ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the emergent debate about the visual in the sociology of religion. It presents some methodological notes about visual research methods in particular, photo-elicitation interviews and illustrates some results of an on-going photo-elicitation interviews (PEI) project investigating different forms of monasticism. The chapter attempts to correct the situation by adopting available media representation of the topic. The PEI was carried out using a particular kind of found images: two sets of images of monastic daily life from two popular magazines – those of the Monastery of Bose and those representing traditional monasteries – to prompt respondents to articulate their particular narratives about the representation of both. New monasticism was depicted in colour, old monasticism in black and white. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, social scientists have become increasingly aware of the role of the visual dimension both in day-to-day interaction and in media representation.
