Digital cameras: agents in research with children

Abstract

In a study on children's relations to outdoor places, 41 six- to eight-year-old children took photos with digital cameras during walks in schoolyards and nature environments. In the present article, the cameras and their role in the research process are in focus. A materialist approach has guided the analysis [Barad, K. 2003. “Post Humanist Performativity: Towards an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28 (3): 801–831 and Barad, K. M. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press]. The research process is seen as a materialist-discursive phenomenon in which several human and non-human agents intra-act. The results indicate that the cameras give rise to explorative activities and function as a third party in social situations. These activities occasionally counteract the purpose of the study.

Keywords:

• children's photographs
• digital cameras
• natural environments
• schoolyards
• agential materialism

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge The Swedish Research Council who funded the research project upon which this article is based. I would also like to thank Assistant Professor Anna Palmer and other colleagues at the Department of Youth and Child Studies, Stockholm University, Associate Professor Anne-Li Lindgren and Assistant Professor Anette Wickström at Child Studies, Linköping University and two anonymous referees, for their insightful comments, who have helped to improve earlier versions of the article.

Notes

1. These schools are called as ‘I Ur och Skur’ which means approximately ‘All-weather’. They are started in cooperation with Friluftsfrämjandet, a large Swedish organization for outdoor, leisure-time activities.

2. The ethical guidelines of the Swedish Research Council were followed. The project was also evaluated and approved by an ethics review board.