IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v14y2025i4p201-d1619844.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Researching Young Women Associated with Gangs in El Salvador: The Role of Emotions, Trust, and Participatory Methodologies in Social Research

Author

Listed:
  • Cándida Irene Chévez Reinoza

    (Departamento de Psicología y Salud Pública, Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas, San Salvador 1101, El Salvador)

  • James Alexander Melenge Escudero

    (Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Humanas y Educación, Institución Universitaria de Envigado, Envigado 055420, Colombia)

Abstract

This article reflects on six years of work that implemented various participatory research methods with young women linked to gangs in El Salvador. The reflection focuses on the fundamental role of emotions and trust in contexts marked by violence and social exclusion. From the Freirean perspective of popular education and the approaches of Haraway and Butler, it also analyzes how these participatory methodologies with an autobiographical focus contribute to the re-signification of identities, the construction of agency, and the creation of safe spaces for dialogue. Through methods such as the systematization of experiences, life narratives, and critical ethnography, not only was the complexity of the participants’ lived realities captured, but the investigative process also became a vehicle for empowerment and social transformation. This article highlights how the ethical management of emotions, combined with the construction of trust-based relationships and the use of an autobiographical approach in participatory methodologies, redefines research as a humanized and transformative practice in the study of stigmatized and excluded populations. The findings emphasize the recognition of the contribution participatory research makes in contexts of violence and exclusion for the design of public policies, programs, or reintegration strategies. This underscores the need to promote research lines and funding that advance such proposals from the social sciences, establishing them as key tools for structural transformation.

Suggested Citation

  • Cándida Irene Chévez Reinoza & James Alexander Melenge Escudero, 2025. "Researching Young Women Associated with Gangs in El Salvador: The Role of Emotions, Trust, and Participatory Methodologies in Social Research," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-15, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:4:p:201-:d:1619844
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/4/201/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/4/201/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:4:p:201-:d:1619844. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.