8. Research interests
•identity, representations, power,
agency
•mobilities
•work: productive, reproductive
•determinants of health
•structural and direct violence
•inequalities and inequities
•social justice and social change
•research translation
Ethics
•University Research Ethics Committees
(RECs)
•consent, confidentiality, anonymity,
archiving, ownership
Knowledge
production and
methodology
•power, reflexivity
•involvement, participation,
collaboration, partnerships
•process and outputs
•endpoints and onward prompts
•advocacy and awarenes
10. What is it about “the visual” that is allowing us / forcing us
to have these discussions?
– Are we reinforcing the idea / suggesting that there is
something “special” about “the visual”?
– What is “special” about “the visual”? Anything?
Why are these discussions not taking place in “other”
spaces?
– What should we do to be changing this?
– Within and outside “the academy”
The visual makes “it”* visible.
* I don’t know what “it” is
11. Research methods?
[what is appropriate v’s popular]
Partnerships; collaboration
Participatory?
(re)presentation?
What constitutes knowledge?
– Whose knowledge?
– How is knowledge
constructed?
ethics
methods
knowledge
production
power
politics of
knowledge
time
funding
precarity
What is data? [process? output?
artefact? engagement?]
• Who owns data?
• Does data have an impact?
Dissemination and sharing
• What is research translation?
• What should be communicated?
• How to communicate?
• Advocacy?
Who benefits?
involvement
12. Methodological approaches - tools
•Ethnography
•Involved methods
•Photography and film
•Journals
•Body mapping
•Creative writing
•Partnerships
•Social media
•Newsletter
•Publications
•Presentations
•Exhibitions
13. Ethics
• Who owns the “data”?
• Who can appear in the narratives/photographs/visual material?
• Can we visually document “sensitive” issues?
• Do researchers have an obligation to report illegal or abusive
activities?
• Is conducting research of this nature safe, and for who?
• What are the issues surrounding confidentiality and anonymity?
16. • Visual methodologies are valuable research and advocacy tools.
• Develop teaching methodologies for civil society, urban planners
and health researchers, programmers and policy makers.
• Participatory: enabling communities to engage in urban planning
processes (for example)
• Provide essential contextual information on environments in which
we work.
• (Health) researchers need to be aware of complexities of (urban)
spaces.
Visualising
17. • Creative methodologies facilitate effective
communication with – and between - research
participants and researchers.
• Transferable and flexible methodology
– Different contexts
– Different communities and groups within the same urban
space
– Participatory urban planning processes
• Comparative studies
Visualising
19. sex work
in South
Africa
qualitative
studies
exploring lived
experience
quantitative,
cross-sectional
survey
participant
observation in
policy
processes
contribution to
policy
development
partnerships with
sex workers and
civil society
movements at
multiple levels
engagement
with media
academic
writing co-writing with
sex work
participants
graduate
student
training
interactions
and work
with IGOs
All aspects of sex work are criminalised in South Africa
Little sex work research has been conducted in South Africa, but literature available
Violence: High levels of violence against male, female and transgender sex workers; violence (and fear of) against cross-border migrants
Health Care: Limited due to fear of HCW discrimination and disclosing profession - only one sex work-specific health clinic in South Africa; challenges experienced by cross-border migrants
HIV risk: FSWs - HIV prevalence between 45% - 69% in 1998
analyse visual methods and their popularity as a topic in itself. This allows us to address questions of epistemology, power, ethics and emancipation, all common but often unarticulated assumptions, in visual methods