Using performative participatory research to explore the meanings of sport, celebrity and community in young people’s lives

Abstract

Building on the increasing academic interest in collaborative participatory research, this paper introduces Performative Participatory Research (PPR) as a way of meaningfully engaging (young) people in research and ensuring useful outcomes when time-scales are short. Our case involved a project exploring young people’s engagements with sport, particularly how consumption of football underpins different forms of solidarity, belonging and community. The paper focuses on three activities that were used to not only build rapport and trust but also generate novel perspectives on the subject: a pre-match press conference, a player profile film and the design of a social media campaign. We argue that PPR generates positive outcomes and valuable data when looking to address disempowered or difficult to engage groups in research. Whilst our focus was on the connection between football and celebrity in the lives of young people, the methods could be adapted to understand other cultural interests with other demographics.