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Short Abstract

I explore how friction and messiness shape youth-led research in the Youth LIVES project. I’m interested in how discomfort, care, and institutional tension can become productive forces for more inclusive and reflexive forms of citizen science.

Abstract

My research explores youth participation and co-production in mental health research through the Youth LIVES project, a collaborative initiative that positions young people as co-researchers. Through this work, I have come to see friction not as failure but as a force that resists the institutional drive towards tidiness. Working alongside young people to design and carry out research has revealed moments of both creativity and tension, where ethics procedures, safeguarding protocols, and funding timelines often sit uneasily alongside relational and participatory practices.

These experiences have shaped my interest in the potential of messiness in citizen science. Rather than smoothing over difficulty, I have learned to treat friction as a signal of care and accountability, and as an opening for more reflexive, inclusive practice. Negotiating dynamic consent, flexible authorship, and equitable payment structures has offered ways to redistribute power and challenge conventional hierarchies of expertise.

In this roundtable, I hope to share reflections on how friction and mess can act as productive forces in citizen science, and to learn from others working at similar intersections of participation, power, and institutional constraint. I am particularly interested in how discomfort and uncertainty might become catalysts for more just and responsive collaborations.