Visuelle Kommunikation und die Ethnomethoden der Ethnographie

Sociology mostly treats visuality either as a research object or as a method. Instead, I suggest that both can be drawn together and discussed symmetrically as instances of visual communication. This enables us to observe different layers of social practices not only in a verbal but also in a visual dimension. How do members of a situation communicate visually using artifacts, apparel, gestures, pointing or displaying? Furthermore, questions of methodology can be raised on an empirical base: ethnography itself can be described as a social practice that??using specific ethno-methods??systematically links situations and communications in order to reconstruct other social practices for sociological reasons. It uses, intensifies and produces traces of the observed practice and transfers them into sociological communication that can draw on visual communication, too.