Children with profound and multiple learning difficulties: laughter,capability and relating to others

There are numerous ways in which human beings respond to humour: they smile, grin, laugh, giggle or guffaw, and their behaviour might include anything from a glint in the eye to an uncontrollable heaving of the whole body. We consider how laughter is displayed in the lives of four children with profound and multiple learning difficulties and disabilities (PMLD), and reflect on what this reveals about their capabilities and relationships. We look at examples of absurdity and incongruity as elements of humour, and we explore how these create a space for ‘relational commonality’ between people whose differences are many and profound. We suggest that laughter, and involvement in humorous interaction, enables children with PMLD to express themselves, to develop relations with others and to be seen as fully our fellow human beings.     

From personal troubles to public compassion: charity shop volunteering as a practice of care

This article analyses charity shop volunteering in the UK as an instance of individual commitment towards organizations devoted to combating suffering. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews focused on motives, the paper argues that some respondents found in volunteer work a way of regaining meaning, structure and belonging after experiences of social dislocation such as retirement and bereavement. The transition from social dislocation to ontological security via volunteering illustrates the way in which ‘the social’ – as expressed in fellowship, laughter, work, organizations and institutions – moderates charitable practice. From this perspective, volunteering appears as a relational, processual and affective practice of care; and as a sympathy catalyst – an institution that facilitates interpersonal sympathy exchanges and support for compassionate goals. The paper endorses a view of human subjectivity which takes seriously both human vulnerability and resilience – victimhood and agency – as well as the relevance of suffering and flourishing for social action. In so doing, the paper sheds light on the link between individual biographies and the institutionalized efforts to alleviate strangers' suffering that Natan Sznaider has termed ‘public compassion’.     

Laughing it off? Humour,affect and emotion work in communities living with nuclear risk1

Over the past two decades, an increasing number of risk researchers have recognized that risks are not simply objective hazards but that the meanings of risk are discursively negotiated, dynamic and embedded within the wider social relations that constitute everyday life. A growing interest in the complexity and nuances of risk subjectivities has alerted sociocultural researchers not only to what is said in a risk situation, but also to how it is said and to what is unsaid and even, in a particular context, unsayable; to the intangible qualities of discourse that communicate additional meanings. Humour is both an intangible and marks such intangible meanings, yet it has largely been ignored and insufficiently theorized by risk researchers. In this paper, we draw upon insights from the humour literature - suspending the belief that humour is inherently good - to analyse and theorize humour as a way of examining the meanings and functions of risk. We show how humour can both mask and carefully reveal affectively charged states about living with nuclear risk. As such, it helps risk subjects to live with risk by suppressing vulnerabilities, enabling the negotiation of what constitutes a threat, and engendering a sense of empowerment. We conclude that humorous talk can be serious talk which can enrich our understandings of the lived experience of risk and of risk subjectivities.     

How to Sharpen Words: Mayakovsky’s Machines of Poetic Humour

Analysis of Mayakovsky’s prose writings of the mid-1920s on the craft of satire reveals that he understood it to be a scientific discipline subject to strict cause-and-effect relationships: if the satirical treatment of a theme — any theme — is correct, then the piece will produce ‘involuntary laughter’ (neproizvol’nyi smekh). As an example, he puts forward his 1923 poem ‘Schematic of Laughter’ (Skhema smekha) — a text he claims contains no comic ideas, but only the correct satirical sharpening of discourse. As a barebones inventory of comic devices, the poem is a perfect place to begin an examination of Mayakovsky’s poetics of humour. But it is not alone; in a note to the 1925 poem ‘Shallow Philosophy in Deep Places’ (Melkaia filosofiia na glubokikh mestakh), Mayakovsky explains that it too is a ‘skeleton poem’ (stikh-skelet), just like the ‘Schematic’, and another compendium of humorous devices. Together, then, these poems represent the purest and most concentrated expression of Mayakovsky’s understanding of the mechanics of poetic humour. Sustained close reading of both poems reveals that his humorous devices, ranging from formal to narrative, all serve to establish and then deceive expectations in the reader.     

