Aspirations mapping and participatory photography

This working paper investigates the role of participatory photography for engaging young people in deep, reflexive explorations of their aims and aspirations and how these are contextualised in the socio-cultural and economic environments that they are inhabiting. The main purpose and contribution of this paper is methodological: based on an analysis of using participatory photography with young Roma migrants, it offers a series of lessons learnt that speak to both the value and the limits of integrating it as a technique in applied community-based research with young people. The paper should be read in conjunction with another project output, namely the Connect2Aspire Aspirations Mapping Toolkit strand on Aspirations Mapping and Creative Expression. The toolkit offers an approach and support materials for engaging young people in a process of mapping emerging life and career aspirations through participatory photography and zine making. Participatory photography is used in the first stage of the process, for generating visuals following an open yet guided process by which young people are invited to use the camera to explore specific aspects of their social and cultural environment that bear upon the formation of their aspirations or affect the likelihood of seeing them come to fruition.