An Applied Visual Sociology: Picturing Harm Reduction

Exploring the value of photography and video as legitimate forms of social enquiry, An Applied Visual Sociology: Picturing Harm Reduction constitutes a guidebook for conducting applied visual sociology within health related or social science research projects, providing a full account of the visual research journey and presenting a tested template for conducting theoretically-driven, sociologically-informed research. Against the background of the growing popularity of visual methods, this book goes beyond using photographs for illustrative and descriptive purposes, to emphasise the importance of sociological, epistemological and analytical theory, together with methods of data collection and the presentation of images for applied purposes. As such, An Applied Visual Sociology: Picturing Harm Reduction offers a template for considering visual data as applied research, providing a full account of the manner in which visual methods can inform research and specific interventions, together with opportunities for students and practitioners to consider applied visual sociology in a series of practical or self-study tasks . It will therefore appeal not only to students and researchers involved in social and health-related qualitative research, or those seeking to conduct innovative visual projects within the social sciences, but also to scholars interested in research methods, visual ethnography and harm reduction approaches to drug use.

Stephen Parkin is a qualitative researcher at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Services, University of Oxford, UK and author of An Applied Visual Sociology: Picturing Harm Reduction.

List of Boxes, Tables and Figures, Acknowledgements, Part I. Review, Introduction, 1. Considering an Applied Visual Sociology?, 2. Harm Reduction and Injecting Drug Use, Part II. Empiricism, 3. Methodology and Methods, 4. Analysis, 5. Drug Using Environments as a 'Continuum of Descending Safety', 6. Drug Related Litter as Visual Data, 7. The Management of Drug Related Litter in UK Settings, Part III. An applied visual sociology, 8. The Value of Applied Visual Data in 'Real World' Settings, 9. Towards an Applied Visual Sociology, 10. Practical Exercises in Applied Visual Sociology, References, Appendix I: A Harm Reduction Response to Media Reports of Needlestick Injury/Drug Related Litter, Appendix II: Frontline: A Photo-Ethnography of Drug-Using Environments, Index