Evaluating trespass prevention: working with young people as co-researchers and filmmakers on a railway safety project

ABSTRACT

Recent attempts have been made by Network Rail and the British Transport Police to discourage young people from committing ‘railway trespass’ – the dangerous act of illegally gaining access to live railway tracks. Whilst public safety campaigns have a long history in the UK and beyond, little research has been dedicated to a better understanding of how young people engage with this media. This article reflects on Evaluating Trespass Prevention (2021), a project which involved a small group of Further Education (FE) Media Students as co-researchers exploring railway trespass prevention. The young co-researchers co-produced a new evaluation toolkit, as well as creatively exploring themes of railway trespass through documentary interviewing and filmmaking. Presenting our critical reflections on the process of working with young co-researchers on this project, we argue for the broader adoption of an adaptable and iterative approach to meaningful engagement with young people in relation to contemporary social issues.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-production
• young people as co-researchers
• public safety
• media consumption
• affect
• filmmaking

Acknowledgments

Evaluating Trespass Prevention would not have been possible without Dr Becky Parry, who first conceived this project and secured its initial funding. We would like to thank Network Rail and the National Railway Museum’s Curatorial and Archives Team for their invaluable guidance and support. We also recognize the significant contribution made to this research by Alex Dixon and her colleagues at Barnsley College for granting us access to work with their students, especially given the complexities of face-to-face participatory research during the (ongoing) COVID-19 pandemic.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the ethically sensitive nature of the research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This project received Quality-Related (QR) Research funding provided by the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF).