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Paper short abstract

This work reflects on the political implications, aesthetic possibilities, and ethical challenges of using performance-based ethnographic methods in academic research with children.

Paper long abstract

In this paper, I reflect on the potential of performance-based ethnographic methods to address the ethical and methodological challenges faced in my interdisciplinary postdoctoral research project titled "Childhoods and Dissident Theatricalities: Symbolic Practices of Resistance by Children in Downtown São Paulo" (Faculty of Education, University of São Paulo, Brazil). The research focuses on the "Tricycles in the Park Project," an initiative created by a preschool institution in Downtown São Paulo with the goal of ensuring children’s right to the city within a context considered hostile and violent, where many of the children involved are immigrants or migrants living in temporary housing and urban occupations.

This research aims to explore how children's agency manifests through symbolic practices of visibility and resistance within this project. We argue that children not only form bonds with the city, but that the city, in turn, learns to see and relate to the children. The paper examines how performance-based ethnographic methods, combined with co-creating video content with children, can foster affective, non-adult-centered approaches to qualitative research.

Additionally, this paper addresses the political implications and aesthetic possibilities inherent in the methodological choices of the research, framed by the central question: What must adults relinquish in order to conduct research with children?