Participant observation: Building trust by sharing the work

In order to assess if the circular economy of organic waste can create decent and inclusive jobs in Rwanda, it is necessary to step out of the standard "researcher role" and to get a personal experience of what it actually means to work in the bioeconomy.

Therefore, the method of "participant observation" was used to experiment the physical reality of this job, but also to create a sense of trust and informality with the workers. This has allowed to ease the photovoice process later on, as the workers felt more confident around the researcher as they had spent some time together beforehand.