Stepanov V.I. Developing and Applying a Comprehensive Photography-Based Approach to Study Marginalized Social Groups (on the example of analysis of HIV treatment trajectories among people who inject drugs). – Manuscript.
Dissertation for obtaining a degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of study 05 «Social and behavioral sciences» in speciality 054 «Sociology» – National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine, Kyiv, 2023.
This dissertation was intended as a response to the methodological limitations of research designs, existing repertoires of qualitative methods, and then the data generated by these methods for studying marginalized groups of society. The problems encountered in conducting research with members of marginalized groups and in analyzing data from qualitative methods have been described in a variety of scholarly discussions that include work in institutional ethnography етнографії (Erickson & Shultz, 1982; Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007), conversation analysis and ethnomethodology (Potter & Hepburn, 2005), Goffman’s frame analysis (Goffman, 1981; Potter & Hepburn, 2012), discoursive psychology (Quinn & Mathews, 2016; Van Den Berg et al., 2004), critical medical anthropology (Carroll, 2013; Kleinman, 1988; Laws, 2016), and psychoanalytic defense (Cramer, 1987; Maruna & Copes, 2005; Shiner & Winstock, 2015). In the process of writing, however, it became clear that methodological limitations mask theoretical problems related to the complexity and multiple meanings of the concept of the marginalized group (Becker, 1973; Benjamin, 2006; Ėtkind, 2011; Lévinas, 1997; Schutz, 1960), the applicability of the existing arsenal of methods for studying them (Blumer, 1979; Flick, 2009; Hill Collins, 1999; Irving, 2007; Plummer, 2001; Thomas et al., 1996), as well as the ethical aspects of interaction between researchers and research subjects in the case of marginalized groups (Benjamin, 1991; Butler, 2004; Charmaz, 2017; Kleinman et al., 1997).
Despite numerous studies of the everyday lives of marginalized social groups, the theoretical underpinnings of such research and the methodological arsenal used to implement it often do not represent an interconnected, comprehensive approach. As a result, such research is often quite "obtrusive" (Kellehear, 1993; Potter & Hepburn, 2012; Webb et al., 1966) and therefore insufficiently "ecological," the relationship between researcher and research participants is insufficiently reflected (Charmaz, 2017; Charmaz & Belgrave, 2019a; Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007), and results can be rather superficial and fragmented, for example not considering the spatial embodiment of social phenomena (de Certeau & Rendall, 1984; Debord et al., 1996; D. Harvey, 2013; Lefebvre, 1996; G. Simmel, 2009), which is a separate focus for this work. The use of photography in research on marginalized groups is common (Jamie Suki Chang, 2017; Harper, 2016; Konecki, 2011; Schonberg & Bourgois, 2002), but the ethical challenges and empirical opportunities it presents for researchers and research participants are under-described (Clifford & Marcus, 1986; Rosler, 2004; Singer & Page, 2014; L. Stone, 2015; Tester, 2001; Vitellone, 2017).
Consequently, if it is to develop a truly "comprehensive" approach for studying marginalized groups, attention should be paid not only to the methodological side of the issue, but also to developing an approach in a broader sense, that is, to theoretically justify the use of certain tools as well as to justify the ethical position from which the researcher enters the field of marginalized groups and sets the rules for interaction with (Stepanov & Dmitrieva, 2023). Considering the diversity of processes of individual, social, cultural and spatial marginalization, as well as the mechanisms of their (co)construction and reproduction, we concluded about the importance of reconfiguration, reassembling, and updating the settings of instruments of production and reproduction of knowledge about marginalized groups. These tools should be configured in such a way that they do not contribute to further reproduction of marginalization.
Key words: qualitative methodology; marginalized groups; research ethics; marginalized group production/reproduction; visual grounded theory; photography in qualitative research; people who use drugs; HIV; criminal subculture.
