the researcher the ability to present a visual sequence of a particular chronology ”<\/p>\n

What better way do we have to focus on our world around us than through media which is so available.\u00a0 I can learn about the culture of Cambodia by reading what someone has written, but aside from actually going, and immersing myself in the culture, I now have the ability to look at the daily life of a village through visual ethnography.<\/p>\n

Pink discusses the value of being a visual ethnographer in getting to see the real life of the subject.\u00a0 This does not always happen just by taking pictures or video.\u00a0 She gives as example from Shanklin in discussing her role as an ethnographer “she learnt, by observing people’s domestic displays of family photography, that photographing children was an appropriate activity”[2], by doing this she learned how to integrate herself in the the local community and could photograph what she had intended.\u00a0 On the opposite end of the spectrum where instead of integrating into the culture to be studied and then taking taking pictures or video, Donna Schwartz “began her research by photographing\u00a0 the physical environment of Waucoma…photographing the buildings to inform the residents of her presence” [3]\u00a0 She was able to use this to introduce herself and create curiosity in the community which helped her find what was needed for the research.<\/p>\n

Pink also discusses the difference between a ‘cultural inventory’ as opposed to visual ethnography.\u00a0 She argues against Collier and Collier who said that by inventorying through photography one could understand the culture of the home but Pink argues that there is no way to understand how the objects were experienced by the culture and what their meanings were.[4]\u00a0 She argues “combining photographic surveys with a subjective collaborative approach brings benefits”.[5] That instead of just a picture they bring a point of view, either of the photographer or the subject or both.\u00a0 In my estimation this is a much deeper aspect to a story, just words can be lacking, just pictures or video can leave one wanting.\u00a0 When both are combined in a visual ethnography they can draw those who see them into the conversation about the culture.<\/p>\n

There is one issue which can plague a visual presentation, when the authenticity of the picture or the video is called into question.\u00a0 In the digital age it is very easy to manipulate any media to show or say that which is not.\u00a0 In his book,\u00a0Image-based Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers<\/em>, John Prosser argues:<\/p>\n

From its beginnings photography has made a claim on science which has allowed it to be considered as evidence. Yet from the beginning this claim has been, in some sense, too strong, the opportunities for manipulation too great, to allow the photographic image to stand, of itself, as evidence of the external world. As the archive of great photographs is combed for traces of inauthenticity and as the possibilities of digital image manipulation sunder any connection between the camera and the things it photographs, the illusion of evidence is ending.[6]<\/p>\n

As one uses visual arts to show and speak on culture the author would do well to leave the manipulation out (unless is is for clarity) and let the images speak for themselves.\u00a0 If it does not match what one expected, so be it.\u00a0 It is better to be truthful in our presentation of the world, especially as Christians, than to be found to be misrepresenting or flat out lying to the audience.\u00a0 To do so brings question into everything one has done or will ever do.<\/p>\n

Sarah Pink’s treatment of the visual opportunities is worth the read.\u00a0 In doing so, one can move into a realm of communication with the world around us and help us to understand one another just a little better.\u00a0 In her review of Pink’s work Laurie Mullen writes,<\/p>\n

Sarah PINK has made a solid contribution to qualitative research in an era of increasing interest and ubiquity of images both traditional and digital. Graduate students will find this textbook helpful in the general philosophies of the qualitative tradition and specifically in the nascent understandings and implementation of visual methods.[7]<\/p>\n

This is a good assessment of the work.\u00a0 Take the time to understand your world and how you may fit into it, and in doing so you may be able to make a case for influencing it for Christ.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]Stephen Spencer\u00a0Visual Research Methods in the Social Sciences: Awakening Visions, (<\/em>Routledge, New York, NY, 2011). 1.<\/p>\n

[2] Sarah Pink,\u00a0Doing Visual Ethnography<\/em>, 3rd edition (Los Angeles: SAGE, 2013). 79.<\/p>\n

[3] Ibid 79.<\/p>\n

[4] Ibid 80.<\/p>\n

[5] Ibid 81.<\/p>\n

[6] John Prosser ed.\u00a0\u00a0Image-based Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers.\u00a0<\/em>(Falmer Press, London, 2003). 60.<\/p>\n

[7] Mullen, Laurie (2001). Review: Sarah Pink (2001). Doing Ethnography: Images, Media and Representation in Research [8 paragraphs].\u00a0Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung \/ Forum: Qualitative Social Research<\/em>,\u00a03<\/em>(1), Art. 9, http:\/\/nbn-resolving.de\/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs020197.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like to think I know have a vast knowledge about many things.\u00a0 Growing up I would watch the T.V. show Cheers with my father.\u00a0 One of the characters was named Cliff Claven.\u00a0 Cliff was a Postal worker who had a vast knowledge of a great many things, but it was all surface level, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[493,740],"class_list":["post-14831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pink-doingvisualethnography","tag-visual-ethnography","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14831"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14859,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14831\/revisions\/14859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}