Combining Participatory and Audiovisual Methods with Young Roma “Affected by Mobility”

Abstract

The use of audio-visual methods as a source of data for social inquiry has gained momentum, especially in research with migrant children and young people. For many youth scholars, photos and videos are used both as field notebooks and as working tools that can be employed during interviews or in creating personal diaries to unearth feelings and thoughts that otherwise would remain unexplored. However, producing, viewing and examining visual data together also creates the conditions to develop the collaborative potential that is inherent in the relationship between researchers and young participants. Building on a multi-sited ethnography with a group of Romanian Roma adolescents with different mobility experiences, this chapter offers a theoretically-informed empirical account of the failures, negotiations, and opportunities disclosed by the use of participatory video-making in ethnographic research with underprivileged young people “affected by mobility”.