Comics and Photography: The New Frontiers of the "Reverse Translation"

Authors

Emanuela Abbatecola, University of Genoa, ItalyFollow
Mariella Popolla, University of Cagliari, Italy

Abstract

Anyone who was trained in Italy in the last decades of the 20th century will recall how central the debate around "quali(tative)" and "quanti(tative)" was at that time, when quantitative methods seemed to offer reassurance regarding the scientific credentials of a discipline still young and insecure in terms of its identity. The supremacy of the quantitative even though it is already from the 1970s that we witness a slow, and often contested, "revival of qualitative research linked to profound epistemological changes [...], to the crisis of the objectivist paradigm [...] and the recognition of the centrality of language [...] (Frisina, 2013)." However, it will only be with the new millennium that visual methods for social research, and later creative methods, will become a growing area of experimentation mainly among new generations. The strictly methodological debate on visual research usually focuses on conducting research on images and with images. However, there is a third dimension, which is the use of images—whether in the form of video, photos, or comics—to produce knowledge, disseminate research findings beyond academia, and raise awareness about certain social phenomena. Images, especially in a society of images, represent, in fact, that "reverse translation" that was invoked by Bourdieu to ensure that sociology can contribute to social change by making itself accessible. Comics certainly represent the new frontier of the new millennium, and it is this creative medium—an eccentric novelty in the field of academic research—that will be the focus of this contribution.

Keywords

comics, photography, visual sociology, creative methods

Author Bio(s)

Emanuela Abbatecola is a Sociologist and Associate Professor at DISFOR, University of Genoa. She is Editor-in-Chief of AG–AboutGender, International Journal of Gender Studies (https://riviste.unige.it/aboutgender/). She has been a member of the Visual Sociology Laboratory (www.laboratoriosociologiavisuale.it) since its foundation in 2008. Her main research areas include gender studies, gender-based violence, migration, trafficking and exploitation in sex and labor markets, gender stereotypes, and sexism. She has worked on these topics in national and European projects and has published books and articles. Her latest book is: “Donna Faber. Lavori maschili, sex-sismo e strategie di r-esistenza”, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2023. emanuela.abbatecola@unige.it

Mariella Popolla is a Sociologist and post-doc researcher. She is a member of the editorial committe of AG–AboutGender, International Journal of Gender Studies (https://riviste.unige.it/aboutgender/). She has been a member of the Visual Sociology Laboratory (www.laboratoriosociologiavisuale.it) since 2014. Her substantive research areas include gender studies, sexuality studies, gender-based violence, digital media.Her methodological research areas include ethnography, netnography, creative and participative methods. mariella.popolla@edu.unige.it

Acknowledgements

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Publication Date

4-30-2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2025.8167

Recommended APA Citation

Abbatecola, E., & Popolla, M. (2025). Comics and photography: The new frontiers of the "reverse translation". The Qualitative Report, 30(4), 3515-3535. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2025.8167