Photography as Social Transformation: How the Idea of Change Helps Us to Understand the Taking, Sharing,...

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Maciej Frąckowiak (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland)

Photography as Social Transformation

How the Idea of Change Helps Us to Understand the Taking, Sharing, and Debating of Images

Maciej Frąckowiak (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland)

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English

Routledge
03 June 2025

Art Forms; Photography & photographs; Research methods: general; Communication studies; Social theory

Photography as Social Transformation resituates the practices of photography within contemporary sociological thinking. It examines how photography influences and shapes social order in the social media age and offers a methodological framework for studying transformation, revealing the forms the process can take and the settings in which it occurs.

Photography and the transformation it effects is conceptualised using actor-network theory, allowing it to be effectively studied in the context of globalisation and the rapid spread of mobile devices. Going beyond consideration of the images themselves, Maciej Frąckowiak analyses the rituals and devices used to take them, the networks in which they circulate, conversations about them, and institutional attempts to regulate their content. More than ‘dead paper’ or a digital file or a visual representation, Photography as Social Transformation shows how photography is a complex social phenomenon, causal and capable of producing change.

Offering case studies from around the world and drawing on a range of sources, giving priority to media coverage from specialised and popular venues, Photography as Social Transformation is for students and scholars of the sociology of media, visual sociology, photographic methods in research, media and communications, cultural studies, and photography theory.

By: Maciej Frąckowiak (Adam Mickiewicz University Poland)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 600g
ISBN: 9781032803074
ISBN 10: 103280307X
Pages: 226
Publication Date: 03 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction Part I. Photography as a Network 1. Photography and Networking 2. Photographic Transformations 3. How to Study Photographic Transformation Part II. Forms of Photographic Transformations 4. Taking Photos 5. Making Visible 6. Mobilising the Network 7. Deliberating on Photography 8. Regulating Photos and Their Circulation 9. Other Uses of Photos Part III. Against Photographic Heroism 10. The Dereification of Photography 11. Pseudo-activity? From Photo-activism to Photo-intervention Conclusion. One More Look at Photographic Transformation

Maciej Frąckowiak, PhD in sociology, is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Sociology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. His publications and research projects lie at the intersection of visual studies, public spaces, everyday practices, and the sociology of creative professions and activism. A believer in public sociology, he collaborates with local government institutions, non-governmental organisations, and professionals from the cultural sector. Currently he is researching the ideas and practices of collaboration within Polish photography groups, and developing methodologies for post-photographic studies in the social sciences.