Bilder als soziale Praxis: Grundlegungen einer Soziologie des Visuellen

(Post-)modern societies can be understood as "visual cultures." Despite the ubiquity of images in social life, social theorists have, to date, paid little attention to images and "the visual." This paper aims to outline what can be understood as a sociology of the visual. It suggests two new concepts - "visual logic" and "visual rationality" - to analyze imaging practices from a sociological perspective. By drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the area of medical imaging, the paper shows how these concepts serve as analytical tools to explore and understand imaging practices in medicine.