How to Capture the Political in Everyday Conversation? Focus Groups as a Method to Research Democratic Practices in Daily Life

Abstract

Everyday conversation has not yet been assigned its full role in public discussion of citizen’s issues, despite the growing number of studies about it. Casual conversations are not usually regarded as a particularly privileged place for political discussions mainly because of its apparent lack of organization following the principles and rules of the deliberative tradition in Political Studies. However, due to its closeness, informality, and personal proximity, it is particularly adequate to rise political aspects of everyday lives that otherwise would not be publicly disclosed. But how to grasp the spontaneity of everyday conversation? This chapter argues that focus groups, as a research method, are fit to observe and understand real-time ordinary conversation on political issues. In what follows, the argument goes threefold: (1) it contrasts “conversation” with “deliberation” from a micro-point of view; (2) all conversation, as a discourse embroiled in power relations, is political in a broad sense (3) as it brings forward personal views and experiences, casual conversations defies the borders between public and private issues.

Citation

Marques, Â.C.S. and Martino, L.M.S. (2021), "How to Capture the Political in Everyday Conversation? Focus Groups as a Method to Research Democratic Practices in Daily Life", Pait, H. and Laet, J. (Ed.) Media, Development and Democracy (Studies in Media and Communications, Vol. 22), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 117-133. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2050-206020210000022009