Co-Writing as Method: Creating a Third Space in Research with Children

Introduction

Participatory methodologies have become central in research with children, challenging approaches that position them as passive informants. Yet eliciting children’s perspectives on abstract or sensitive themes such as friendship remains methodologically demanding. In my doctoral ethnography on friendship among young swimmers in Sweden, initial interviews with 12-year-olds produced limited responses, highlighting the need for methods that foster both expression and trust.

Goals and Methods

This paper examines collaborative fiction writing as a methodological experiment within my ongoing doctoral project. The nine-month fieldwork focused on five 12-year-old participants, combining observations in their sport and school contexts with a series of five writing sessions in which we co-authored a fictional youth novel. Across these sessions, the participants developed storylines, text, and illustrations through joint storytelling and collective decision-making. Empirical material consists of the collaboratively produced novel and drawings, ethnographic fieldnotes, and follow-up interviews reflecting on the writing process. Analysis focuses on how these materials illuminate both children’s perspectives on friendship and the relational dynamics of the research encounter.

Results

The co-writing created a “third space”: neither fully fictional nor autobiographical, but a shared zone where participants explored friendship through narrative. Within this space, the children assumed greater initiative, reshaping power relations and taking ownership of process and content. Beyond the book itself, the sessions generated routines, memories, and interactions that deepened relationships and fostered trust. This, in turn, opened access to situated understandings of friendship that interviews alone had not provided.

Conclusions

Collaborative fiction writing functioned simultaneously as research method and relational practice. By producing stories, drawings, and conversations, it generated both data and the conditions for knowledge to emerge. The study demonstrates the potential of arts-based participatory methods to establish spaces where trust and relationships develop through shared creative work, enabling richer dialogue and insight in ethnographic research with children.