ABSTRACT
Ethnographic research has occupied a distinguished niche within the social sciences, dating back to the origins of both anthropology and sociology. As a consequence, the fact that ethnography has found a place within the applied research armamentarium mobilised to address the recent AIDS epidemic should come as no surprise. What has been unprecedented in the United States is the degree to which ethnography has been recognised as a key component in AIDS intervention research and service programmes. Nowhere has this been more prominent than in the US Public Health Service’s initiatives to fund studies aimed at identifying effective strategies for reducing the spread of HIV among injection drug users (IDUs). Beginning with the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) first major programme announcement for AIDS intervention demonstration research in 1987, and continuing through to their current Cooperative Agreement programme, ethnography has been an integral component of research designs (NIDA, 1987a, 1987b, 1990).
