Marginalised Youth Navigating Uncertainty: Reflections on Co-construction and Methodology in Nepal

Abstract

Research on youth and uncertainty has been co-constructed with partners and marginalised young people in Ethiopia and Nepal. This Youth Uncertainty Rights (YOUR) World Research is a three-year funded programme of research with national researchers in Ethiopia and Nepal and it employs creative visual, narrative and moving methods that have been developed during the first phases of the research programme. The focus here is on post-conflict Nepal including the three sites: the streets and slums of Kathmandu; the environmentally fragile earthquake-affected area of Sindhupalchowk; and Kapilvastu on the Plains, which was highly affected by armed conflict and later by communal violence. The authors have reflected on our methodological learning from participatory and qualitative research with youth in extreme poverty and who are vulnerable in society. In this chapter we reflect on how to identify who are the most marginalised youth, how they feel most engaged and how this helps us to understand uncertainty, community dynamics and social justice in their complex lives.