Photography and voice in critical qualitative management research

TLDR

The paper argues that photography, through native image making, can amplify participants’ voices in critical accounting and management research by enabling multiple perspectives and engaging them more fully, while also reviewing key debates in visual research. Drawing on a brief overview of visual research and the author's own practice, the authors explain how photo‑voice increases participant involvement by providing accessible, agenda‑controlling, and image‑ownership mechanisms. The authors find that photo‑voice enhances accessibility, research agenda control, and image ownership, allowing participants’ iconic images to convey their worldviews more powerfully than language alone and thereby raising marginalized voices in research dissemination.

Abstract

Purpose The main objective of this paper is to discuss how photography might help give research participants a louder voice in (qualitative) critical accounting and management research, enabling their multiple voices to be better represented/performed through the technique of “native image making”. A secondary aim is to familiarise the reader with key developments and debates in the field of “visual research” more generally. Design/methodology/approach A brief overview of the field is offered, and, drawing on examples from the author's visual research practice, how the concept of “photo‐voice” might increase participants' involvement in research in two ways is discussed. Findings First, it is argued that accessibility of the method, control of the research agenda and ownership of the images give a louder voice in the process of research. Second, and following Barthes, it is contended that through their iconic and quasi‐representational nature, photographic images can communicate participants' views of their worlds with more primacy than language alone, raising their voices in the dissemination of research. Practical implications The paper has especial implications for researchers engaged in critical studies of accounting and management seeking to give voice to marginal groups of people traditionally disregarded by mainstream organization/management studies. Originality/value The paper contributes to the development of a novel qualitative methodology for accounting and management research.