Method, reflexivity, and ethics in research processes with young people

The political-scientific challenges currently facing the social sciences, and more specifically the field of youth studies, highlight the need to redefine the value of the methods in the production of science and the mediation between concept and reality. This is not referent to the regulated and standardized method as understood by more positivist paradigms, but rather to methodological possibilities that are sufficiently flexible, agile, creative, and youthful to deal with the complexities of contemporary youth worlds. More than standardizing the applied method, validating the application of these methodological designs involves the development of reflective monitoring strategies that make the research processes with young people transparent, namely in terms of methodological reflexivity, positional reflexivity, and ethical reflexivity. The latter must go beyond the application of the growing legal and normative regulation, which has entangled the production of science in bureaucratic webs, and place researchers as social beings and their research practice as a relational practice, implying epistemic relations of co-labor with study participants.

Key words:
Method; Youth; Methodological reflexivity; Positional reflexivity; Ethical reflexivity