Past event Part of series: Researching Youth – Methods Seminar Series
For those Youth Researchers considering, or already undertaking an ethnographic approach, this session will explore differing approaches to ethnography, focusing in particular on the embodied experience and the digital realm.
Ian McGimpsey & Frances Howard will explore the opportunities and constraints of ethnography as a research method alongside the conflicts that ethnographers may face in different settings. Together we celebrate ethnographers’ scope for playful, creative engagement within youth spaces which can be constrained by local social relations and programme funders. Our ethnographic evaluative research explores the positionality of researchers working in local places and the micropolitics of the research representations they construct. We argue that our presence, time and playfulness can seek to disrupt the capturing of young people as subjects and the locale as policy territory.
Moving ethnographic methodology online, Harry Dyer investigates some of the methodological issues raised by working in digital spaces with youth, and the possibilities of digital methods and methodologies. This will explore some of the methodological and ethical issues raised by digital ethnographic research during the pandemic to explore what is being amplified and silenced online when we consider young people. We will also critically explore the assumptions of voice online, drawing on the pioneering work of Black female digital researchers to unpack why digital spaces tends to amplify what Tressie Cottom calls ‘roaming autodidacts’ and how we might avoid listening to the loud voices alone in digital spaces. Finally, we will explore the volume of data online, looking at the rise of ‘big data’ and how ethnography can respond to this volume of data.
Following these short presentations, there will be space for event attendees to share questions, ideas and their own approaches to ethnography within Youth Research.
| 13:30 | Welcome & BERA Introduction |
| 13:35 | Moving ethnographic methodology online Harry Dyer, University of East Anglia |
| 13:55 | Time, presence and playfulness: ethnography within youth settings Frances Howard, Nottingham Trent University & Ian McGimpsey University of Birmingham |
| 14:15 | Provocation |
| 14:25 | Discussion in breakout rooms |
| 15:00 | Sharing and Event close |
Watching a BERA Virtual event
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Professor of Sociology of Education at University of Birmingham
Ian McGimpsey is Associate Professor of Education in the Department of Education and Social Justice at the University of Birmingham. His work is concerned with inequality and social justice, and has a conceptual focus on assemblage and the...
Associate Professor in Youth Research at Nottingham Trent University
Dr Frances Howard is an Associate Professor of Youth Research at Nottingham Trent University. Frances’ research focuses on the arts and youth work, and as an ethnographer, she frequently draws upon creative methods in youth settings. She also...
Lecturer in Education at University of East Anglia
Harry joined UEA as a lecturer in education after successfully completing his PhD at UEA in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning. He has a broad academic background, with degrees in linguistics and social science research methods, as...
Does your research involve working with young people? Are you interested in youth-led, creative or culturally-responsive methodologies? The British Educational Research Association (BERA) special...
The special interest of the SIG is in research and scholarship relating to theory, policy and practice issues in Youth Studies and Youth and Community Work. These include: youth transitions and...
Founded in 1951, the British Sociological Association (BSA) is the national subject association for sociologists in the UK and its primary objective is to promote sociology. The BSA is the largest sociological network in the UK and is the public face of sociology in Britain.
About us
Since 1950, the objectives of our Association have been ‘to promote the development of political studies and to encourage education and the advancement of learning in the art and science of government and in other branches of the political sciences’. From democracy to dictatorship and local councils to international organisations, Political Studies examines how power is obtained, kept, lost, mobilised, divided, used and abused. It asks who gains and who loses from these processes and why. Politics is studied in theory and in practice, often using scientitic methods.
About us
Young people are the primary constituency of most educational institutions. Questions of socialisation, the transition into economic participation and the duties of citizenship are important...
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