Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 15 No. 1 (2005) ISSN: 1546-2250 Doing Research with Children and Young People Fraser, Sandy and Lewis, Vicky and Ding, Sharon (2004). London: Sage Publications; 294 pages. $39.95. ISBN 0761943811. What are we trying to do when we carry out research with children and young people? What are some of the obstacles and possibilities we may encounter? This book offers an introduction to this topic, written for both students and practitioners across a range of disciplines including education, welfare, childhood and youth studies, psychology and sociology. This edited collection has been written to accompany a course run by the Open University in England called Research with Children and Young People. Its focus is on the “why” of doing research with children rather than on the “how.” The editors acknowledge that the emphasis is on high-income countries, but the issues raised and the case studies provided will have relevance to those working in a range of contexts. Many of the contributors write from first-hand experience about the complexities of carrying out research with rather than on children and young people; this distinction is a recurring theme throughout the book. Priscilla Alderson, who has written widely on the subject of the ethics of research with children, offers the following remark in her chapter (p.101): 369 It is as if we put children into a small glass cage called childhood, and then examine how they perform within the cage’s restrictions, instead of looking critically at the cage itself, its causes and effects. The book draws attention to some of the structural issues which may hinder research with children and youth. The four sections of the book follow key points in the research process, from “setting the context,” through “research relations,” to engaging with the “diversity” of research populations and finally, “relevance, evaluation and dissemination.” It could be argued that readers might benefit from more discussion of the analysis of research data, and children’s involvement in that process. The introductory section explores different contexts of research with children including the empirical nature of social and psychological research, constructions of childhood and the legal context. The section on “research relations” looks thematically at some of the major questions in research, whether the focus is on children or adults. These include considerations of power, ethics, and gender. Adele Jones’ chapter in this section examines the possibilities offered by working with children as co-researchers as one way of conducting research with children. The section on “diversity” includes age differences as a diversity issue. Chapters address the particular questions raised by research about early childhood (with children from birth to five years), middle childhood (five to 11 years—when children in the UK are in primary school) and young people (12 years and over). Other chapters examine disability, race and ethnicity, and participatory action research in low-income countries. The final section considers the implications of research with children. It focuses on three areas: education, health and social care and childhood studies. These contributions offer a critical analysis of the reality of disseminating research with children. Roberts points to the influence of the children’s rights agenda and the Research Assessment Exercise within the UK Universities’ funding system as well as to funders’ own agendas in the dissemination of research in health and social care fields. McKechnie 370 and Hobbs add a welcome historical perspective to their chapter on the impact of childhood studies. Edwards challenges readers to consider how children can be involved in the “co-configuration” of research agendas, as well as in carrying out research and dissemination. These topics serve to whet the appetite but could warrant a volume in their own right. The editors have chosen a thematic approach to this volume which gives readers a useful, succinct overview of the relevant issues. A possible drawback is that central questions, such as issues of power, are revisited many times throughout the text. The inclusion of an introduction to each section and a conclusion would have added clarity. This book benefits from being read in tandem with its parallel volume: The Reality of Research with Children and Young People. This second volume...