Photovoice: A Promising Method for Capturing and Responding to Climate Change?

Abstract

Photovoice is a popular participatory research method for instigating critical reflection and social change. It does, however, rely on participants being able to photographically capture the phenomenon under study. This raises challenging questions that may obstruct the use of Photovoice in climate change studies. Is climate change visible? Can it be photographically captured? What change can Photovoice instigate in the context of global climate change? To gain clarity on the role of Photovoice in climate change studies, this article provides an overview of previously published work. We do this to identify some of the different ways in which Photovoice can usefully capture various aspects of climate change and to critically appraise the studies' ability to fully leverage Photovoice's change potentials. We identify five ways in which Photovoice is used to study climate change. This includes studying (i) how local people understand climate change, (ii) how people experience the (perceived) impacts of climate change, (iii) community perspectives on their vulnerabilities to climate change, (iv) local adaptation and mitigation responses, and finally, (v) ways of facilitating transformative learning about climate change. While many studies effectively capture people's intersubjective relationships with climate change, the action‐oriented social change potential of Photovoice is rarely realized. Future Photovoice projects must consider the theoretical underpinnings of the method and be intentional about its emancipatory and change potential, particularly by collaborating with powerful change agents, thereby increasing the likelihood that Photovoice findings will translate into policy changes and community initiatives.