New Wine in New Wineskins: Uses and Applications of Image and Memory for Social Innovation

Abstract

Using a visual registration technique from the 19th century in the 21st century in a context of social research has been a task that led to a strategy of social innovation for the people and communities with whom we have worked. In a first section we present the context of the history of chemical photography in Mexico. The work aimed to positively influence the recognition of individual and collective memory and identity for the recovery of spaces in the contemporary city as well as strengthening social and family cohesion in minority groups in the state of Puebla in Mexico. This work was carried out with three social groups: the first, children from a home in vulnerable conditions, the second with university students from public schools, and the third with families of Italians from a 19th century migration. Through these works, it was intended to influence the recovery of urban spaces as a strategy of social innovation, based on the methods and techniques of semiotic analysis of photography and the reconstruction of oral history, using chemical photography as the center of the works of the investigation. The work has the strength to use low-cost resources to promote the reflection of collective processes and identities linked to social recognition and strengthen relationships and interactions that, being weakened, produce social violence. However, the real impact and quantification of the achievements of the project present a challenge that can only be addressed in the continuous evaluation in the years after the study is carried out and it will be difficult to quantify the positive impact on numerical indicators.