Paper short abstract:

Through photographs and written narratives, women entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan are brought centre-stage in this multi-disciplinary research project. Using visual methodologies, alongside more conventional social research methods, the women’s stories are made accessible to a broad public audience.

Paper long abstract:

Visual anthropologist Dr Alexander Parkyn-Smith joined Dr Shumaila Yousafzai’s team from Nazarbayev University’s Research Centre for Entrepreneurship (NURCE) in their research into the experiences of women in Kyrgyzstan engaged in Community Based Tourism (CBT) initiatives.

This discussion covers the processes involved in incorporating visual methodologies into a wider academic research project – in this instance outside of social scientific disciplinary borders. The presentation explains the potential benefits of bringing a social scientist into a business studies research group, the ethical and practical challenges of adapting fieldwork to incorporate space for creative practice, and the institutional barriers faced when trying to incorporate visual methods in research structures traditionally centred on written outputs.

The final part of the discussion explains the multiple outputs (photobook, public exhibition, and journal articles) which evidence the value-added benefits of bringing visual practitioners into diverse academic research contexts.