The Visual Politics of Recognition: Understanding the Role of Images in Recognition Encounters

Project Information

VISUAL

Grant agreement ID: 838856

DOI

10.3030/838856

Project closed

EC signature date 23 April 2019

Start date 1 January 2022

End date 1 November 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 219 312,00

EU contribution

€ 219 312,00

Coordinated by

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VISUAL (The Visual Politics of Recognition: Understanding the Role of Images in Recognition Encounters)

Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2023-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Images are an important component of recognition between states: official photographs of high-level summit meetings, or images circulated by state representatives over Twitter, are used to visualise positive or negative interstate relationships that reflect, or challenge, established recognition dynamics. Despite the political importance of recognition, there are currently no studies on the visual politics of this process in International Relations. The purpose of the VISUAL project is to take the field a step further through the development of an innovative and original typology for the visual politics of recognition.

In VISUAL we have the unique opportunity to advance our knowledge of the role images play in global politics. Using a theoretically-driven, exploratory analytical methodology employing a mixed-methods approach, the project theorizes and conceptualises successful and failed recognition by situating images within a process we know is politically significant: G7 summit meetings and the ongoing war in Ukraine. In addition hereto, VISUAL explores the role of gender in the visual politics of recognition, developing a feminist visual methodology, the first of its kind in International Relations. Using the 'case plus study' methodology, VISUAL will address three main research questions across three sub-studies: 1) What are the visual modalities of recognition, successful and failed? 2) How are rival interpretations of recognition in international relationships visualised? 3) How are gender norms reproduced or challenged in images signifying successful or failed recognition?

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Main results achieved so far:

1) Development of theoretical framework to understand the impact of how the physical engagement with digital social media images via smartphones connects to high-level diplomatic encounters between nations. Published in Millennium, and available in EU-supported Open Access repository, the framework as defined in this article provides a novel strategy for other researchers to use to better understand social media images and their effects on diplomacy more broadly. It also provides the first step in thinking through the dynamics of recognition at the international level, by taking seriously the links between the visual, the body and emotions as they unfold through smartphone social media use.

2) Collation and analysis of an extensive image data set across the two primary cases – the G7 diplomatic summit images from official government websites between 2013 up until 2023, and digital images from official Ukrainian government accounts on Twitter, Flickr and the Ukrainian government website between 2019-2024. This body of images is novel in its construction and focus, and offers another avenue to understand and analyse diplomatic encounters beyond official statements.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

VISUAL has developed novel theoretical and data-based analyses of the role of images in diplomatic encounters, which builds on critical and methodological engagement with the concept of recognition theory at the international level. Given the current global political environment, which is very image- and social media-based, the insights made available from this project will contribute towards policy objectives around societal digital literacy and understanding how digital images impact on the ways people think about issues and events, and bilateral and multilateral trade and diplomacy. It will also provide insight into how digital images are used to signal (in)secure relations between different nations. In doing so, it also contributes to policy development around gender equality, by communicating how gender stereotyping and structural inequalities based on gender roles and expectations still remain a functional part of high-level diplomatic practices and actions.

Day One of the 2022 G7 Summit at Schloss Elmau (Source: Federal Government/Balk)