Book Review: Aline Gubrium, Krista Harper and Marty Otañez (eds), Participatory Visual and Digital Research in Action

Abstract

This first page of this edited collection states that we have moved to ‘a new participatory turn’ (p. 15) and I think to myself, that’s interesting as it’s not really ‘new’ anymore; I thought we had moved beyond attractiveness of the visual to a post-popular juncture where researchers and practitioners are discussing the limitations of participatory visual methods (Packard, 2008). However, despite this, perhaps out-of-place, initial claim, the book itself is highly reflexive and does not present an easy marriage between the digital, the visual and the participatory, but instead seriously considers how the ‘imagined ideal of participation and the actual practice on the ground often manifest quite differently from one another’ (p. 21). The book presents a series of chapters that recognise the tensions between giving voice and the ethical concerns that mean voices are kept hidden;the values of creative forms to reach new audiences and break down barriers; and the importance of building a shared vocabulary so that researchers who apply multimodal participatory techniques can work together to refine and improve their craft.