Comment faire place à une multiplicité de petits récits dans la recherche sur les jeunes en situation de vulnérabilité?

How can we avoid stereotypical representations and make room for diversity in research on vulnerable children and young people? Starting from this question, the article presents how using the concepts of small stories and positioning theory in the analysis of the stories of these children and young people, can allow us to show different representations, even when their accounts seem fragmented or contradictory. The article is based on a qualitative study about social work with vulnerable children and youth in Denmark. Drawing on interviews and observations, the study explored how notions of normality, difference and deviance are constructed and challenged in the stories of thirteen children and youth, telling about themselves, their strengths and challenges, and in the stories of different professionals around them. The article first develops the concepts of small stories and positioning, and then presents examples of the analysis of stories about “Lisa”, a teenager placed in foster care, in order to illustrate and discuss the utility of these concepts.