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A portrait of Italian visual sociology

Patrizia Facciolia; Andrea Pitasib
a
Teaches and directs the Visual Section of the Department of Sociology, University of Bologna,
Bologna, Italy b Ph.D student in communication theory and sociology,

To cite this Article Faccioli, Patrizia and Pitasi, Andrea(1995) 'A portrait of Italian visual sociology', Visual Studies, 10: 1,
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 50 Visual Sociology, 10 (1-2), pp. 50- 60 International Visual Sociology Association, 1995
A Portrait of Italian Visual Sociology*
Patrizia Faccioli and Andrea Pitasi
Part one is a brief history of Italian Visual
Sociology. Andrea Pitasi sketches his main
hypothesis: as a complex middle range theory,
visual sociology might become a specific
discipline. The theoretical concepts and
proposals to create it are summarized in the
conclusion.
In part two, Patrizia Faccioli deals with the
Italian sociological mainstream's conception of
visual sociology. From this perspective, visual
sociology is considered a methodology, which
the author affirms as an incomplete point of
view. On the basis of her experience of re-
Downloaded At: 22:34 28 February 2011
search, she assumes that visual sociology may
also be a paradigm which she sketches as a
phenomenological paradigm of visual knowl-
edge
What is all this fuss about visual sociology?
(Chalfen, 1987)
I n Italy, although introduced only a few years
ago, visual sociology is a growing phenomenon.
The first effort to bring this into the mainstream
was made by Franco Ferrarotti in 1974. However,
visual knowledge was first considered simply a
political tool to criticize institutions and an inad-
equate source for scientific knowledge, which is
why this proposal initially failed. In the eighties
Francesco Mattioli discussed the role of visual
communication in sociology. His work was col-
lected in the volume Sociologia Visuale (1991).
Three years earlier, Costantino Cipolla and
Patrizia Faccioli had begun to do research in this
field at the University of Bologna. Costantino
Cipolla wrote a treatise on the methodological
integration in sociology (1988), which included
the issue of visual knowledge, while Patrizia
Faccioli became supervisor of the Visual Section
of the Department of Sociology in Bologna and
organized some important research programs.
The Visual Section's research efforts are collected
Faccioli teaches and directs the Visual Section of the Department of Sociology at the University of Bologna. Pitasi is a Ph.D
student with completed research in both communication theory and sociology. Correspondence: Dipartimento di
Sociologia, Strada Maggiore 45, 40125 Bologna, Italy
in a volume edited by Cipolla and Faccioli entitled
Introduzione Alia Sociologia Visuale (1993).
From this perspective, visual sociology is
mainly considered a method, whose first aim is
the integration of the different sources of knowl-
edge (numbers, writings, oral traditions and
images). How is this possible, in practice? By
distinguishing every source in a specific way and
then linking all the sources together in a multidi-
mensional system of knowledge.
Cipolla's theoretical contributions, founded
on the main concept of integration, probably
failed in their program because the author took for
granted that scientific visual data emerged from
confusing visual sources. He did not discuss the
main problem: what is a datum for visual re-
search? The difference between a number and a
statistic datum is quite evident, but could we say
the same about visual knowledge? I do not think
so.
For example, if a researcher uses photo-
elicitation, she/he collects visual sources (e.g.
from family photo albums) to obtain oral sources
which then must be transformed into the written
version of the interview. These are elaborated
through the content analysis technique and so the
researcher extracts written data from visual
sources. But where are the visual data?
In this case, I think, she/he might have
obtained a mixture of sources rather than an
integration of data. This could be avoided through
the creation of new techniques that let us pull out
visual data from visual sources.
Part One
Scientific assumptions
In the following section I will discuss four
assumptions in order to scientifically define visual
sociology:
a) Meta-strategic complexity
This means that the real world complexity is

much greater than the scope of any single com-
plex sociological theory, so each specialist should
consider that their point of view only partial. After
all, reality is observer dependent; the social
scientist never faces the social item directly.
Rather, she/he faces the relationship between
themselves and the social subject. That is why the
coherent vision of a complex reality is not a
scientific theory but a political program. In other
words, the introduction of complexity in scientific
visual knowledge is connected to a very important
question: is the core of visual sociology the study
of social reality, even if it depends on the
researcher's perspective, or the making of new
mentally constructed worlds?
b) Strategic multidimensionality tries to
integrate different sources of knowledge into a
Downloaded At: 22:34 28 February 2011
middle range theory created to connect distin-
guished aspects of the same item. For example,
these are anthropological, psychological and
historical.
c) Tactical flexibility is the attempt to utilize
both quantitative and qualitative techniques for
the purpose of constructing scientific data from
non scientific sources.
d) Specific case studies may be expressed in
a series of brief questions: What? When? Where?
