Susie Weller

“Is it fun?” developing children centred research methods

Over the past ten years, geographers have contributed to the growing body of interdisciplinary research developing new ways of undertaking research with children. Traditional research methods which do not directly involve working with children, such as the large scale observation of children, have been criticised for carrying out research on rather than with children. Instead, drawing upon the increasingly important children’s rights movement, researchers have been developing inclusive and participatory children centred methodologies, which place the voices of children, as social actors, at the centre of the research process. In this paper, we draw upon two ongoing postgraduate geographical research projects with children to reflect upon our own experiences of adopting children centred research methodologies. We also critically evaluate our own use of different innovative children centred research techniques, such as photographs, diaries, in‐depth interviews and surveys.We also highlight the importance of considering the impact of the spaces in which we conduct our research.

Transitions, Networks and Communities: The Significance of Social Capital in the Lives of Children and Young People.

The theoretical fathers of social capital (Putnam, Coleman and Bourdieu) are criticised for seeing children as passive recipients of parental social capital rather than active producers, and recent literature and debate has attempted to correct this earlier imbalance. We contribute to this work by using social capital as a lens through which to explore transitions, networks and communities in the lives of children and young people. Drawing on three studies from the Families and Social Capital ESRC Research Group programme, we highlight the diverse experiences of young people through a broad spectrum of participants aged 11–30 from different class, ethnic and faith backgrounds, living in a range of national and transnational contexts. We reject the deficit model of young peoples social capital, demonstrating the many and varied ways that children and young people develop and use social capital to negotiate important transitions and construct their identities.

Skateboarding Alone? Making Social Capital Discourse Relevant to Teenagers’ Lives

Bound to the notion of teenage apathy is the concern that young people are increasingly disengaged from political and community issues and lacking in social capital. Voting is often regarded as the ultimate form of civic engagement, which implicitly excludes young teenagers from consideration through their status as non-voters. Teenagers’ alternative forms of participation are rarely valued as legitimate acts of civic engagement. As a result, many of the dominant writers on social capital neglect teenagers’ abilities to generate and utilize social capital. Drawing on a three-year research project undertaken with over 600 teenagers aged 13–16, this paper uses three illustrative examples to highlight the ways in which teenagers deploy their social capital in order to transform people and places in two key ways. Firstly, teenagers’ alternative forms of civic engagement are highlighted, demonstrating the ways in which many (re)shape their environments by, for example, campaigning for skate park facilities. Secondly, teenagers’ alternative understandings of community, many of which are associated with lifestyle choices, are explored. In doing so, the paper brings to the fore the significance of teenagers’ social capital.

Young people's social capital: complex identities, dynamic networks

Abstract Social capital has become an increasingly popular concept in policy discussions surrounding integration and social cohesion. Within the UK, numerous policy-makers have drawn heavily on the work of influential social capital theorist Robert Putnam, whose recent thinking has been implicated in debates concerning identity, diversity and cohesion. What is meant by ‘diversity’ is subject to conjecture. Arguably, identities and affiliations are more complex than often presented in social capital debates. Drawing on material from an ongoing longitudinal study, the paper addresses the relative neglect afforded to young peoples networks and resources by focusing on the role many play in creating social capital within families. Acknowledging the significance of time and space, the paper explores the interface between different aspects of identity and the dynamic nature of social networks. In doing so, the need to take a more nuanced and context-sensitive approach to the analysis of social capital is highlighted.

Shifting analytic ontology: using I-poems in qualitative longitudinal research

In this article we highlight the way that different qualitative analytic methods implicitly place the interpretive analyst in different sorts of relationship to their interview subject and their data. The process of data analysis constructs an analytic mode of being in relation to the interviewee and their social reality. In particular, we illustrate this point through a detailed consideration of the analytic process involved in producing I-poems from qualitative longitudinal interview data (derived from Gilligan and colleagues’ ‘Listening Guide’), to explore change and continuity in a case study young person’s sense of self over time. We contrast how we understood those changes and continuities through the different analytic angles provided by the gaze of thematic analysis and the voices identified through I-poems.

