A.N. Other, B.N. Other (eds.), Title of Book, 00–00. © 2005 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved. ALISON BAKER & VICKY PLOWS RE-PRESENTING OR REPRESENTING YOUNG LIVES? NEGOTIATING KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION OF AND WITH ‘VULNERABLE’ YOUNG PEOPLE INTRODUCTION Representations in and out of research practice The concept of ‘vulnerability’ informs research practice with young people from research design through to dissemination. Young people, specifically those under the age of 18, are categorized as an inherently vulnerable population in many national and institutional ethical guidelines. As Carter (2009, p.863) notes, this approach automatically identifies researching with youth as a risky endeavor: […] forcing researchers into a defensive position and framing children as vulnerable even when the risks may be negligible and the risks of not doing the research are higher for children. In the context of research governance, young people are generally perceived to become less vulnerable with age, with older young people (16-18) in some cases being able to consent to research without their parent or guardian’s permission. There are, of course, other indicators of ‘vulnerability’ used in research that intersect with the category of ‘youth’. Young people can be positioned as ‘doubly’ or even ‘multiply’ vulnerable if, as well as being young, they are also experiencing disadvantages such as poverty or disability. The term ‘vulnerable youth’ has, as Valentine and colleagues (2001) point out, often come to represent young people ‘at risk’ of social exclusion for one or more reasons. Researchers engaged in systematic and reflective inquiry continually make decisions about design and data collection, analysis, interpretation, and reporting (Rossman & Rallis 2010, p.384). Yet these common research activities become “more complex and more significant when the research involves work with a ‘vulnerable’ group of children or youth” (Valentine et al, 2001 p.119). This has traditionally meant that young people from backgrounds identified as vulnerable (e.g. young people from low socio-economic or minority group background), ‘hard to reach’ (e.g. young people living in out of home care or excluded from school) or ‘difficult’ (e.g. young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties) have had fewer opportunities to be involved in participatory research. It can be difficult to balance the protection and participation of ‘vulnerable’ young people across different points of a research project. For example, reflecting on her research with girls and their experiences of violence, Tisdall (2005 p.100) highlights the irony