Who? How? What we mean is that multidimen-
sional theoretical assumptions should be "trans-
lated" into middle range projects and then
adapted to the practical case study through very
straight questions; we will give an example in the
following pages. These four levels might be useful
in developing a visual studies program for Italian
readers. Visuals in the social sciences confront
issues about the limits of scientific knowledge.
Lynd's famous question "knowledge for what?" is
dependent upon: "what kind of knowledge?" The
former is essentially political while the latter is
more scientific. It means that the main risk for
social sciences is accepting political solutions as
scientific ones.
In my opinion, visual studies programs
should deal with scientific issues. In this way they
could suggest the enormous complexity of visual
knowledge and the need for a multidimensional
strategy. They should also demonstrate the
methodological integration of both quantitative
and qualitative techniques and, finally, some
suggestions to the researcher interested in work-
ing in the field.
Italian Visual Sociology 51
The fundamental theoretical assumptions of
the Italian visual sociology mainstream are con-
nected to the phenomenological approach which
will be discussed in the second part of this paper.
Criteria for visual research
In this section, 1 am going to introduce some
criteria for planning sociological visual research.
First of all, images may be created as sym-
bolic constructions (metaphors, for example) of
social phenomena, or they may be taken from an
event-centered perspective and be a documenta-
tion source (symbolic/documentary criterion).
They also may be taken either by an ama-
teur or a specialist, a professional (amateur/
professional criterion).
They may be collected from archives or
taken in the field (archive/in the field criterion).
Finally, they may have two different func-
tions in the research project: they may represent a
stimulus for interviews (photo-elicitation) or they
may have a filing function (stimulus/filing crite-
rion).
These criteria may be codified as follows:
symbolic/documentary; amateur/professional;
archive/field; stimulus/filing. By logically connect-
ing these criteria, you can obtain 16 simple
research levels and create a defined research
pattern. You can empirically integrate some of
them to develop more complex research pro-
grams:
sb-am-ar-st dc-am-ar-s sb-am-ar-fl dc-am-ar-fl
sb-am-fd-st dc-am-fd-st sb-am-sc-fl dc-am-sc-fl
sb-pf-ar-st dc-pf-ar-st sb-pf-ar-fl dc-pf-ar-fl
sb-pf-fd-st dc-pf-fd-st sb-pf-sc-fl dc-pf-sc-fl
This list does not include the organizational
complexity of the sociological research. Though
empirically limited, it is still valid since it does not
deal with a quantitative or a qualitative integra-
tion. I would like to make some distinctions
among these levels but I must also manage to
connect them in a sharply integrated, multidimen-
sional research pattern.
What I mean is that an integration of socio-
logical data depends on a multidimensional
approach including both macro-micro links and
High Tech/High Touch theoretical presupposi-
tions. High technology tools might be used in any
research program that attempts to create a
 52 Faccioli, Pitasi
multimedial system. However, they should be
something more than a mere technical tool by
contributing to the researcher's mental develop-
ment. High Tech/ High Touch is, in other words,
an organizational paradigm which seeks for a
relationship between rational and emotional
dimensions, inside the connection between
technological and human resources. The phenom-
enological approach does not permit this.
For example, the content analysis technique
represents a flexible way of outlining qualitative
categories for studying photographs from a
sociological point of view, but it also allows a
quantitative elaboration (Mattioli 1991).
A middle range case study
In this section, I am going to give an ex-
Downloaded At: 22:34 28 February 2011
ample of the hypotheses 1 have previously intro-
duced. The researcher might be interested in
studying poverty, but it is not easy to face this
social phenomenon on the whole. A research
team has to make some decisions:
1. How could this issue be temporally and
geographically delimited?
The definition of a case-study from a geo-
graphical and temporal point of view often de-
pends on nonscientific elements: the financial
source of the project, for example. Scientifically, a
research group may just realize that, in a complex
world made of multidimensional, weak and often
contradictory social relationships, a specific case-
study is a mere fragment whose "reality" might be
only partially generalized. It means that in a
complex world, a researcher can reconstruct the
links through which causes and effects still exist,
but not in the old fashion positivistic sense any-
more.
2. Which are the research aims and how are
they connected to the methodological choices?
