five - Methodologically sound? Participatory research at a community radio station

Summary

Introduction

This chapter is based on a research project that used the case study of KCC Live, a volunteer youth-led community radio station situated in Knowsley, neighbouring Liverpool, UK. The station typically has a 14–25 year old volunteer base, although at the time of conducting this research all volunteers were over the age of 16, and there were a number of volunteers over the age of 25. I conducted this research using a mixed methods approach, employed through a participatory design. I drew on a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, namely: 18 months of observant participation at KCC Live; interviews with management at KCC Live and Knowsley Community College; interviews and focus groups with volunteers; a listener survey; listener diaries; and follow-up interviews with listeners. I chose the above methods as they enabled engagement with the broad range of communities involved in KCC Live, including the listening audience, as well as the volunteer body and staff. In addition, these methods were well suited to the ethnographic nature of the research, allowing for in-depth exploration of the research topic. In this chapter, I reflexively detail how the methods evolved within the field, owing to the participatory design of the project. I problematise the alleged emancipatory potential of participatory research and, in detailing the co-production of audio artefacts in this project, I argue that the meaning of ‘participatory’ in participatory research should be determined in communication with study participants. Only then can research be considered truly participatory.

Youth-led participatory research

Since the 1990s, research with children and young people has witnessed significant changes that have stood to challenge traditional research methods (Weller, 2006), and have endeavoured to dismantle conceptions of children as mindless and deviant (see Pain, 2003). Consequently, the literature has witnessed a surge in children-centred, and less so young people-centred, research methods. Such methods endeavour to remedy power inequities by supporting participants to choose their own methods of communication (Valentine, 1999; Weller, 2006). This is in line with the emphasis on young people's agency in children's geographies (for example, Holloway and Valentine, 2000). Pain and Kindon (2007: 2807) argue that, owing to the ‘inherently spatial’ nature of participation, geographers have major contributions to make to participatory theory.