Conduire une recherche avec des jeunes en rupture de liens : un ajustement délicat entre coopération, asymétrie des positions et précarité des conditions

In order to better understand the social breakdown with the institutions among young people, a team of streetworkers undertakes a study on this population. This initiative takes the form of a participatory action research involving youth workers, a sociologist and young people who have experienced themselves the social breakdown. For four years, the cooperative dimension irrigates the entire research process, from the formulation of the questions to the exploitation of the results, through the work of investigation, analysis and writing. The article shows how the experiential expertise and the scientific expertise have been in dialogue, but it also highlights the difficulties that have come about in the cooperative process, particularly as regards the involvement of vulnerable populations in a long-term approach. Doing so, it shows an irreducible asymmetry of positions which does not however call into question the benefit of this approach for the various members of the research group.