This research project should give the Munici-
pality of Bologna new information to reorganize
those social services connected with poverty
problems. The research group's main hypothesis
is that (it is just an example!) there are latent
conflicts between the social employees and those
poor people who belong to a different sociocul-
tural context: foreigners. But who is a foreigner in
the social employees' opinion? Are they from
Southern Italy or from European countries, or,
from another planet? How is the image of the
foreigner socially constructed by the public
employees? In this case, the research group might
interview the public employees using photo-
elicitation in addition to video recording the
interview itself. Photos should show different kind
of foreigners in relationship with the cultural
tradition of Bologna. In the sixties, for example,
the foreigner was from Southern Italy. Some
forthcoming research shows that today, Bologna's
natives view only Africans as foreigners. The
research aim is to understand the role of racial
prejudice in the growth of poverty rates, or better,
the relationship between them. In my opinion, a
(visual) sociologist ought to study the "social
effects" of this relationship both in a temporally
and geographically well defined context and in a
complex, multi-causal one.
3. What is the researcher's role in this
project?
Social reality is observer dependent. What
does it mean, in practice? It might mean that a
general theory is merely a subjective point of view
applied to every aspect of social reality. It would
obstruct an ideological globalization of sociology
and, in this case, might play a "positive" role. But
accepting that social reality is observer dependent
might also mean that any social experience
(including sociological research) cannot be
reproduced and generalized. This would make
communication impossible. Social scientists
should own a specific terminological and concep-
tual frame, but terms and concepts might be
combined in different theoretical perspectives, and
no global, unique, ideological vision would be
required. A social scientist ought to deal with
social phenomena, ask questions, and try to solve
social problems in scientific and practical but not
"political" ways. If a sociologist is interested in
poverty, they might do research and make deci-
sions in relation to empirical data. Data should
"verify" the theoretical hypotheses. Often, how-
ever, data is ideologically interpreted to legitimate
a political perspective. This is why very coherent
and general theories are suspicious.
4. What kind of sociological knowledge is
offered by visuals? And then, what is sociological
visual knowledge for?
This kind of knowledge - just like the others -
is socially constructed and observer dependent. It
means that the researchers have to organize
knowledge in a complex, multidimensional, multi-
causal social network which includes the re-
searchers themselves. Such a network should
grant the chance for the researchers to method-

ologically integrate some technical tools. This
integration might be developed on two levels:
The research team might integrate different
tools belonging to the same kind of sociological
sources. For example, video recording, photo-
elicitation and naive image making belong to the
same source: the visual one, and they may all be
used either separately or in an integrated way.
The researchers might integrate different
tools belonging to different sources: numbers,
writings, visual images and oral sources. Analyz-
ing visual data from a statistical perspective is one
example.
In my opinion, a methodological integration
of different sociological sources would not neces-
sarily allow a wider point of view to the sociologi-
cal observer, but definitely a deeper one. On level
A, the social effects of poverty would be studied
Downloaded At: 22:34 28 February 2011
from a mere visual perspective, while on level B,
the researchers might include methodological
perspectives, describing many more aspects and
details of the same social phenomenon. In other
words, the explored field is the same in both level
A. and B, but the analytical depth is completely
different.
Visual sociology and phenomenology
Italian sociologists began to speak about
visual sociology only a few years ago. It was
introduced by Ferrarotti (1974) but it mainly
emerged thanks to Mattioli (1984, 1986, 1989
and 1991).
At the end of the eighties, I was in a method-
ological impasse, and almost by chance, I read
Mattioli's writing, in which the author discussed
American visual sociology; specifically its validity
and reliability. For a long time I had chosen a way
of research which stressed the subject's point of
view, hoping to understand phenomena on the
basis of the meaning given to it directly by the
actors. I chose what Harper (1988) calls the
"reflexive mode," but I felt imprisoned by the
limits of its tools. I was looking for images of
universal emotions and subjective perceptions
inside the verbal content of indepth interviews.
Instead, I found rationalizations, self-representa-
tions, self-deceptions and masks. Discovering
visual sociology was like a fulguration and imme-
diately I thought that perhaps it was the way to
capture the subjective sense of the other.
Since then, in the midst of my colleagues'
suspicion, I organized a small laboratory and
Italian Visual Sociology 53
began experimental research work ( which I will
discuss) with students and young graduates, some
of which compose the current equipe of Visual
Sociology Lab of Bologna. Thus the Italian experi-
ence is not founded on an ethnographic tradition,
which exists in Italy (see Chiozzi 1982 and 1992),
but on an approach linked to Husserl's and
Schutz's phenomenology, on one side, and
Weber's verstehen, on the other.
The debate on visual sociology has contin-
ued to develop. Many Italian sociologists still
prefer to ignore it, but others are following it with
curiosity. Currently, there is a key question which
still needs an answer: is visual sociology some-
thing more or something different?
