Stories from the Field.

Last night I went along to DE's talk series, to hear Ronan Sharkeys stories from the field. Ronan is a delightful story teller and made some potent points not only for researchers but anyone involved in advocacy and social change. He challenges the myth that young people are apathetic and reveals many instances of engaged young people who have taken the time to write to the ABC, in great detail, about their concerns. I know from my own experience in the field young people do care and would jump at the chance to get involved - provided they feel like it's going to make a difference and they will learn something in the process.

Ronan feels the way to get young people more involved is to make them the authority - give them the microphone and let them investigate and tell the story. This has wider implications for the research process ... how many of us enable participants share their lives with us, on their terms? Would this mean sending out digital video cameras and voice recorders more often, asking people to take charge of how they'd like to report back to the researchers, giving them the power to truely represent themselves.

... We have done this and it can reveal some wonderful spaces otherwise inaccessible to a researcher - for instance one teenager gave us a tour of his shed, playing instuments as he told stories about his time spent in his shed. This kind of performative storytelling opens up a proximity and creates an intimacy difficult to replicate in a one on one interview or discussion group. The pace of the performance, the pauses and the changing energy levels of the participant bring us closer to their world.

The link to Ronan's talk is below:

http://digitaleskimo.net/blog/2009/05/11/de-talks-series