How flat organizations filter: organizational gatekeeping in a networked environment

The development of affordable Internet-based tools and platforms has led to major transformations in organizational dynamics. One key change is the shift of agency from center to ends and the consequent emergence of decentralized (networked) organizations. Focusing on the realm of collective action, we suggest that organizational configurations constructed around participants with greater agency induce organizations to promote new filtering tactics to sort out members who are valuable to the group. Drawing on Signaling Theory, we analyze the filtering behavior that organizations develop in their attempt to cope effectively with a type of tension characteristic of the digital era: The impetus to uphold egalitarian ideals on the one hand and the need to sort out desired participants on the other. Previous studies have explained how boundary work actually works in bureaucratic settings with fairly clear boundaries. This study focused instead on how new patterns of collective participation emerge, and how novel practices related to filtering are distributed in decentralized organizations. The study makes two points with theoretical implications. First, it explains an organization's decision to conduct filtering measures – a decision that on the face of it is counterintuitive since organizations operating in a digital environment can tolerate the enclosure of ‘free riders’. The second point relates to filtering practices. It shows that the emergence of new forms of participation, practices and norm, due to the development of networked media, encourages creativity in the development of specific filtering tactics, with activists considering new tactics for achieving their goals.     

Laughing Across the Border: Radek Knapp’s Mr. Kuka’s Recommendations and Instruction Manual for Poland

The writing of Radek Knapp, a Polish-born author writing in German, is singular among the works of immigrant writers in the German-speaking countries for his nostalgic yet satirical view of Poland from the perspective of a long-time immigrant to Austria who understands both worlds well. The author, born in Warsaw in 1964 and living in Vienna since 1976, uses predominantly humoristic strategies to expose the national stereotypes that determine and undermine the contacts between Austrians, Germans, and Poles and shape the images of the foreigner in each of the countries. From this point of view, Knapp’s latest work, Gebrauchsanweisung für Polen [Instruction Manual for Poland, 2005], can be read as a work complementing his previous novel, Herrn Kukas Empfehlungen [Mr. Kuka’s Recommendations, 1999], in which, in a similarly humoristic style, he depicts the first encounters of a Polish high-school graduate with the idealized Western world.

The article concentrates on Knapp’s use of humour in the depictions of foreigners in Austria and Germany on the one hand and Poland on the other. Using humour theories based on incongruity and surprise as conditions for a humorous effect to take place, the article investigates how comic strategies are employed in Knapp’s works to create a ‘laughter community’ of readers thinking beyond and across borders.     

Children's humour and the grotesque pleasures in school mealtime socialisation

In this paper, we argue for two propositions: children are socialised and guided to become competent members of school mealtime community, and children have the capacity to modify and challenge existing practices. We draw on Bakhtin's concepts of the carnivalesque laughter and grotesque realism to illustrate how children use humour to test the boundaries of what is permitted. Children's mealtime interactions foster the development of social skills to subvert and negotiate adult authority and manage unfolding interactions between children and adults. We present findings from a child-centred perspective in a primary school in the United Kingdom.     

Laughter in medical interaction: From quantification to analysis,and back

This study discusses the use of quantification in analysing interactional practices, especially in conversation analytical work. The paper concentrates on laughter in medical interaction and starts from a quantitative point of view. West (1984) found certain statistical patterns of laughter in medical interaction: the patients laugh more than the doctors and most laughter is not reciprocated, i.e. the interactants mostly laugh alone. This statistical pattern is also found in Finnish data but it is approached again from the micro‐analytical point of view and some features of it are problematised through analysing in more detail: (1) the ways in which laughter is made relevant; (2) how laughter is responded to; and (3) the interactional functions laughter can have. The paper shows that Schegloff’s (1993) critique of quantitative interactional work is indeed called for, but nevertheless also presents advantages of quantification: the distribution of laughter between the participants in medical interaction turned out to be an interesting issue, one which is revealing of their different interactional roles and footings.     

