Sjónræn félagsfræði: að sjá og greina samfélagið í gegnum myndavélina
| Autor: | Viðar Halldórsson |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Tímarit um uppeldi og menntun. 29:21-44 |
| ISSN: | 2298-8408 2298-8394 |
| DOI: | 10.24270/tuuom.2020.29.2 |
| Popis: | Teaching sociology has traditionally emphasized reading sociology but not seeing sociology. Students, however, live in a visual world which provides them with a great opportunity to apply “a sociological imagination” to their everyday lives (Mills, 1959). Visual sociology has thus gained increased legitimacy in the social sciences in the last decades. Visual media, such as photographs and movies, have been found to be an effective tool for teaching sociology, as well as for sociological research and analysis, as they provide credible representations of society. One of the strengths of utilizing visual media for sociological analysis is that the researcher can slow the world down, freeze time and study particular moments through visual media content with the intention of raising awareness of a particular time and place. Visual media also provide the researcher with access to multiple socio-historical sites, which he/she usually cannot access through other means. It is argued that through the analysis of visual media the researcher can enhance his/ her understanding of the relationship between the individual and society and develop a sociological imagination. Photographs are often meant to satisfy three basic needs; to capture memories, to show something beautiful and to demonstrate the truth. Visual sociology is mainly concerned with the truth of photographs. Through photographs the viewer can see some aspects of the truth, but not necessarily the whole truth. Photographs are, however, believed to show a more realistic perspective of reality and the everyday lives of people within societies than most other art forms. In this paper I make a case for social science teachers to make use of photo essays as class assignments, where students take their own photographs and analyze them from a sociological perspective, in order to help students learn sociology and to develop a sociological imagination of society and their everyday lives. Photo essays, as introduced in this paper, conform to many of the core aims of the Icelandic national curriculum guide for compulsory and upper secondary schools, such as the emphasis on diverse teaching methods from where students should gain autonomy, accountability and spark their creative spirits, inside and outside the classroom. Thus, in this paper I analyze four of my own photographs through a sociological imagination to illustrate the method of using visual sociology in teaching and societal analysis. The main aims of the paper are: firstly to illustrate sociological theories and concepts through the use of photographs, and in particular photo essays; second, to help the reader develop a sociological imagination of society; third, to draw the reader’s attention to various social issues; and finally to encourage teachers of sociology to utilize visual media in their teaching. The photographs are analyzed through the four themes which Sutherland and Feltey (2013) suggested for a sociological analysis of visual media: institutions, inequality, interaction, and identity, and they represent both the macro and micro levels of society. The first photograph represents “capitalist society” and provides insight into the city structure and city life in downtown Chicago. The photo, named “The Triumph of Capitalism” illustrates the social stratification of society, as a social institution, where the capitalist ideology is represented as victorious. The second photograph, named “False Needs” represents “consumer society” where it shows a corpus of used gift wrappings and waste in the aftermath of a Christmas Eve celebration at an affluent Icelandic home. The photograph highlights inequality where an affluent Western society like Iceland is represented by the overconsumption of consumer goods, to satisfy what Marcuse (1964) termed as “false needs”, while poorer societies cannot attend to the basic needs of their citizens who live in poverty and hunger. The third photograph, named “The Ties of Generations”, represents the problems of inter-generational communication within modern “technological society.” The photograph shows three males of different generations posing for a photo outside a baseball game at the Chicago Cubs stadium. While the argument of the analysis suggests there is decreased communication between the elders and the youngsters in modern society, the photo shows how sports can connect individuals of different ages through a common, real-life event. The last photograph looks behind the scenes in the life of a cancer patient, representing “normal society.” The photograph named “Behind the Scenes” shows this woman´s anxiousness about her self-identity after losing her hair due to cancer treatment, with the argument that the effect of the hair loss on the patient´s identity has even more damaging effect than the cancer itself. The four photographs analyzed in this paper provide the viewer with different insights into everyday life in modern societies. The photographs, however, all show how social structures – which people do not necessarily acknowledge in their everyday lives – constrain and affect the actions, perceptions and emotions of people in their daily lives. Thus, as argued in this paper, the analysis of visual media, such as photographs, can provide students and other audiences with a meaningful understanding of society, increased criticism of social issues, and, furthermore, can provoke new questions about the relationship between the individual and society. In other words, such analysis is an effective tool to enhance students´ sociological imagination inside and outside the classroom. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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