THE MEANING OF PARTICIPATION IN PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

Whether writers have a postmodernist orientation or a residual concern to defend the technique against positivist criticisms as providing un equivocal scientific data, theoretically systematic accounts of partic ipant observation in terms of its nature as a social activity carried out by conscious human agents are missing from the literature of healt h research and the human sciences generally lit this article, the tech nique of participant observation, as a process of social interaction, is viewed in the context of a phenomenology of participation. Particip ation involves the following constituents: (a) attunement to the other s' stock of knowledge at hand, (b) emotional and motivational attuneme nt to the group's concerns, (c) taking for granted that one can contri bute appropriately, and (d) being able to assume that one's identity i s not under threat. It is shown that the features of participant obser vation, as a technique that first and foremost entails conscious socia l engagement, cart be systematized in the light of the phenomenology o f participation.