El Uso de los métodos visuales para el diagnóstico y la intervención social a través del estudio de dos ciudades en España y Camerún

Abstract

This article presents some advantages and limitations of a visual perspective for the analysis of social reality in comparison with the use of more common sociological techniques, for which a multi-method approach and methodological triangulation were used. In this article we describe inequalities existing between pictures of two particular towns in Cameroon (Africa) and Spain (Europe). We combined visual information with that of interviews, focus groups and other sources. The results show that the use of photography for a visual sociology provides nuances that other sources or techniques do not render and that could be useful for social intervention. Images seem to identify other invisible aspects of data, or clarify or provide new information on aspects of inequality that do not appear explicitly through other means such as statistics, interviews, focus groups, the press, and so on. Collecting discourses about pictures through interviews helped the process of research itself and also the social diagnosis.