Seeing health and illness worlds – using visual methodologies in a sociology of health and illness: a methodological review

Abstract This review starts from the premise that the visual has been, until recently, a neglected dimension in our understanding of social life, despite the role of vision in other disciplines, including medicine itself. The potential for a visual approach will be analysed drawing on a range of studies, broadly within the sociology of health and illness, which have used visual approaches. I highlight the value of visual methodology projects within qualitative approaches to research more generally, and assess the difficulties as well as the advantages. It is suggested that using visual methodologies does not necessarily lead to greater reactivity in the research process as has sometimes been proposed; and that visual worlds are themselves unique topics of sociological study which may be enhanced by using visual techniques rather than written and spoken language. A combination of visual and traditional methods can also be fruitful. Painting and drawing, video, film, and still photography are included as examples which researchers have used and can use.