Visual rationalities: Towards a sociology of images

Abstract

Images are ubiquitous in (post)modern societies. Nevertheless, there is a lack of conceptual frameworks which relate sociological theory to a thinking about ‘the visual.’ Sociological theory has widely neglected to reflect on images and ‘the visual’ and to explore the role of images in constituting and reproducing ‘the social’. This article argues for a sociology of images. It aims to develop a conceptual tool to analyse images from a practice perspective. Following a theory of practice approach and referring to works in the sociology of science, it suggests the concept of ‘visual logic’ to analyse images sociologically. The article claims that social practice is intertwined with a visual logic. To investigate images from a sociological perspective, the article argues, implies to analyse the visual logic that shapes, and is constituted by, social practices. Taking medical images as an example and drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the article shows how this concept serves as an analytical tool to explore the social role of images. Physicians and medical researchers use images both because of their visual and non-visual dimensions. The article thus concludes by pointing to a multitude of visual logics – or, in their empirical form, ‘visual rationalities’ – that become evident when observing image practices ethnographically.