[Air-L] CFP for Complexities of Researching with Young People

[Justine Humphry]

CALL FOR PAPERS FOR EDITED COLLECTION

Complexities of Researching with Young People

http://complexitiesofresearchwithyoungpeople.com/

Editorial team: Dr Paulina Billett (La Trobe University), Dr Justine
Humphry (University of Sydney) and Dr Matt Hart (University of Leicester)

Please send 300 to 500 word abstracts, and a 150 word author biography to
Paulina Billett at p.billett at latrobe.edu.au by January 15, 2018.

In this book, we aim to explore the complexities of researching with young
people across disciplines and national contexts. Researching with young
people is often as difficult as it is rewarding. Researchers must balance
the competing needs of institutions, funding bodies and ethics committees
with their own interests, and that of young people. While the majority of
ethical questions surrounding research with young people are centred on
issues of protection from harm and coercion, we argue that this is only the
proverbial ‘tip of the iceberg’. Rather, the complexities of researching
with young people are far more complex and nuanced, with notions such as
‘resilience’, ‘participation’, ‘risk’ and ‘voice’ being some of the key
issues that must be attended to as well as the new and varied landscapes of
the digital.

We are looking for chapter contributions on the following themes:
definitions of youth; consent and ethics; digital research; voice;
participation; and the pressures of researching with young people (more
information on each of these themes can be found below). We are interested
in submissions which discuss the complexities of youth research, rather
than submissions which describe ‘how to’ conduct youth research, or the
research process itself. Contributions are sought from researchers in the
Humanities, Media and Communications, and Social Sciences who currently
research with young people in a wide range of national and international
contexts. All contributions must be written in English.


Themes:

   -

   Definitions of youth - Youth is not a standalone concept, but a complex
   system of meanings and inferences about young people and their place in
   society.  Youth can be defined as a period of semi-dependence which young
   people pass through prior to the granting of adult status (Furlong and
   Cartmel, 1997), and it is a term used to describe the complex social,
   economic and cultural inequalities of one of the most dynamic groups within
   Western societies. However youth is a Western construct, and as such its
   meaning has differed between time periods and between cultures. Not
   surprisingly, defining who a young person is, is not a simple task. Under
   this theme, we invite contributions which examine the complexities of
   defining a young person across cultural groups. We also invite
   contributions which explore the difficulties that arise from attempting to
   undertake research in settings which may include a multitude of definitions
   or rejection of this category.


   -

   Consent and ethics - Issues of consent and ethics are a key aspect of
   creating sound youth research. While consent is intrinsically tied to
   issues of justice, why researchers exclude or include certain populations
   is at best poorly considered and at worst neglected (McDowell 2001). Much
   of the reason for this can be seen as stemming from society’s preoccupation
   with issues of protection, the likelihood of conflicts of interest, and
   potential harm to young people from unethical research practices, which has
   led to a standardisation of administrative aspects that influence the
   research process - including research design and approval at local, state
   and national levels. Under this theme, we seek contributions which examine
   the meaning of consent and place it within its larger cultural context. We
   are particularly interested in submissions that examine paradigms beyond
   Western constructs of capacity.


   -

   Digital - Digital environments call for researchers to develop
   sensitivity and awareness of how young people’s lives are being performed,
   recorded, and commodified. While youth in the digital are often sources of
   public and social anxiety (Hasinoff, 2014), some researchers are pushing
   back and taking strides to demonstrate the potential benefits young people
   can leverage through the digital. We seek contributions which explore the
   theoretical complexities and challenges of digital youth research;
   particularly around (but not limited to) the ethics of data capture and
   analysis, new research opportunities using digital tools (for example
   app-walkthroughs, visualisation, data-mining and scraping); and trends in
   digital research (such as digital rights for young people, digital
   influencers and taste-makers; digital capital and inclusion; sexualities,
   race and gender; and online activisms).



   -

   Voice - The theme of young people’s voices can be broken down into two
   or more interrelated components. Firstly, we are interested in ‘voice’
   as a subject of research, to identify and understand how young people’s
   voices are ‘made’ and ‘heard’, as well as the presentation of young
   people’s voice as a goal of research. Youth researchers have long sought to
   explore and prioritise young people’s voices in a context where they have
   often been relegated to the periphery, or subsumed in adult discourse.
   Secondly, in researching with young people, it is important to ensure that
   their voices are genuinely represented, however, this is often not easy to
   achieve. Youth researchers are at times faced with hurdles which must be
   overcome, including engaging young people in research, satisfying the
   requirements of ethics committees, and engaging vulnerable or difficult to
   reach groups of young people in the research process. The choice of where
   and who to research with is usually guided by practical aims of the
   research design and scope. The need to adhere to timelines and budgets can
   lead researchers to neglect more ‘difficult to engage’ or ‘vulnerable’
   groups for more accessible ones in order to expedite their projects,
   leading to the ‘invisibility’ and ‘muteness’ of some groups. Under this
   theme, we invite contributions which examine the complexities of
   researching with difficult to reach or less-accessible groups, and are
   particularly interested in the complexities of gaining ethical approval to
   research with these groups.


   -

   Participation - There are a number of issues which can be explored under
   this theme, on the one hand there are the complexities which arise from
   trying to understand what social, economic, cultural, or political
   participation means for young people, as well as to balance young people’s
   participation in research with the needs of the researcher, compliance with
   ethics committees, and timeline. This can at times lead to projects which
   are poorly designed and place young people as objects of research, rather
   than partners in the research process. On the other hand, contributions are
   sought on work which examines the complexities of using incentives for
   participation. Many researchers regard the use of incentives as a form of
   ‘bribery’ to increase participation rates, offering some kind of reward to
   young people for their contribution while other see it as an important
   acknowledgement of the time and effort invested by young people.


   -

   Pressures of researching with young people - There are a number of
   pressures involved in researching with young people, such as resource and
   timeline management, engaging with ethics committees, and the phenomenon of
   ‘drive-by’ research - particularly with easy to access groups and venues,
   such as schools. Drive-by research can also take the form of research which
   in no way elicits future feedback or input from young participants. Under
   this theme, we seek contributions which explore this complexity and shed
   some light on how ‘drive-by’ research can be avoided.



Please send 300 to 500 word abstracts, and a 150 word author biography to
Paulina Billett at p.billett at latrobe.edu.au by January 15, 2018.

Authors will be notified whether their proposal has been accepted or
declined by February 28, 2018. All chapters will be due for review by July
31, 2018.