Birth cohort studies follow participants and their families by tracking and recording social and biological data to understand and improve health across the generations. The ‘Lifeworlds of Birth Cohorts’ exhibition is part of the Wellcome Trust funded project The Biosocial Lives of Birth Cohorts. This wider project ethnographically examines birth cohorts as sites of biosocial knowledge making, social practice as this concerns data collection and intergenerational participation. It involves four cohorts in the Global North and South including ALSPAC in Bristol, UK the Pelotas Birth Cohort Study in Pelotas, the Generation R study in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and the Generation 21 study in Porto, Portugal.

The ‘Lifeworlds of Birth Cohorts’ showcases the participatory research with we undertook as part of our project examining the meaning and experience of participation across these four birth cohort studies.