Suchergebnisse

The process of gaining research access in the social sciences is becoming increasingly difficult. Changes in legislation and an increasingly managerialist and risk-averse approach to service provision have contributed to organizations adopting a protectionist stance when it comes to granting research access. The student researcher's experience of negotiating this research access landscape has been neglected. This article explores the findings from three case studies of gaining research access to social service organizations for the purpose of undertaking PhD research. It outlines the reflexive approach which was adopted, through peer support and discussion groups, in order to develop the ideas presented. The article utilizes emerging evidence, policy and identity theory to contextualize and develop understanding around the difficulties experienced in these three case studies. In particular the article highlights how issues of identity impact on the research access process. The article suggests strategies for gaining research access which could be adopted by student researchers, supervisors and universities. The article also recommends that issues to do with research governance and research access be considered in plans aimed at developing social work research capacity.

Acknowledgements -- Notes on the contributors -- List of abbreviations -- Introduction: children and young people's participation in collective decision-making -- Reflections on participation and its link with transformative processes -- De-colonising the notion of participation of children and young people -- Children and young people's participation in public action in Brazil : genealogies and recent innovations -- Brazil's landless movement and children and young people's participation -- Children and young people's participation in India : framing law, policy and the media -- Transformative participation : experiences of a children's sangam in Tamil Nadu (South India) -- Unsettling notions of participation : a view from South Africa -- Growing up in a time of AIDS : the shining recorders of Zisize -- Children should be seen and heard? : children and young people's participation in the UK -- Transforming the urban environment : the ecocity project -- Conclusion: unlearning participation -- Bibliography

Participation has become a rallying cry for those committed to respecting children and young people as social actors in their own right, as a part of communities and societies. Yet children and young people's participation has faced considerable challenges in realizing the rhetoric, with concerns being raised that too much emphasis has been placed on the process of participation and too little emphasis on its broader aim. This book brings together theories, ideas, insights and experiences of practitioners and researchers from Brazil, India, South Africa and the UK on the theme of children and young people's involvement in public action. It explores the potential of children and young people's participation to be transformative and to challenge social and cultural structures that reproduce inequality and oppression. This book will be particularly appealing to those interested in children's rights, childhood and youth studies, and development studies.