ABSTRACT
The Purpose of the Chapter We want to make an argument for raising the awareness and priority
given to the views and experience of those who are supposed to benefi t from a given intervention. This is a concern noted by researchers in health care (Bury 2001; Frank 1997; Launsø and Gannik 2000; Paterson 2004; Paterson and Britten 2000, 2004). In particular, we examine the value of their knowledge of the outcomes of the interventions and assess the importance of their knowledge of the contextual settings in conditioning the outcomes of the interventions. The “users” are those to whom the intervention is addressed be they clients, patients, or whatever. The “outcomes” of the intervention are defi ned in this connection as any outcome that affects the users, be it according to stated goals and objectives or not, or be it positive, negative or no outcome.
