Picturing urban inequality: Using photography assignments to teach social equity issues in urban administration courses

Abstract

Cities are often sites of inequality, some which is directly attributable to choices made by public administrators or as a result of public policy decisions. As educators, it is important to ensure future public affairs professionals understand the ways the choices they make can further inequality and inequity or, instead, work to alleviate it. In this paper, we propose using participatory photography assignments to help students see the inequality present in their environments. Participatory photography assignments allow students to take an active role in the creation and generation of knowledge, focus their attention on their community, and engage more directly with course concepts. We demonstrate how two versions of a photography assignment can be used to teach urban politics concepts using student-generated photography. While we frame these in terms of urban politics and inequality, participatory photography and the assignments suggested here are readily adaptable to courses across the curriculum.