Observant participation with people who inject drugs in street-based settings: reflections on a method used during applied ethnographic research

This empirically informed ‘opinion paper’ reflects upon the use of observant participant as a qualitative research method during an applied, multilocal, ethnographic study of street-based injecting drug use (conducted throughout the south of England during 2006–2011). Throughout these studies, participant observation took place with frontline service personnel and observant participation occurred with people who inject drugs. As participant observation typically involves the acquisition of a new role in an unfamiliar setting for a given person, observant participation prioritises existing roles in order to conduct research within familiar/unfamiliar settings. In this study, the method of observant participation is compared and contrasted with participant observation as both methods were conducted in the aforementioned ethnographic study of street-based injecting drug use. This experience-based comparison is followed by a discussion that offers a theoretically informed explanation for the various success and outcomes attached to the study (and, specifically, to those obtained from the applied use of observant participation with people who inject drugs). The paper concludes that observant participation may be best used as a ‘synergising’ component within a wider qualitative research toolkit especially when dedicated to inquiries of sensitive issues or ‘hard-to-reach’ populations (such as those affected by drug dependence). In addition, the synergistic effect of observant participation may contribute towards a combined understanding of social problems that is perhaps greater than the sum of findings obtained from separate, disconnected methods of social research