Special issue on democratizing research for social justice: The role of digital technologies and audio-visual tools

Abstract

The use of digital technologies and audiovisual tools in social research is, more than a trending topic, opening new potentials to the way knowledge is produced, shared and disseminated (Pink, 2013; Stanczak, 2007; Pauwels, 2010). However, there is a growing critical literature that also highlights shortcomings and risks that deploying these tools could pose to researchers and communities in the field (Banks, 2007; Gubrium et al, 2014; Mitchell, 2011; Kleine, 2013) The special issue we introduce here, arise from the question we, as guest editors, were concerned ourselves with: how are digital technologies and audiovisual tools in research contributing to social justice? We were particularly interested in hearing from researchers who are focusing their work on issues related to social justice in either the global South or North.