Use of Photo-Elicitation in Sociology: Contextualising Poverty and Social Exclusion

Abstract

In sociological research, photography is most commonly used to supplement presented data and less frequently as a data collection technique. This paper focuses on using photography to examine the gender aspect of poverty in rural areas of Serbia. Through the application of photo-elicitation, data were collected in field research during 2015 in Serbia. The data include photographs taken by girls and women beneficiaries of social services. Additionally, they incorporate the notes on the motives and interpretation of the photographs taken, along with transcripts of interviews conducted with the photographers a month after the photography sessions. The research has shown that photography, as a medium, connects the emotional experiences of poverty among research participants with the factual conditions of their lives in material deprivation and isolation. Consequently, it offers the possibility of articulating diverse meanings of poverty. The diversity of meanings of poverty is evident in the specific social categories to which the interviewees in this study belong, such as persons with disabilities, for example. Based on the findings of this research, the use of photo-elicitation emerges as particularly significant in sociological studies that involve the exploration of subjective meanings and experiences of specific population groups, such as girls and women living in poverty in rural areas of Serbia.