I use a microanalytic approach to show that participant evaluations in focus groups on food are negotiated as part of an embodied, interactive process that employs multiple semiotic modalities. A cooperative semiosis is therefore at work in these evaluations, which unfold in time via verbal and gestural interaction.
In this study, I show that participant evaluations in focus groups on food are negotiated as part of an embodied, interactive process that employs multiple semiotic modalities. As such, I build on previous studies of embodied interaction in focus groups (Markova et al. 2007), in professional communities (Streeck et al. 2011), and during taster lunches (Szatrowski 2014). I use a microanalytic approach (Goodwin and Goodwin 1987) to explore one evaluative segment taken from 8 hours of moderated focus group data. In this segment, two participants – Kris and Lydia – are discussing scoop-shaped tortilla chips. Lydia begins by saying, ‘I like the scoops, they’re a really good conveyor for the dip.’ Kris offers an opposing assessment, ‘I don’t like the scoops; I don’t like all that...’ Kris uses an iconic gesture (McNeill 1992) in place of an utterance-ending noun, bringing both of her hands toward her cheeks to indicate a mouthful of food. Lydia replies, ‘Too much.’ In this exchange, Kris and Lydia work together to evaluate the shape of the chip; even when Kris makes a verbally incomplete evaluation, Lydia interprets it and ties her subsequent utterance to it. In this segment, we observe that participants use multiple modalities (e.g., verbal, gestural) in evaluating products, and that they co-construct their evaluations, which unfold in time via verbal and gestural interaction. A cooperative semiosis is therefore at work in a way that underscores the important role played by the interpreter (here, Lydia) in meaning-making (Enfield 2011). They key contribution of this study is to show that the nexus of meaning in focus group evaluations of food is the ‘public, embodied interactive field that is sustained and constituted from moment to moment by the coordinated, differentiated work’ of actors (Goodwin 2011).
