Research Forum

Ruth is an Ethnographer and Social Development Consultant at Keep Your Shoes Dirty, an organization she founded. She is also an Honorary Associate at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh. Ruth’s research focuses on the generation of ‘local knowledge’ about socio-cultural systems to inform programme and policy design with organisations across the globe including United Nations, governments, international charities and trusts and foundations. She has fifteen years experience in applied ethnographic research, especially in relation to programmes and policies concerning vulnerable children and families such as street-connected children, child-headed households, child ex-combatants, sexually exploited children, youth agency and empowerment, violence against women, family and relationship breakdown. Her work covers wide-ranging research contexts including Ghana, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, Nepal, Ecuador and the UK. Ruth also worked with the Consortium for Street Children to oversee the learning and innovation approach for Building with Bamboo to develop resilience-based approaches for working with street-connected children exposed to sexual abuse and exploitation. Ruth’s research has appeared in online client reports, academic journals and edited books.

For over 30 years Dr. Andy West has worked on children’s and young people’s rights, particularly in Asia and the UK, but also in the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific. More recently, Andy worked on children’s rights and participation in Vietnam and Bangladesh, community health in rural remote China, and has published review on children’s perspectives and engagement in humanitarian emergencies – Putting children at the heart of the World Humanitarian Summit. Andy is mainly concerned with excluded and marginalised children and young people, especially in regard to protection and participation. His work on street-connected issues includes `street children’, migration, law, care systems, particularly in the UK, China (including Tibet and Xinjiang), Mongolia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.

Professor Daniel Stoecklin is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Geneva. He works at the Centre for Children’s Rights Studies and areas of research and teaching are the sociology of childhood, children’s rights, street children, participation and the capability approach. He completed his Master degree with documentary research at Fudan University, Shanghai, on China’s population policy. This was followed by fieldwork for his PhD on street children in China. Daniel has been involved with several NGO projects in the field of children in difficult situations, and as an Independent Expert for the Council of Europe regarding children’s participation. His most recent publication in the field of street children: Aptekar, L., Stoecklin, D. (2014). Street Children and Homeless Youth: a cross-cultural perspective. Dordrecht: Springer Editions.

David Walker is a Senior Consultant for Itad in the Gender theme. David is a Social Development specialist, with over 13 years of research experience in aspects of gender equality, gender-based violence, child protection, and linking evidence to policy processes. Cross-cutting for this work is a focus on gender inequality and social norms as drivers of deprivations, and how such drivers are connected with or separate to economic drivers and poverty. David’s work has focused on violence, particularly relating to adolescent girls, as well as the related structural ramifications of service delivery and governance. In an extra-curricular capacity, he is a founding trustee in the organisation ‘Cities for Children’. David has a background in Human Geography and Development Studies, with methodological specialities in the areas of qualitative and participatory evaluative approaches. This includes a focus on gender-sensitive and child/youth friendly practices, as well as secondary techniques such as systematic reviews and evidence synthesis.

Dr. Harriot Beazley is a children’s geographer and development practitioner with experience in participatory child-centered research with children and young people, in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. She is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and the Program Coordinator for International Development at the University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia) and a Research Fellow with the Centre for Communication and Social Change at the University of Queensland (Australia). Since 1995, Harriot’s research has focused on rights-based and participatory research with street-connected young people in Indonesia and with other marginalised children in the region. Harriot is the Commissioning Editor (Australia & Pacific) for the journal Children’s Geographies: Advancing Interdisciplinary Understanding of Younger People’s Lives (Routledge, London).

Irene Rizzini is professor at the Pontiphical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (PUC-Rio) and the founding director of CIESPI – the International Center for Research and Policy on Childhood at PUC-Rio. Her main teaching and research interests are in the areas of Human Rights and Public Policy. Irene is frequently used as an expert on issues affecting children by state and federal government agencies in Brazil, as well as by non-profit research and policy centers in Brazil and abroad. Irene’s work includes analysing the condition of children and young people in contexts of vulnerability, such as children in street situations, children in care and those growing up in contexts of poverty and violence. Selected publications from Professor Rizzini can be found at the CIESPI website.