"Something more" means an integration
among data gathered in other ways, through
which we could increase the degree of approxima-
tion to reality. This seems to be Cipolla's perspec-
tive. He states: "The use of visual communication
in social research - opportunely integrated with
other techniques- makes every kind of research
methodologically more rigorous, credible and
'objective'" (Cipolla 1987, 220. Our trans.).
"Something different" means that the matter
is to understand and define the cases in which
visual knowledge becomes specific and irreplace-
able (Mattioli 1986 and 1991; Faccioli 1989 and
1993).
Something more or different: this seems to
me the crucial point debated by Italian sociolo-
gists, and I guess scientific community is oriented
to the former alternative. It means that visual
sociology is going to obtain legitimation in Italy,
but with the clear identity of a technique within an
integrated methodology. So, I am trying to reflect
about it, in order to consider it in a different way,
since I use it in a different way in my research
practice.
There are many methods for using images in
research work. Here I will concentrate my atten-
tion on the images as communication focus
during the process of getting information. Obvi-
ously, I am referring to the photo-elicitation and
subjective image producing techniques that Italian
sociologists learned from foreign colleagues.
As far as photo-elicitation is concerned, I
would like to underline the considerations of
Collier and Collier (1986), Wagner (1979) and
Harper (1984, 1988 and 1993) to whom I morally
feel a debt: the field work I led with my research
team is based on their experiences (see Simoni
 54 Faccioli, Pitasi
1993; Faccioli and Simoni, forth.).
Subjective image producing is related to
native image making and used in anthropology
and ethnography to understand the vision of the
world of people of different cultures. The hypoth-
esis on which this method is based is that the act
of photographing is a selective and interpretative
one, for "cameras by themselves do not take
pictures" (Collier 1979, 162). This subjectivity
becomes the object of the analysis, and the image
represents the photographer's vision of the world
(Wagner 1979; Curry and Clarke 1983).
Either using photographs chosen by our-
selves as stimulus for the subjects, or analyzing
their pictures, our research practice might be
methodologically traditional. In fact, in an ap-
proach of methodological integration (Cipolla
1988 and 1993), data gathered through iconic
Downloaded At: 22:34 28 February 2011
communication are to consider with the other
ones obtained by questionnaires or semi-struc-
tured interviews. In this sense, visual sociology is
just an additional (even if different, but not suffi-
cient if alone) technique to better approximate the
reality. Indeed, iconic communication can explore
aspects of reality that numeric and verbal com-
munication can hardly catch. The value of images
is given by their hermeneutic function, rather than
by the documentary quality (see Henny 1986). In
other words, I agree with Harper when he says
that "although it is important not to assume that
one understands only by watching" (1988, 63).
However, the visual perception of a phenomenon
gives us different information than knowledge of it
through reading a book. All this, on a psychologi-
cal level, can refer to the link between thinking
and perception: productive thinking cannot exist
without the perceptive component. Thinking is
founded on our images of the world, so that
thinking and perception are complementary
(Arnheim, 1969). The images are not mere
representations of objects: "just as words connote
concepts, pictures, too, serve to bring things to
the mind, not the eye" (Signorile 1987, 288).
Then I wonder if visual sociology might be
considered something different, that is, not only
an integral part of a methodology, but a real
paradigm of knowledge. In this way, it is a per-
spective to look at the social reality using a
specific logic of reasoning and referring to a well
defined theoretical approach (see Donati 1983).
The answer does not result as much from the
techniques (e.g. photo-elicitation), as from the
way they are used. I am referring to those re-
search works originally organized through images,
and considered as "an important part of the
research process itself, facilitating and generating
new ideas and new methods for proceeding"
(Curry and Clarke 1983, 19).
As I just said, the reference I see directly
concerns a theoretical approach that looks, on its
philosophical side, at Husserl's phenomenology
and, on the sociological one, at Weber's concept
of verstehen. This approach fills the empty spaces
created by the positivistic rejection for each non-
measurable kind of data. The anxiety for the
methodological rigor derives from the dogma that
anything is not worthy to be known if it cannot be
quantified, and every computerized research is
scientific (Andreski 1972). This dogma damaged
the use of qualitative techniques of verbal com-
munication analysis for a long time.
In recent times, many important changes
have fortunately emerged. Quantitative ap-
proaches grow side by side with qualitative ones
and many researchers choose their methods on
the basis of the specific case study. More flexible
attitudes are developing: instead of restricting the
research object to the limitations of legitimate
methods, we try to invent new ones for new
objects through trial and error. As Morin states: "I
do not offer the method, but I search for the
method" (Morin 1977, 21. Our trans.).
