Going ‘backstage’: observant participation in research with young people

ABSTRACT

This paper reflects on fieldwork undertaken at youth-led community radio station, KCC Live. It draws on Goffman to elucidate the differences between front and backstage spaces at KCC Live, and provides snapshots from research encounters to illustrate the importance of observant participation (over participant observation) in permitting access to these spaces. This paper celebrates the embeddedness of the researcher as a member of the community under study. In doing so, it argues that immersion in community research settings can enable insight into the functioning, relationships, rules and peculiarities of the place and people, all of which are fundamental to ethnographic research.

KEYWORDS:

• Observant participation
• participant observation
• ethnography
• young people
• community radio
• fieldwork

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The communications regulator in the UK.

2. A room in a theatre or studio in which performers can relax when they are not performing.

3. Moeran (2007) points out that the ability to move backstage is dependent partly on the personality of the researcher (see Wilkinson 2016 for a reflection on my personality in this research setting).

4. I allowed young people to choose their own pseudonyms. Many chose pseudonyms after pop stars, DJs and presenters.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number: ES/J500094/1].