Visual discourse analysis in historical research: A case of visual archaeology?

In this essay I complement the methodological practice of organizational discourse studies. My contribution lies in using visual discourse analysis in a historical research setting – I call this methodological approach ‘visual archaeology’. I highlight this method by reporting an empirical case from the presidential leadership of Urho Kekkonen of Finland. After going through the research process of my study, I present the emergent photo-essay, showing and explaining my theoretical reading of the empirical material that I collected. The essay concludes with a discussion of the contributions of this approach for the practice of conducting visual discourse studies in historical organizational research.