Centre for Hidden and Marginalised Population Studies
About the Centre
Research focus
At the centre for hidden and marginalised population studies we believe that using traditional drug research methods conducted on disenfranchised individuals from the most deprived communities present drug takers as abnormal, unhealthy and criminal.
This is largely due to the relative ease with which this population may be accessed by researchers. Individuals in contact with treatment services who have formally been identified (and consequently stigmatised) as drug users are over represented in mainstream addiction research.
Of course the inclusion and collaboration of service users is an important feature in the field of drug research; however, the degree to which their problematic experience of drug use has been taken to represent the norm is the key issue that we seek to address.
The approach to hidden population research accesses those hard to reach groups that many research studies do not include due to the difficult nature of gaining access.
Who are we?
We are a research group that aim to give a voice to people normally ignored by mainstream researchers. Based in the West of Scotland we use ethnographic and qualitative research methods to recruit drug users unknown to Treatment or Public Health Services, Social Work, the Police and other agences of social control.
The team is led by Dr Iain McPhee and a team of specialist PhD researchers: Linda Thomas, Kieran Hamilton, Karen Hammond and Lee Primrose.
Hidden population research
This part of the site explains in brief the research of Kieran Hamilton, Linda Thomas, Karen Hammond, and Lee Primrose.
Service user research
CHAMPS research that focuses on marginalised service users.