This article critically explores data generated within a participatory research project with young people in the care of a local authority, the (Extra)ordinary Lives project. The project involved ethnographic multi-media data generation methods used in groups and individually with eight participants (aged 10—20) over a school year and encouraged critical reflexive practices throughout. The article problematizes aspects of power, ethics and agency in participatory research from poststructural perspectives and cautions against the assumption that participatory research per se necessarily produces ‘better’ research data, equalizes power relations or enhances ethical integrity. Yet, throughout the article, there are examples of the potential contributions and challenges of participatory methodologies.

It is widely recognized as problematic that there are generally low levels of engagement with child welfare services from biological and social fathers. The result can be limited resources for children's care and potentially poor risk assessment and management. This paper reviews the published research from 2000 to 2010 about the barriers to and facilitators of better father engagement, as well as the very limited evidence on the effectiveness of work with maltreating fathers. There is relatively little known about what works in engaging men, but there are some promising indicators from family support and child protection practice contexts. These include early identification and early involvement of fathers; a proactive approach, including an insistence on men's involvement with services; and the use of practical activities. In the light of what is known about the characteristics of maltreating fathers, there is a logical fit with cognitive‐behavioural approaches. Although there is no direct evidence of the effectiveness of motivational interviewing in this context, its effectiveness in allied fields of practice would suggest that it may hold some promise for the initial engagement of fathers who pose a risk to children.

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In this article we explore the ways in which mobile research methods can be utilised to create enabling research environments, encounters and exchanges, generating time and space for participants and researchers to co-generate and communicate meaningful understandings of everyday lives. The article focuses on the use of two mobile methods, ‘guided’ walks and car journey interactions, and the productiveness of these methods in contributing to the substantive and methodological aims of the (Extra)ordinary Lives project, an ethnographic and participatory research study that explored the everyday lives and relationship cultures of a group of young people in public care. Through this account we discuss the possibilities that mobile research encounters offer for the exploration of sensitive topics, as contexts through which intimacies can be interwoven within narratives of the mundane ordinariness of the everyday.

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