Where Research Should Take Place?

I am sitting trying to write a conference paper at the kitchen table in the gite we are staying in. Mother is at the other end writing ‘Thank You’ letters for birthday presents whilst Bro and Daddy are playing ten-pin bowling in the Wii. Not exactly what the academic elite have in mind when they envisage people doing research.
And yet it is quite a pleasant way to work; research isn’t something to be done in ivory towers but it is practical, normal and daily. It should not be separated from everyday life or be only accessible to a limited number of readers. Its outputs should be in a language which is universally readable. Unlike an academic paper I sat through at last year’s Sociology of Education Conference which I thought was about the fact that Higher Education Research was inaccessible due to the language it uses. I was then told – without an ounce of irony – that I had misunderstood the paper. Sadly, I didn’t understand the paper’s actual meaning. Case in point?
So I think sitting in the lounge with my family around me is precisely the place research SHOULD be taking place.