Visualising urban inequalities: the ethics of videography and documentary filmmaking in water research

Visual methods are becoming increasingly popular in social sciences, but are still little explored when it comes to water related studies. Drawing on literature on visual methods and documentary filmmaking, this paper reflects on the role and potential of videography to capture and visualise inequalities in urban water supply and access. The paper is based on research undertaken over a period of 4 years, in which a mix of talk based and videographic methods were used to capture the production of uneven conditions of access to water in Lilongwe, Malawi and Maputo, Mozambique. It reflects on the important and unique ethical questions raised by video-based methods, including the data collection process, the type of knowledge that is produced, how it is mobilised, who has access to it and the relation between representation of social reality and the power of storytelling.