But how can we profoundly understand and
feel someone else's point of view ? The only way
a researcher has to put her/himself in another's
shoes is the empathic communication, that is the
knowledge through which we can live another's
experience (see Stein 1917). Empathy is a skill of
conscience "before the beginning of verbal com-
munication and only in the context of physical
proximity" (Ardigo* 1988, 4. Our trans.). But
which techniques allow us to do that? Actually,
Italian sociologists who relate to the verstehen
phenomenological approach use the traditional
tools of qualitative research (such as the indepth
interview), paying attention to the two fundamen-
tal rules in order to capture the subject's point of
view: the staying proceedings (that is the zero
setting of pre-knowledge and preconceptions),
and the commitment to empathic communication.
Nevertheless, by only using verbal techniques, the
researchers and the subjects always have to work
at turning the visual to the verbal, the image to its
conceptualization. From a phenomenological

perspective, our language is full of visual meta-
phors: image of, vision of, way of seeing (the
world, the family, the future, etc.). But, Italian
sociologists show resistance to use tools that are
different from verbal communication.
Eco states: "The dangerous trend to declare
inexplicable what cannot be explained by avail-
able tools has led to curious positions, such as the
decision to reject the dignity of language to
communication systems lacking in double articu-
lation that verbal language has. Facing evidence
of weaker codes, it has been decided they were
not codes. Facing existence of meaning blocks -
such as iconic images- it has been decided they
were not signs (because they were not analyzable)
and to seek in them some articulations such as
verbal language ones" (Eco 1985, 33. Our trans.).
Hence, 1 think there are two fundamental
Downloaded At: 22:34 28 February 2011
methodological problems: first, how the empathic
signs can be translated into visible and communi-
cable regularity, out of the interpersonal situa-
tions? And secondly, are there other ways, be-
sides empathy, of capturing the other's subjective
sense? 1 think 1 can answer both affirmatively:
through visual sociology.
The matter is not to miss anything that
happens during the interaction, at the level of
verbal and nonverbal communication. For ex-
ample: when we interview a subject with a re-
corder we do not limit ourselves to listening to
what he/she says. On the contrary, we take into
account what his/her face, position, eyes, body
say, and these nonverbal signs make sense to the
verbal content of the interview. When we have to
analyze the transcribed papers, the empathic
experience is lost. There, the researcher's subjec-
tivity allows us to understand and feel the mean-
ing, sense and experience of the person inter-
viewed. Here, the subjectivity itself becomes
arbitrary, because the verbal content is interpreted
from her/his own vision of the world and concep-
tual categories ( at the moment of the analysis).
If the empathic researcher could come back
to the original data by seeing the interview, they
could relive the empathic experience in the
analysis context. They could also compare the
body signs belonging to different subjects, submit
their interpretation to another researcher's control,
relate the verbal to the nonverbal content, and
even objectify their subjective perceptions. All this
can only happen if the interviewer and the analyst
are the same person, because empathy is possible
Italian Visual Sociology 55
"here and now," that is, in a close physical con-
tact. Just like when we are looking at an old
picture related to a significant event in our life, we
can live those emotions again.
2. Are there other ways, besides empathy, of
capturing the other's subjective sense? The
answer could be found in the photo-elicitation and
subjective image-producing methods. First of all,
because the photography is a selective act inter-
preting reality, we might say that iconic communi-
cation is the language of the subjective feeling.
The link between thinking and perception
emerges, again related to the possibility of com-
municating without the language. Or, better, to
the possibility of visually communicating different
contents. I am referring here to the communica-
tive functions of images, which can be representa-
tions, i.e. symbols and signs if they are selected
on the basis of an identification code (Arnheim
1969). And 1 am also referring to the nonverbal
analogical communication, which uses gestural
communication, body position, face expression,
voice inflection, and every human nonverbal
expression (see Watzlawick et al. 1967).
The analogical communication is not neces-
sarily a mere complement of the digital one (the
word). It can occur as an alternative or opposed to
it. I agree with Watzlawick: if it is easy to tell a lie
with words, it is not so easy to do it through the
body language (Ibid.). So, we might assume that
communicative phenomena without verbal speech
codes exist and that "not all communicative
phenomena are explainable by linguistic catego-
ries" (Eco 1985, 107. Our trans.).
This suggests another question: what is the
relationship between verbal and nonverbal (visual)
communication? Or, in other words, is it possible
to translate a language into the other? Might we
verbalize the emotions and sentiments that we feel
watching an image, or can we express them only
through images? Or, on the contrary, "can we
reduplicate everything in the visual mode that we
have been studying in the aural mode?" (Signorile
1991,374).
