Remix this method: a creative approach to young people's everyday lives as political arenas

Young people's everyday lives are not just social and cultural environments, but also political arenas (Kallio and Hakli. 2011. 'Are there politics in childhood?' (Space & Polity 15 (1): 21-34, 2). A methodological approach is proposed that emphasizes young people's knowledge, while accepting the power and privilege of the researcher. By way of illustration, this paper demonstrates how an approach to co-creation of the method, inspired by the idea of a remix or a bricolage, can provide creative tasks as stimuli for the discussion of politics but also legitimizing mechanisms for young expertise and co-creation in the research site itself as a political arena. Specifically, this paper examines how young participants responded to a digital photography task by subverting the task itself, a process which allowed them to remix the model, making them simultaneously in control of the task and dependent upon it. This complex outcome was constructive as a way to stimulate participants as they explored their everyday lives as political arenas.