Looking at and looking back: Visualization in mobile research

Abstract

This article discusses mobile and visual methodologies and the use of visual and mobile methods in the context of a study exploring the negotiation of risk on the journey to school. It sets out an epistemological approach that encompasses the 'mobilities turn' in the social sciences and current debates on visual methods, arguing that 'mobile' and 'visual' methods are not only compatible, but often indivisible. This argument is developed through the researcher's experience of using mobile and visual methods to explore the range of social, emotional and sensorial responses to mobile space. In particular, it is argued that methods that are both mobile and visual produce insights into everyday life experiences, especially of excluded groups such as children and young people, which are not available using more traditional methods. Copyright © 2009 SAGE Publications.