Let's think, for example, of American Sign
Language (ASL) used by deaf people. Through a
different perspective from Signed English (which
visualizes the verbal language), ASL comes out
directly from the gestures, so it is an emotional,
natural description and has the power of the direct
representation. But it also has the same grammar
structure of the speech and the same way of being
 56 Faccioli, Pitasi
learned (Sacks 1989). This means it is con-
structed by "gestural morphemes, which are, in
turn, components of a spatial grammar" (Signorile
1991, 372 and Stokoe 1960). If it is true that it
has the same deep structure of any other lan-
guage, we could think it's possible that it shares
with them the same system of symbolic expres-
sion. So, we could think the communication
between different languages is possible, although
their explicative power is different. I believe that
we envision a phenomenon by letting our mind
catch it in its own nature and emotional load. This
way we visualize our feelings without ever having
to verbalize them. In the same way "the making of
visual essays is both nurtured by and fosters rich
and fluid metaphors as ways of organizing
unedited images. These metaphors work by
engaging both the audience's eyes and the ways
Downloaded At: 22:34 28 February 2011
they have codified their own experience" (Grady
1991,30).
Then the analysis of the images needs the
translation from the visual communication into the
verbal one, that is "a bridge between the visual,
which in Western culture we associate with intu-
ition, art, and implicit knowledge, and the verbal,
which we have come to associate with reason,
fact, and objective information" (Collier and
Collier 1986, 169-170).
All this might have remarkable implications
in social research, if you assume the following:
1. the interpersonal iconic communication is
emotional, empathic, immediate, deep and
spontaneously expressed through body signs;
2. the iconic communication can be "trans-
lated" into the verbal one, because they have the
same symbolic structure;
3. then, the iconic communication produces
information that is qualitatively different from
those obtained through verbal communication.
Therefore, the possibility of mutual translating of
the two languages permits a research process
entirely organized on the first one.
Visual sociology is the linkage between
verbal and visual communication and the over-
coming of the cultural separation between them.
Visual sociology, as a translation process, places
the image in the research process, instead of in
the role of document or illustration (Ibid.)
Now, I wonder if visual sociology is really
only a methodology instead of a phenomenologi-
cal paradigm of visual knowledge. This latter
hypothesis needs the definition of the study
object. It is, I think, the visually expressed subjec-
tive sense: produced images, reactions to the
images, body signs, presentation of self.
In the next part I will show how I have
worked on this hypothesis, by presenting some of
our experimental research.
Part Three
Applying Visual Sociology
I will give some examples, connected to our
laboratory activity.
1. Studies that are made to understand the
way people picture a social phenomenon, without
structuring the answers within the conceptual
categories of the researcher. For example,
Cavazza (1993) studied the visual representation
of social identity among bank employees, while
Bencivelli and Moda (1993a) analyzed the attribu-
tive meaning of poverty. During research on a
group of homeless, we used photo-elicitation to
understand the definition that the interviewed had
of themselves (Simoni 1993; Faccioli and Simoni,
forthcoming).
Particularly, the aim of Cavazza's work was
to understand if the data gathered through the
iconic communication were different from those
obtained through the linguistic one. For this
purpose, two groups of bank employees were
interviewed. A traditional indepth interview was
administered to the first group, while some pic-
tures, taken by the research group students and
representing the image of their professional
category, were presented to the second group.
Both interviews were about the relationship
between the subject and the stereotype verbally or
visually shown. Most of the subjects who were
interviewed through a traditional method were
placed in the categories of personalization (I
decide to be that way) and enrichment (bank
employee is a person professionally prepared).
On the contrary, most of the subjects who were
interviewed through photo-elicitation identified
and/or recognized themselves in the stereotype,
without reactions of rationalization or cognitive
dissonance reduction.
The aim of Bencivelli's and Moda's research
was to test the subjective image producing
method, by asking a group of students to take ten
pictures each, representing their own image of
homeless people and poverty. Indeed, this study
allowed us to understand the potential role of

metaphor in using this method. In fact, most of
the students took pictures whose meaning was
tautological, that is "poor is poor." It means the
images showed old people asking charity in front
of a church or homeless people searching the
rubbish or sleeping in the public park. All that
allowed us to understand that the correct input to
be given to our subjects was "poor is...". In fact,
the use of metaphor has an explicative function,
by helping the passage from one semantic uni-
verse to another, and thus increasing the knowl-
edge of the other's vision of the world.
This last experience let us organize the work
in a different way: we are concluding research
using metaphoric images of familiar relationships,
photographically constructed by a student group.
In this case, we did not present tautological
images (i.e. a family at dinner, that is "family is
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family"), but rather presented images based on
visual concepts. So, family may be a beacon, may
be a theatre, or a small fruit basket, or a dog and
a cat sleeping side by side.
