Can the subaltern be seen? Photographic colonialism in service learning

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the unaddressed phenomenon of photographic colonialism using service learning to illustrate the way in which photos and visual imagery are allowed to go unchallenged within educational media and qualitative research.

Design/methodology/approach

This essay draws on Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s seminal essay to ask: “Can the subaltern be seen?” By so doing, it explores the manner in which photography produced from a Eurocentric gaze re-presents and speaks for the subaltern, particularly within the context of qualitative research and educational photos displayed in the colonizer’s image.

Findings

The colonizing impact of photographic methods also permits for the washing away of cultural, historical, and political responsibility for the plight faced by the subaltern.

Originality/value

This paper, moreover, seeks to challenge and disrupt the ways in which we accept, ignore, deny, and standby when photos of the subaltern are used to perpetuate the coloniality of power (Quijano, 2000), despite post-colonial claims.

Citation

Hernandez, K. (2018), "Can the subaltern be seen? Photographic colonialism in service learning", Qualitative Research Journal, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 190-197. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-D-17-00051