ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the visual for the practice of research in Social Work and considers some of the philosophical and practical reasons for choosing the way of communicating. It focuses on the visual as it is used to create/gather knowledge in order to understand some aspect of the social world that social workers inhabit, but also to help create necessary social change. Visual artefacts have played a central role in facilitating individual and group expression, as well as enhancing the possibility of political change, all of which are important to social workers. With the growing expansion and ready accessibility of digital technologies, videos are starting to have a strong presence in the blogosphere, but also in the world of visual activism. Social Work research is often concerned with the richness of human experience in order to highlight an injustice, a social issue that needs changing.