In other research, Simonetta Simoni and I
have interviewed a group of 25 homeless. We
used the indepth interview to reconstruct the
story-life and the crucial events which had led the
subject to live on the road, and we used photo-
elicitation to understand their definition of Self,
also related to socially conventional ways of life.
As in Cavazza's research, we found differences
between verbal and visual data. For example, in
the first part of the interview the subjects tried to
deny their own needs and expressed aggressive-
ness toward anything belonging to the social
service category. On the contrary, in the picture of
a man sleeping on the ground, they recognized an
alone and unlucky subject, who needed help.
Similarly, the social distance between her/himself
and the "normals," verbally claimed during the
interview, disappeared in front of the images: no
difference was seen, except regarding clothes.
2. Research projects oriented to the subjec-
tive definition of Self, in other words the personal
identity. The hypothesis consists in a re
conceptualization of the vision of the Self study,
through the photographs that the subject chose
from her/his family album and that were her/his
ten favorites. We did not ask a specific question
on the identity. However, we looked for it through
the emotional choice of images since they were
already part of the subject's personal identity, and
we could relate to its constitutive elements.
Italian Visual Sociology 57
As a matter of fact, a photograph can privi-
lege the present, or the past, or refer to the future
(identity as self-continuity during the time). It can
also represent the subject's life spaces or be a
self-presentation (spatial component of identity).
It can even show the family or the friends, or can
be a snapshot in which the subject sees the way
the others see her/him (relational aspect of
identity). Moreover, a photograph can present the
subject alone (difference) or with others (identifi-
cation); it can relate to dramatic or happy events
of life and to the steps of individual growth (the
students, of course, were told nothing of this).
The research was based on two cross visual
techniques: the photographs were the trace for a
videotaped interview analyzing the relationship
between the observer and the observed. At the
moment, we have just concluded the second
aspect (Bencivelli and Moda, 1993b) but the
content analysis of the photographs is incomplete.
I can say that the choice of the pictures and the
discussion about them during the interview were
very fruitful. The subjects revealed much more of
themselves - even despite themselves - than it is
possible through other sociological techniques.
3. The analysis of the relationship between
observer and observed. In an interview situation,
the interaction between the actors creates the
reality of the situation. The observed subjects not
only react to stimuli, but even mediate, interpret
and influence the other's behavior, involve the
other in linguistic games and attribute different
identities to each other. The observer, on their
part, must share the game.
In an interview situation, the actors move
from different strategies and aims. The observer
wants to lay the other bare, to dig down to the
roots to discover the self glancing behind the role
enacted (Goffman 1974). The observed does not
want to remove their mask, before having discov-
ered who is in front of him/her.
These opposite strategies cause tensions,
distortions and manipulations: "the observer also
tends to cast the observed in a determinate role,
so the observed includes the observer in their own
personal scenario, showing of themselves only
what does not disturb such a scenario" (Lanzara
1991, 169. Our trans.). They both want to define
the situation and assign the reciprocal roles, with
relative rights and duties. The observer is legiti-
mated in asking questions and expecting answers.
On the contrary, the acceptance of the role of the
 58 Faccioli, Pitasi
observed, within the interview frame, is not a
warranty. At any moment, the observed can
decide to change the frame: from cooperation
and acceptance of the role, she/he can assume
an attitude of rejecting and diminishing commu-
nication (see Watzlawick et al. 1967; Goffman
1974). Otherwise, she/he may misunderstand
the observer's standpoint and think, for ex-
ample, they have to speak about certain topics
and nothing else.
So, we have to wonder how much the
identities of the observer and the observed might
change during the interaction process, becoming
realities which unceasingly move, like Alice's
cricket game, where bats, balls and the field
never keep still. So, auto-observation becomes
an essential component of observation (Ibid.). It
means we need to pay attention "to how the
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interview or participant observation happened,
instead of concentrating all our efforts on the
semantic results, which is separated from the
context in which we obtained them" (Ardigo'
1988, 63. Our trans.).
It means we have to analyze - before the
verbal communication, that is, the manifest
content of the message - the meta-communica-
tion that defines the communicative acts to
communicate on communication (Watzlawick et
al. 1967). In order to do that, we cannot neglect
the nonverbal communication. During the whole
interaction the observer and the observed send
each other body signs: these can be positively or
negatively meant, can cause a willingness or
unwillingness to communicate, can weaken
tensions or create embarrassments and difficul-
ties. Then the analysis of relationships between
the observer and the observed should always
precede the content analysis of the interview,
which is the relationship product.
So, we have experimentally built a frame-
work for analyzing interview situations, seen as
an "information game" (Goffman 1969); that is,
a face to face interaction played on the skill to
obtain and dissimulate information. To explain
the framework we produced a "visual essay"
(Grady 1991), in which the moves of interviewer
and interviewed are analyzed within the frame of
interview (Faccioli and Losacco, 1993).
