From youth culture to adolescent sexuality to the consumer purchasing power of children en masse, studies are flourishing. Yet doing research on this unquestionably more vulnerable--whether five or fifteen--population also poses a unique set of challenges and dilemmas for researchers. How should a six-year-old be approached for an interview? What questions and topics are appropriate for twelve year olds? Do parents need to give their approval for all studies?In Representing Youth, Amy L. Best has assembled an important group of essays from some of today's top scholars on the subject of youth that address these concerns head on, providing scholars with thoughtful and often practical answers to their many methodological concerns. These original essays range from how to conduct research on youth in ways that can be empowering for them, to issues of writing and representation, to respecting boundaries and to dealing with issues of risk and responsibility to those interviewed. For anyone doing research or working with children and young adults, Representing Youth offers an indispensable guide to many of the unique dilemmas that research with kids entails.Contributors include: Amy L. Best, Sari Knopp Biklen, Elizabeth Chin, Susan Driver, Marc Flacks, Kathryn Gold Hadley, Madeline Leonard, C.J. Pascoe, Rebecca Raby, Alyssa Richman, Jessica Taft, Michael Ungar, Yvonne Vissing, and Stephani Etheridge Woodson.
AcknowledgmentsIntroductionAmy L. BestPart I Framing Youth: De?nitional Boundaries and Ambiguities1 Across a Great Gulf? Rebecca Raby2 "Label Jars Not People"Marc Flacks3 Grow 'em StrongMichael Ungar4 A Roof over Their HeadYvonne VissingPart II From the Field: Adults in Youth Worlds5 With a Capital "G": Gatekeepers and Gatekeeping in Research with Children Madeline Leonard6 Will the Least-Adult Please Stand Up? Life as "Older Sister Katy" in a Taiwanese Elementary School Kathryn Gold Hadley7 The Outsider Lurking Online: Adults Researching Youth Cybercultures Alyssa Richman8 Racing Age: Re?ections on Antiracist Research with Teenage Girls Jessica Karen Taft9 "What If a Guy Hits on You?": Intersections of Gender, Sexuality, and Age in Fieldwork with Adolescents C. J. PascoePart III Activating Youth: Youth Agency, Collaboration, and Representation10 Trouble on Memory Lane: Adults and Self-Retrospection in Researching Youth Sari Knopp Biklen11 Power-Puff Ethnography/Guerrilla Research: Children as Native Anthropologists Elizabeth Chin12 Performing Youth: Youth Agency and the Production of Knowledge in Community-Based Theater Stephani Etheridge Woodson13 Beyond "Straight" Interpretations: Researching Queer Youth Digital Video Susan DriverAbout the Contributors Index
