Going digital: Using new technologies in visual sociology

The aim of this paper is to describe how to accomplish visual sociological research by using new technologies. The background of this analysis is an empirical research I've recently done to explore the identity of a small community, using a visual sociological approach. I studied a small Italian village which has changed radically in the last fifty years in landscape, human activity, and in the values that people ascribe to these transformations {Parmeggiani, 2007}. I have had a multiple method approach combining a "photographic - video fieldwork" based on Grounded Theory with shooting scripts {Suchar, 1997}, re-photography {Rieger, 1996}, and the technique of photo elicitation interview {Collier, 1986 }. A demanding task of the research has been looking for the most effective software to store, to display, and to analyse still images, audio, and textual notes. I found out that three main categories of programs a visual sociologist can refer to are available. These groups, which often overlaps, are directed respectively to photographers, social scientists and users interested in knowledge management. That separation between photography and sociology Becker described {Becker, 1974} with its differences and similarities, carry on in the IT market, forcing visual sociologists to adapt.- The first group of software is called DAM (Digital Asset Management) and is developed mainly for photographers. DAM is a protocol for manage, present and distribute multimedia files. These tools make organizing catalogs (visual databases of media) which contain references to original files and handle archiving, grouping organization, renaming, rating, cataloging, information management, optimizing, editing, presentation, playback, publishing, exporting, and distribution of files {Austerberry, 2006}. The second is called CAQDAS (Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis). Some recent versions of CAQDAS, once useful only for text analysis, now enable the investigation of multimedia data. The third realm is concept maps. This group refers to the way we display, compare, organize images and verbal concepts together. Concept mapping software are designed to help the user to brainstorm, to plan, to organize, to visualize, create and share graphic, diagrams and flowcharts. {Tergan, 2005}. According to Novak { 1996} mapping "makes concepts, and propositions composed of concepts, the central elements in the structure of knowledge and construction of meaning.” I’ll describe some software, their characteristics and techniques I found useful, and the some methodological implications. I choose to illustrate freeware or open source software (whenever possible) for Windows, Linux and Mac operating system. My conclusion is that CAQDAS freeware and open source software, could be effectively used to design the research and map the ideas, assist the coding process, record photo elicitation interviews, index and analyse visual data.