This collection contains key elements of data produced as part of the 'Creating Hackney as Home' project (2013-2015). This includes the films created as the central output of the project, transcripts of flipcam reflections and interviews made by the peer researchers, transcripts of team meetings and interviews with stakeholders, as well as transcripts of discussions following public screenings of the films. Creating Hackney as Home (CHasH) is a two year project collaborating with young people in the London Borough of Hackney. Using participatory video research methods, the project aims to understand their experience of space and space use in the formation of 'home' and belonging. Hackney is a part of London undergoing rapid transformation with demands from competing stakeholders leading to juxtaposing expectations of space use and the potential for everyday conflict. Young people, as substantial users of public space, are immersed in debates about social inclusion, crime and media representations, inflected with intergenerational opposition and a discourse of community breakdown. Yet youth voices are often marginalised. Therefore, ChasH takes a participatory approach, explicitly focusing on youth perspectives. It will further theoretical understanding of urban affective geographies, bringing together research on young people, urban transformation and cosmopolitanism. The community arts collaborations embedded in the project will provide skills development in film production, research and project management for the young people involved. The project will also enable an evaluation of the use of participatory video and online media and social networks in producing research data and enhancing youth participation.

The CHAsH project focused on film production, the use of video diaries, and discussion, both online and in workshops. Working with a community partner, Immediate Theatre, five Peer Research Assistants (PRAs), 16-18 years old, were employed in April 2013 (casual) to conduct research on the theme of ‘Home’ within the context of their changing borough. They were responsible for film and video diary production over the course of the following year, supported by mentoring from the research team. An initial workshop was held to discuss the study’s objectives and refine research questions. PRAs undertook research around their chosen themes, also working with different genres of film (from documentary to spoken word performances). The resulting research data consisted of: material collected in the process of making the films, the films themselves, and responses to the films, which were screened online, to three groups of young people within Hackney and to other groups including youth workers and older residents of Hackney; material collected as part of the PRA’s critical reflections made throughout the project, both video and written diaries; interviews and material collected by the PRAs as part of their ongoing research on Hackney (e.g. archives); material collected by the PI and RA including debriefing interviews with PRAs, meetings with stakeholders; participant observation, and thick description of particular sites within Hackney such as Dalston Junction and Broadway Market (recurring sites in the research).