Participatory and Visual Research with Roma Youth

Drawing from two examples of research carried out with Roma youth, this chapter discusses applications of participatory research, backed up with visual methods and creative group techniques. It describes methods, tools, and strategies which can be used in peer-research with young people belonging to minorities, from migrant backgrounds or marginalized ethnic groups. In the context of ongoing political debate regarding the minority status and migration rights of the Roma in all European countries, knowledge construction processes are particularly sensitive to issues of age, class, gender, and ethnicity, intersecting in transnational processes. The lack of self-representation of the Roma in the public sphere, as a group discriminated against on an ethnic basis, leaves a need for participation in knowledge-making processes, and research can contribute in this direction. While participation addresses some ethical issues in cross-cultural research, by leaving space for participants’ perspectives, it also means having to address competence, class, and power distances that may exist between the researcher and the participants. This goal invites the researchers to use new tools in order to engage young people in creative and reflective explorations. Research strategies such as the participatory design process and choosing specific levels of participation in all stages are discussed. Visual and participatory methods are illustrated here with examples from two research projects: the first one on the representation of drugs and the second one on the migratory experience from a gendered perspective.