Over the past ten years, geographers have contributed to the growing body of interdisciplinary research developing new ways of undertaking research with children. Traditional research methods which do not directly involve working with children, such as the large scale observation of children, have been criticised for carrying out research on rather than with children. Instead, drawing upon the increasingly important children’s rights movement, researchers have been developing inclusive and participatory children centred methodologies, which place the voices of children, as social actors, at the centre of the research process. In this paper, we draw upon two ongoing postgraduate geographical research projects with children to reflect upon our own experiences of adopting children centred research methodologies. We also critically evaluate our own use of different innovative children centred research techniques, such as photographs, diaries, in‐depth interviews and surveys.We also highlight the importance of considering the impact of the spaces in which we conduct our research.

Forming part of the new ‘methodological frontier’ the use of digital communication technologies has become increasingly commonplace in social research. Whilst audio-only online interviews and asynchronous means of communicating online has been discussed for over two decades, video capabilities; being able to see a participant face-to-face online (e.g. via Skype, Face Time, Google Hangouts) is a much more recent phenomenon. Discussion of such new opportunities has tended to centre on the practicalities and technicalities. Alternatively, this paper moves beyond the recent empiricist focus to reflect critically on the implications of using internet video calls on methodological matters of importance to qualitative (longitudinal) researchers. Drawing on a long-standing qualitative longitudinal study following lives of over 50 young people, the paper focuses on the potentials and pitfalls for rapport of using internet video calls for qualitative interviewing. The findings have resonance for short-term studies, and longitudinal endeavours.

The theoretical fathers of social capital (Putnam, Coleman and Bourdieu) are criticised for seeing children as passive recipients of parental social capital rather than active producers, and recent literature and debate has attempted to correct this earlier imbalance. We contribute to this work by using social capital as a lens through which to explore transitions, networks and communities in the lives of children and young people. Drawing on three studies from the Families and Social Capital ESRC Research Group programme, we highlight the diverse experiences of young people through a broad spectrum of participants aged 11–30 from different class, ethnic and faith backgrounds, living in a range of national and transnational contexts. We reject the deficit model of young people's social capital, demonstrating the many and varied ways that children and young people develop and use social capital to negotiate important transitions and construct their identities.

Archival storage of data sets from qualitative studies presents opportunities for combining small-scale data sets for reuse/secondary analysis. In this paper, we outline our approach to combining multiple qualitative data sets and explain why working with a corpus of ‘big qual’ data is a worthwhile endeavour. We present a new approach that iteratively combines recursive surface thematic mapping and in-depth interpretive work. Our breadth-and-depth method involves a series of steps: (1) surveying archived data sets to create a new assemblage of data; (2) recursive surface thematic mapping in dialogue with (3) preliminary ‘test pit’ analysis, remapping and repetition of preliminary analysis; and (4) in-depth analysis of the type that is familiar to most qualitative researchers. In so doing, we show how qualitative researchers can conduct ‘big qual’ analysis while retaining the distinctive order of knowledge about social processes that is the hallmark of rigorous qualitative research, with its integrity of attention to nuanced context and detail.

Over the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in the methodologies used in research with children. Geographers have contributed to the growing body of research that highlights that children are not simply passive objects dependent on adults, but are competent social actors that make sense of and actively contribute to their environment. The growing trend to conceptualize children as social actors has profound implications for geographical research with children, most notably the development of more `inclusive' and participatory research agendas and children-centred methodologies. In this article, we draw upon two ongoing postgraduate research projects with children to discuss our experiences of adopting such innovative children-centred research practices and methodologies. In particular, we focus upon the contribution that a specifically geographical approach can make to the wider interdisciplinary debates about children-centred research. Therefore, we discuss the importance of recognizing the spatiality of research with children, and highlight the significance of the geography of methodological issues, by exploring the significance of both the spaces in which we conduct our research, and the spaces at the centre of our research. We also discuss issues concerning the representation of children in the process of dissemination.

The restrictions many parents place on children's spatial freedoms are often tied to concerns about `urban risk'. Concurrently, those children afforded greater spatial autonomy are often represented as threatening and disruptive to local social interaction. Little research has, however, explored the implications of children's spatial freedoms on social cohesion. Framed by the concept of social capital, this paper examines the role children play in developing the kinds of connection and relationship that build social networks, trust and neighbourliness. Focusing on children's lives in three inner-city and two suburban locations in England, the paper explores neighbourhood social capital in relation to two `critical interactions': first, between social policy, parenting values and children's autonomy and, secondly, between children's and parents' local engagement.