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This paper discusses some of the challenges involved in conducting research with children and young people outside of the home and school environments. We respond to the need to develop new child-centred research techniques which move beyond existing power relations among children and adults by anchoring our approach in the idea of mystery. The paper reports on research utilising a mixed-method design which includes one new technique Ð the Big Brother diary room. We discuss the unpredictable nature of the fieldwork, reflect on the ÔmessinessÕ of the research process, and critically evaluate our own research design.Keywords: mixed-methods; children-centred research; children and young people; reflexivity Big Brother welcomes youÓ: exploring innovative methods for research with children and young people outside of the home and school environments Research with childrenIn the 1990s, researchers who worked with children moved away from ÔtraditionalÕ, ÔadultistÕ research methods, such as one-to-one semi-structured interviews, and towards Ôchild centredÕ approaches (see Mauthner, 1997;Hall and Ryan, 2011). These child friendly methods were based on childrenÕs preferred methods of communication, for example drawing, photography, stories, and song (Barker and Weller, 2003a). Such methods were part of an attempt to be more respectful of children, approaching them as competent participants rather than underdeveloped communicators (Valentine, 1999;Darbyshire et al. 2005;Skelton, 2008).The focus for social scientists working with children has, since this time, tended to be on empowering children and young people, breaking down the researcher-participant power relation and increasing their knowledge and understanding of the research process with a view to expanding the possibilities for consent.

Recent developments in feminism, charted in Gender, Place and Culture over the past 21 years, have stressed the relational, differentiated and contested nature of gender. This has led to the rejection of the unified category women, and with this the right for feminism to make claims on behalf of all women. This paper argues that an unintended consequence of this development in ways of thinking about gender is that patriarchy as a form of power relations has become relatively neglected. It draws on research from a European Research Council project (including biographical interviews and case studies of a gym and workplace) to demonstrate that while the development of equality legislation has contained the public expression of the most blatant forms of gender prejudice, sexism persists and is manifest in subtle ways. As a consequence, it can be difficult to name and challenge with the effect that patriarchy as a power structure which systematically (re)produces gender inequalities,is obscured by its ordinariness. Rather, sexism appears only to be 'seen' when it affords the instantiation of other forms of prejudice, such as Islamophobia. As such, we argue that Gender, Place and Culture has a responsibility going forward to make sexism as a particular form of prejudice more visible, while also exposing the complexity and fluidity of its intersectional relationship to other forms of oppression and social categories.

In her seminal work on the body, Robyn Longhurst (1994) outlines that the body can be seen as the ‘geography closest in’. However, in contemporary society, when restrictions are placed upon the body and the body is subjected to boundary making and territorialisation, how does the geography of the body begin to change? The paper investigates the way in which emotional experiences of situated bodies alter over time and how public perceptions of particular (migrant) bodies changes the spaces through which they are materialised. It critically discusses the specific ways in which female migrants' bodies may be bordered in place and how particular stereotypes surrounding the migrant body lead to a very particular sense of territoriality. Territory has been defined as ‘a portion of geographic space which is claimed or occupied by a person or group of persons or by an institution’ (Storey D 2001). This paper looks at how territory is inscribed on, in and through the body, utilising the migrant body as an example that enacts and performs particular aspects of territory as a response to the classificatory stereotypes that challenge it. Drawing on feminist embodied research in Singapore, the paper demonstrates the different ways in which female migrants' bodies operate on the margins of society, creating specific territorial borders around their bodies. Discussions of the experiences of foreign domestic workers and expatriates in Singapore highlight how these bodies are stigmatised and categorised, demonstrating how social and cultural separations lead to a re‐territorialising and renegotiation of bodies.

This paper draws on original empirical research to investigate popular understandings of prejudice in two national contexts: Poland and the United Kingdom. The paper demonstrates how common-sense meanings of prejudice are inflected by the specific histories and geographies of each place: framed in terms of 'distance' (Poland) and 'proximity' (United Kingdom), respectively. Yet, by treating these national contexts as nodes and linking them analytically the paper also exposes a connectedness in these definitions which brings into relief the common processes that produce prejudice. The paper then explores how interlinkages between the United Kingdom and Poland within the wider context of the European Union are producing -and circulating through the emerging international currency of 'political correctness' -a common critique of equality legislation and a belief that popular concerns about the way national contexts are perceived to be changing as a consequence of super mobility and super diversity are being silenced. This raises a real risk that in the context of European austerity and associated levels of socioeconomic insecurity, negative attitudes and conservative values may begin to be represented as popular normative standards which transcend national contexts to justify harsher political responses towards minorities. As such, the paper concludes by making a case for prejudice reduction strategies to receive much greater priority in both national and European contexts.