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.