Researching home’s materialities by photo-elicitation
What is it about?
We present our method of discussing over the telephone about photographs of 'your home' taken by participants themselves - a method we call participant-generated photo-elicitation in telephone interviews. The paper reflects on how our innovative methodological approach empowered participants to introduce their own points of view through ‘thick’ descriptions, revealed previously undocumented home practices and enabled researchers’ reflexivity and the co-production of knowledge with participants located miles away.
Why is it important?
Our methodological approach powerfully captures home’s tangible and intangible materialities and their importance to wellbeing in ways that words-alone interviews cannot. We argue that housing studies can benefit from engaging photo-elicitation in questions spanning from the abstract to the concrete, and from the inside to the outside of the home.