(Poetic) Representation, (Professional) Texts and “Young People at Risk”

The paper considers the different ways young people were involved in the research process in a Danish research project with young people with social and psychological problems. Young people were involved in life story interviews and subsequently in the interpretation of material produced through the interviews and discussions on how reflections and conclusions from the research should be written up and disseminated. The paper takes a methodological focus, considering briefly general aims and methods of the project, before turning to the elaboration on how poetic representations can be constructed and employed as a vehicle for certain kinds of participation, representation, and dialogue, of situated participants. The paper comments on the potentials of ‘doing’ poetic representations as an example of writing in ways which brings young people’s voices to the foreground, includes aspects which academic writing tends to marginalize, and challenges what sometimes goes unasked in (participative) social work research with young people at risk.