Solicited diaries and the everyday geographies of heterosexual love and home: reflections on methodological process and practice

This paper draws upon material from a study with 14 heterosexual couples who live in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand to consider the use of personal solicited diaries in research on the everyday geographies of heterosexual love and home. Critical feedback, in the form of evaluation questionnaires, as well diary content is used to reflect critically upon the usefulness of diaries as a methodological tool. This paper argues solicited diaries have the ability to provide research participants with a space of embodied and emotional self‐reflection and they can facilitate researchers with access to emotional spaces and situations typically beyond their reach. It concludes that while solicited diaries can potentially offer a more accurate portrayal of everyday life in process, they continue to be a product of research momentariness.