Part Four: Conclusions
Visual sociology: a paradigm ofknowl-
edge?
The Italian debate on visual sociology seems
to be oriented toward it's methodological value.
This methodology may give us additional tools to
know social reality. When it is used in an integrated
perspective, it is analyzable in both a quantitative
and qualitative way, but on a lower step than
traditional techniques. So, in a semi-structured
interview (or in a questionnaire) we may enclose
some photographs, but the answers to the verbal
parts of the tool remain the main sources from
which we get the research results.
Nevertheless, my recent practice of research is
bringing me to a different position. First, this is due
to the different results we can obtain through iconic
communication. During an indepth interview, the
subject is able to control the situation and give
answers that are rationalized and coherent with the
presentation of Self. On the contrary, in front of an
image, the rational answers fall down and become
spontaneous and emotional, often in contradiction
with what the subject wanted to tell. Iconic commu-
nication lets us glimpse the Self glancing behind the
worn masks.
It implies that iconic communication brings us
closer to the other's subjective sense, to her/his
vision of the world, her/his feelings and emotions.
Then, it seems to me that visual sociology, in
addition to being an integrated methodology, is also
something different: it is a perspective based on a
specific logic of for studying the visually expressed
subjective sense. In other words, I wonder: is visual
sociology a paradigm of knowledge founded on a
phenomenological approach?
Visual sociology: a specific discipline?
The issues and proposals discussed in part
one may be summarized as follows:
First, I would like to emphasize that, until now,
Italian visual sociology has been mainly considered
a methodology founded on a phenomenological
approach for studying naive image making. It is not
wrong, but it is not enough, because visual sociol-
ogy deals with visual social communication.
Second, Italian visual sociology needs a
specific paradigm to distinguish the strategical,
tactical and operative choices of those social
scientists who might produce visual sociological
communication in the field. This paradigm should
distinguish between a socially engaged person who
uses visual tools, and a specialist, who uses these
tools in a scientific-sociological research program.
Third, from this perspective, it would be
important to develop an "educational" strategy to

let social scientists socialize with visual knowledge
and tools.
Fourth, this paradigm should establish a
specific sociology that is something different from
every other sociology and something more than a
methodology. In my opinion, this means develop-
ing a great number of middle range theories
(Merton 1968), systematically connected by a
potential methodological integration encouraging
both quantitative and qualitative techniques for
studying specific cases.
Toward a middle range theory of
visual sociology
I would like to now sketch out some hypoth-
eses about visual sociology as a specific disci-
pline. From this perspective, visual sociology is a
scientific-professional activity even if it may be
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influenced by normative rules and common sense
values. My hypotheses might be summarized as
follows:
1. The social construction of "reality"
through images involves political and ethical
issues which cannot be faced by a methodology
alone.
2. In the theory of science, visual sociology
should be a multidimensional and mainly experi-
mental discipline. A sociological experiment
should not be considered an old fashioned gadget
of positivism, but it should have the capability of
floating in the global complexity through flexible
choices, derived from a functional differentiation
of strategies, tactics and operative actions. In
other words, a sociological experiment is a func-
tional differentiation of the research levels and it is
oriented to the reconstruction of visual communi-
cation as a self-fulfilling world.
3. Visual sociology has to be something
different and may be something more. Method-
ologically, it means to analyze both quantitatively
and qualitatively visual sources and include this
kind of knowledge in a more complex and multidi-
mensional strategy which may develop quantita-
tive and qualitative connections among data of
any kind.
4. As a specific discipline, visual sociology
should do research sociologically. It does not
mean that visual sociology is too specialistic and
culturally blind. Visual sociology may integrate
psychological, anthropological, ethnographical
and even historical issues, but it has to have its
own perspective. This perspective is scientifically
Italian Visual Sociology 59
defined as a paradigm and represents visual
sociology's greatest challenge.
5. The technical aspects of visual sociology
are the same as the methodological ones. The
researcher has to be able to use any tools but she/
he may choose to use them separately or to
create a multidimensional integrated system.
6. Strategies, tactics and actions are the
human tools for floating in the global complexity
of culture, while the experimental-empirical-
practical process of sociological knowledge is a
scientific way to create a self-identity. It is often
the best way to rule a partial sphere of human life
as a specific but profoundly related one.
* Patrizia Faccioli wrote part 2 and 3; Andrea
Pitasi wrote part 1 and contributed to the conclu-
sion. The authors are grateful to Carlotta Faccioli
who linguistically revised this work.
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