This paper describes the methods and findings of the ESRC funded Good Germs, Bad Germs: Mapping microbial life in the kitchen, which worked with a local community in Oxford, UK using emerging next generation sequencing technologies to ask questions about microbial diversity and abundance in their homes. The project had two key aims: (i) to explore human-microbe relations in the domestic kitchen; and (ii) to make scientific techniques for visualising the domestic microbiome available to non-expert publics through a form of ‘participatory metagenomics’.
Our findings pointed to tensions between new themes and ideas that resonate with the ideas of a more ecological, posthumanist approach to understanding human-microbe relations (such as the hygiene hypothesis or the idea a certain amount of microbial exposure is beneficial for health), and the legacies of public health promotion messages that effectively position microbes as an externalised threat to be eliminated.
We conclude there is scope for further research examining how scientific knowledge and techniques are enrolled into lay practices of making microbes sensible; how these intersect with, reinforce or disrupt previous feelings for microorganisms; and how generating new ways of relating with microbial others offers opportunities for intervening into the ways in which publics respond to perceived microbial opportunities and threats. The project also highlighted the benefits of participatory approaches to research on issues of health and bioscience.
Professor Beth Greenhough, Professor of Human Geography, Fellow of Keble College, Oxford