In the space between us: reflections for adult audience members of youth-centered participatory research

Abstract

Performances of research are moments of encounter – between audience and performer, between audience and researcher, and in the instance of youth-centered critical participatory action research, between adults and young people. This piece considers the form and metaphor of artistic performances of research to interrogate the social constructions of adolescent and adult. Using an analysis of adult audience responses to five artistically embodied performances of youth-centered research, I focus on adult audience members’ declarations of shock, appeals for direction about taking action, and expressions of feeling inspired by the youth and their research. Through an analysis of these audience responses, I consider how research narratives travel, how data is interpreted, how power might be (re)arranged, and especially the ways that research performances can be an opportunity for making sense of and radically re-imagining adulthood, adolescence, and the spaces between us.