Khushboo Jain has worked extensively towards securing rights of children in contact with railways and street-connected children in India including through a petition in the Delhi High Court. She is one of the founding members of the ‘All India Working Group for Rights of Children in Contact with Railways’. As a PhD candidate at the Department of Sociology, University of Delhi, she is researching home-making practices on the streets of Delhi. Khushboo is working on a research study titled ‘Social and Geographic Marginality in Contemporary Urban Spaces’, a study on how marginalized groups, including refugees and Romani people, co-exist in marginal urban spaces in Europe. Moreover, she is associated with the Australasian Centre for Human Rights and Health for spreading awareness about the anti-dowry legislations in Australia and initiating conversations on the new contours of dowry abuse in India.

Dr. Linda Theron is an educational psychologist and full professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria; an associate at the Centre for the Study of Resilience, University of Pretoria; and an extraordinary professor in Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University, South Africa. Linda’s research and publications focus on the resilience processes of South African young people challenged by chronic adversity and account for how sociocultural contexts shape resilience. She is lead editor of Youth Resilience and Culture: Complexities and Commonalities (Springer, 2015) and an associate journal editor of Child Abuse & Neglect (Elsevier). Linda has purposefully transformed research findings into curricular content, as well as user- and/or community-friendly products and received various research rewards in this regard.

Lorraine van Blerk is Professor in Human Geography at the University of Dundee. She has conducted research with street-connected children and youth in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past 18 years and has written more than 70 academic and policy-related publications in this area. Lorraine is one of the Research Directors for the Growing Up On The Streets longitudinal and qualitative research project. In particular, Lorraine has a keen interest in working for more effective participation of street children in both research and policy practices and this has featured widely in her writing. Lorraine held the position of chair of the research forum from 2012 to 2018.

Professor Phill Mizen is a sociologist of children and young people with a particular interest in work, labour and employment and for many years he has worked with Professor Yaw Ofosu-Kusi (University of Education, Winneba) researching and publishing extensively on children’s experiences and understandings of living and working both on the street and in informal settlements; and on the development of methodological approaches to research with and for children that are attentive to their voices. Phill is currently Associate Dean Research in the School of Languages and Social Studies, Aston University, and a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Work, Employment and Society. His research and writing has focused on children’s agency as they apply to the lives of children living in especially difficult circumstances, and he regularly receives invitations from renowned institutions such as the Max-Plank-Gesellschaft, the Institut Universitaire Kut Bösch and Harvard University to speak about this work.

Professor Sarah Johnsen is a Professorial Fellow in the Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research (I-SPHERE) at Heriot-Watt University. She has previously worked for Queen Mary University of London, the University of York, and The Salvation Army (UK & Ireland). Much of Sarah’s work focuses on homelessness, addiction and street culture in the UK. She has particular expertise in youth homelessness, and ongoing interest in the practice and ethics of research involving vulnerable people. Some of Sarah’s publications include: Watts, B., Johnsen, S. and Sosenko, F. (2015) Youth Homelessness in the UK: a review for the Ovo Foundation (Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University); and Johnsen, S. & Quilgars, D. (2009) Youth homelessness, in: Fitzpatrick, S., Quilgars, D. & Pleace, N. (Eds.) Homelessness in the UK: problems and solutions, 53-72 (Coventry, Chartered Institute of Housing).

Dr Vicky Johnson is Director of Centre for Remote and Rural Communities at the University of the Highlands and Islands. She has previously worked at Goldsmiths University of London and the University of Brighton. She She has over twenty years experience as a researcher and practitioner in social and community development and children and young people’s participation, and has led programmes and partnerships in Africa, Asia and Latin America for international non-governmental organisations including ChildHope, and provided expert advice for a range of UN and government departments including UNHCR, ILO and DFID on these topics. Vicky lectures on social research methodology, international childhoods, children’s geographies, child and human rights, international comparative education and leads international programmes of research with marginalised children and young people. She has recently led Youth Uncertainty Rights (YOUR) World Research in Ethiopia and Nepal to understand how to support youth creativity in the face of uncertainty.