Social media is commonplace in today’s society and Instagram is one of the most popular applications used. Instagram.com reports over 200 million users around the world, sharing an average of 60 million photos daily! Although it is typical to share photos of trivial things from breakfast to landscapes, what would happen if photos were used towards the better good?
PhotoVoice is an agency that combines the use of photography and grassroots social action for disadvantaged groups. According to PhotoVoice.com, their work focuses on consulting and developing projects that are specialized to the needs of its community. The methodology involves providing communities with cameras which are used to photo journal real perspectives on social change. PhotoVoice feels that the most effective way to monitor social change is from the within the community.
Social change from within is the perspective of Participatory Action Research. Development programs are constructed by researchers based on information collected from within the affected community and analyze not just social aspects but also political and economic (Brydon-Miller, 1997). Habermas (1971) felt that empirical inquiry does not accurately analyze every facet of knowledge, stating that “practical interests” are only obtained through interpretive means and not simply by observation. That is, qualitative data is at times as necessary as quantitative data. Participatory Action Research methodology embraces this idea by its influence from various scientific and social science fields. Ultimately, the goal is for the research to be applied in the real world.
Currently, PhotoVoice methodology is being used all over the world. Some project examples including providing cameras to Los Angeles high school students to document healthy eating and physical exercise, in order to bring childhood obesity and type II Diabetes awareness to the disadvantaged neighborhoods in which the students live, and Syrian refugees documenting their perspectives living in a host community.
Perhaps you want to gain insight on homelessness within your community. Suggest implementing a PhotoVoice project in order to capture the real issues that the homeless community faces. PhotoVoice can be applied to a multitude of scenarios and anyone can suggest a project, although it is probably most useful to work with researchers, agencies and groups dedicated to social betterment.
References
Brydon-Miller, M. (2010). Participatory Action Research: Psychology and Social Change. Journal of Social Issues, 53(4), 657-666. Retrieved December 1, 2014, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1997.tb02454.x/pdf
PhotoVoice. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2014, from http://www.photovoice.org/
Tags: participatory action research, photovoice, social change