Can people talk together about their practices? Focus groups, humour and the sensitive dynamics of everyday life

The exploration of everyday social practices related to sustainability often touches on the most invisible parts of people's everyday lives. Given the multiple cultural forces that govern cleanliness and comfort, and the intimate spheres in which these practices are performed, practices associated with everyday water use (and associated energy consumption) bump up against ‘the taboo’. While it has been resolved that ‘people can talk about their practices’ in interviews, a range of other methods – including CCTV , video and other data to survey and document practices in homes – are increasingly being used. As we delve theoretically closer to these public/private boundaries with new studies on social practices and sustainability, greater attention to the ethics of methods is needed. Different ‘talk'‐based methodologies such as focus groups that could allow researchers to work more ethically with the strong moral sensitivities of certain domestic practices have not yet been considered. This paper explores six focus groups on ‘bodies, clothes, dirt and cleanliness’ that took place in Lancaster, UK . Reflecting on researcher positionality, and results of a follow‐up survey with participants, the paper concludes that focus groups, humour and laughter enable intimately political conversations about aspects of everyday practices that might be difficult to access or articulate through other research methods. The implications of using conversational humour and laughter as purposeful tools for exploring particular aspects of everyday social practices is also explored. This paper responds to recent calls for greater consideration of fieldwork and methodologies related to gender and embodiment within human geography, and on the ethics and politics of everyday life research.