Evolving creativity in qualitative longitudinal research with children and teenagers

The past two decades have been an exciting and productive time for research with children and teenagers, with many studies at the forefront of developing research practices infused with creativity and innovation. Such approaches are often participatory, using methods that draw upon and incorporate children and teenagers’ diverse skills and interests to foster active participation in the research process. Similarly, innovation and adaptation feature as trademarks of much qualitative longitudinal research that is, by its very nature, dynamic and evolving. Utilising personal reflection and participant feedback, this paper draws on an ongoing qualitative longitudinal study with over 50 children and teenagers to contemplate the potentials and pitfalls involved in the long-term use of creative methods and approaches. In doing so, it focuses on three elements of the research process, namely participant involvement, data collection and analysis and dissemination, to explore the evolving nature of creativity in qualitative longitudinal research.

Tuning-in to teenagers! Using radio phone-in discussions in research with young people

Since the 1990s, research with children has witnessed epistemological changes which have challenged traditional research methods and have attempted to deconstruct notions of children as passive and incompetent. Such changes, epitomized by children‐centred research methods, aim to redress power imbalances by encouraging participants to select their own forms of communication. Participation and innovation are central to this approach. Simultaneously, but quite distinct from research methodology, community radio has become an important mechanism in promoting social inclusion. Globally, this means of community participation has been advocated by organizations that have utilized radio as an educational tool for promoting children’s rights. This paper suggests that the synthesis of radio phone‐in discussions with the ‘New Social Studies of Childhood’ forms a constructive basis for developing a participatory research method. Methodological issues arising from a teenage‐centred radio phone‐in will be explored. The paper concludes by discussing the viability of the radio phone‐in as a meaningful method for promoting teenagers’, often unheard, voices.

Critical Approaches to Care : Understanding Caring Relations, Identities and Cultures

What does ‘care’ mean in contemporary society? How are caring relationships practised in different contexts? What resources do individuals and collectives draw upon in order to care for, care with and care about themselves and others? How do such relationships and practices relate to broader social processes? Care shapes people’s everyday lives and relationships and caring relations and practices influence the economies of different societies. This interdisciplinary book takes a nuanced and context-sensitive approach to exploring caring relationships, identities and practices within and across a variety of cultural, familial, geographical and institutional arenas. Grounded in rich empirical research and discussing key theoretical, policy and practice debates, it provides important, yet often neglected, international and cross-cultural perspectives. It is divided into four sections covering: caring within educational institutions; caring amongst communities and networks; caring and families; and caring across the life-course. Contributing to broader theoretical, philosophical and moral debates associated with the ethics of care, citizenship, justice, relationality and entanglements of power, Critical Approaches to Care is an important work for students and academics studying caring and care work in the fields of health and social care, sociology, social policy, anthropology, education, human geography and politics.

Using internet video calls in qualitative (longitudinal) interviews: some implications for rapport

Abstract Forming part of the new ‘methodological frontier’ the use of digital communication technologies has become increasingly commonplace in social research. Whilst audio-only online interviews and asynchronous means of communicating online has been discussed for over two decades, video capabilities; being able to see a participant face-to-face online (e.g. via Skype, Face Time, Google Hangouts) is a much more recent phenomenon. Discussion of such new opportunities has tended to centre on the practicalities and technicalities. Alternatively, this paper moves beyond the recent empiricist focus to reflect critically on the implications of using internet video calls on methodological matters of importance to qualitative (longitudinal) researchers. Drawing on a long-standing qualitative longitudinal study following lives of over 50 young people, the paper focuses on the potentials and pitfalls for rapport of using internet video calls for qualitative interviewing. The findings have resonance for short-term studies, and longitudinal endeavours.

Sibling relationships and the construction of young people's gendered identities over time and in different spaces

This article explores the way that the assertion, negotiation and sanctioning of masculinity and femininity, and the construction and reconstruction of gendered identities and sexuality, are part of everyday relationships between brothers and sisters, located in time and place. This stands in some contrast to the dominant ‘cause and effect’ outcome model that characterises much research on sibling relationships. We use in-depth case studies drawn from a qualitative longitudinal study of young people’s prescribed and chosen relationships to explore how continuities and changes in the markers and dynamics of gendered identities are embedded in and constructed through the ebbs and flows of sibling relationships over time and in specific locations.