It's not just a method! The epistemic and political work of young people's lifeworlds at the school–prison nexus

Abstract

In 2008, a New York City‐based youth research collective formed to document the different types of interaction young people have within the securitized space of some of New York City public high schools. This article describes the inquiry methods of this research group, and by examining selected image‐based and written data that youth researchers created of their securitized school grounds, this mixed‐method and participatory action research‐inspired study interrogates to what degree criminal‐justice‐oriented school safety practices affect young people's perceived, conceived and lived experiences with space in schools. The data collection and analysis were guided by the work of Henri Lefebvre (1991) and Edward Soja (1996) whose theoretical framework focuses on the social processes of space production to situate young people's daily lived experiences at school as lifeworlds amidst intensified penalizing school safety and security procedures. This article emphasizes youth‐directed image‐based research of space as both a methodology and epistemology to deeply examine some of the long‐term effects that the school–prison nexus has on young people's educational attainment.