Visual Challenges to the Social Sciences

This chapter draws on pre-published selected works from Visual Studies , formerly Visual Sociology , which feature in this section of the book, and brings some of their key points into a dialogue with more contemporary writings in visual methodologies, visual sociology, image-based studies, and creative methods. It explores how responses to visual challenges have developed in the social sciences and the ways in which these have generated accomplishments but also raised new questions and complexities. The chapter documents how visual methods have become more accepted and respected as a valid form of social inquiry, with a growing recognition of the value of found images, the popularity of creative forms of data generation and its participatory potential, and the opportunities to extend visual forms of research dissemination enabled by digital technologies and the impact agenda. However, at the same time, it also engages with important questions around decolonization, the ethical tensions between revealing and concealing participants’ identities, and the issue of time immemorial.