Intervening in Friendship Exclusion? The Politics of Doing Feminist Research with Teenage Girls

Abstract

This paper describes some of the experiences of working with teenage girls' friendship groups at 'Hilltop', a large urban comprehensive school in the north of England. Working between and within multiple friendship groups in a variety of spaces and places raises ethical and moral responsibilities for the feminist researcher. This paper explores the ethical dilemmas raised when confronted with oppressive behaviour when 'hanging out' with groups of teenage girls, as well as the implications this has for the researcher's feminist 'politics of intervention'. Finally, I call for a (re)politicisation of the geographies of children and youth.