Participatory research and design are common and established ways of adults working with young people, with the intention of genuinely including the ideas and creativity of young people. There are concerns, however, that adults create contrived spaces of participation where young people are pushed through a process that has been predefined by the adult researchers’. Instead, DRGL explores the question of how adult researchers might create spaces and opportunities for young people to come together and self-organise to do or achieve something in which they are interested. The project will bring together two groups of 8 young people from Manchester CoderDojo and the Woodcraft Folk to respond to a ‘challenge’ to self-organise a project with a £3,000 budget. This process will be researched from two perspectives: The adult research team will reflect on the process of letting go of power in a research project and how the young people engage with the challenge. The young people will document the project, using the approach and media they most prefer.

Principle Investigator:

Dr James Duggan, Manchester Metropolitan University

Co-Investigators:

Dr Sabine Hielscher, Research Fellow, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex

Dr Giuseppe Salvia, Research Fellow, Nottingham Trent University

Shaimaa Zaher El Naggar (Lancaster University)