Researching everyday geographies of caregiving youth: Versatile Everyday Emotion Mapping (VEEMethod)

Caregiving happens in time and place, but geographers’ methodologies to explore where care happens receive scant attention in the literature on caregiving. In this article, we explain our development of a methodological approach to recording and analyzing the dynamics of everyday family caregiving by children and adolescents and how caregiving produces places and spaces that are invested with experiences and emotions. The methodology, which we call Versatile Everyday Emotion Mapping (VEEMethod), draws on the philosophy of care ethics, theoretical frameworks from critical youth and feminist geography and feminist GIS, and participatory practices tailored to working with youth. Referring to data produced by young participants in a multiyear, single-sited study of the everyday experiences of caregiving youth in the United States, we review how VEEMethod offers a robust geographic method and critically consider the challenges of comparing and analyzing incongruous mapping outputs.