Playing with socially constructed identity positions

This chapter is based on two research projects in which the researcher played with socially constructed identity positions in different ways. It explores how children's agency in both projects influenced, and was influenced by, the research process, notably the ways in which it positioned and represented the children involved; and it documents how their agency shaped the project's results. Overall, the analysis shows that although children's (and others’) agency is framed by power relations that cannot be totally suspended, playing with socially constructed identity positions opens up possibilities for new, “thicker” and more nuanced alternatives to existing representations of children's agency and their perspectives than would be possible in more naturalistic enquiries, as well as enabling them to actively influence the research process. Moreover, the analysis suggests that some of the “techniques” that were deployed to play with social identity positions may have the potential to empower children to produce a collective critique and to draw on new resources that they can use to re-negotiate their identity positions.