Participation and inclusiveness in private rule-setting organizations: does it matter for effectiveness?

Governance, from local to global levels, relies increasingly on private governance arrangements. Private actors, specifically corporations and civil society organizations, increasingly design, implement and monitor rules and standards that guide and prescribe behavior in a range of policy areas, including sustainability, banking and international security, to name a few. Even though the involvement of private actors in global politics is not a new phenomenon, the creation of cooperative arrangements in the form of organizations that lead to private regulation – thus complementing traditional ways of political influence – is relatively novel. This paper focuses on private rule-setting organizations that have emerged in the global governance of sustainability. It starts from the observation that, despite seemingly performing similar roles and functions, organizations differ both in terms of outputs they produce as well as rules of participation and decision-making. Accordingly, the paper evaluates whether organizations providing a more inclusive and participatory approach in relation to others have different implications for the quality and relevance of rules (outputs). Hence, it aims to shed light on the way private rules and standards are decided and the associated implications, in view of their increasing role and relevance in sustainability governance. In more detail, we contend that there is no linear relation between democratic legitimacy and effectiveness. While inclusiveness and representativeness in the standard-setting process will probably lead to more stringent and comprehensive rules, those regulatory systems with high stringency will be the ones least taken up. Empirically, the paper illustrates its argument with a comparison of five private rule-setting organizations that have emerged in the global governance of fisheries sustainability: the Marine Stewardship Council, Friend of the Sea, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, the Global Aquaculture Alliance and GlobalGAP.     

The politics of joking: narratives of humour and joking among adults with Asperger’s syndrome

The purpose of this article is to analyse how humour and narratives about humour are used in a natural group of adults with Asperger’s syndrome. Narratives about humour and use of humour in the group are analysed from a discursive psychological perspective, informed by insights from both disability studies and critical autism studies. The setting of the research is ethnographic fieldwork in an educational setting in Sweden. In the paper, I show the use of three storylines among a natural group of people with autism (PWA) when talking about humour: the storyline of humourless PWA that dominates within Swedish society; and two alternatives, a storyline of alternative humour among PWA and another storyline in line with the social model of disability, of neurotypical humour or disabling humour. When invoking these two alternative storylines, PWA challenge both the humourlessness storyline and the lack of social accessibility within mainstream neurotypical settings.     

Decompartmentalizing the sociology of activist commitment. A critical survey of some recent trends in French research

This article is a critical survey of a field of research that for 20 years has been particularly active in France and is once again gaining momentum: the sociology of activist commitment. An outcome of this sociological current was the inter-actionist paradigm, i.e. how activists’ careers are embarked upon and evolve. The notion of how to reward activism has been refined and reconsidered. Theoretical debates relating to the surfacing – or not – of “new forms” of activism – or even “new activists” – are replaced in perspective and the two challenges that confront research today stressed. Both concern the social division of labor: how to account more thoroughly for the link between macro-social transformations and individual commitment, on one hand, how organizations are instrumental in formatting activism, on the other.     

Affective capitalism,humanitarianism and extractivism in Colombia: old and new borders for future times

Contemporary Colombian conjuncture encompasses two dynamics. These incorporate social, economic, political and cultural aspects, whose related rationalities are yet to be mapped out and understood in their complex and multi-layered dimensions and registers. On the one hand, as I will explain throughout the text, we have been witness to on-going peace talks between the government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia guerrilla group, a whole set of practices of forgiveness, inaugurations of memory museums, the passing of the victims and land restitution law, as well as the recognition of victims and the effervescence of their movements and organizations. These factors have spiralled victims’ demonstrations and fuelled marches all over the country. On the other hand, there are increased rates of foreign investment in those regions that, until as little as a decade ago, were subject to appalling rates of internal displacement, massacres and disappearances, and which now constitute new borders where global capitalism has been able to reconfigure and increase its rates of capital accumulation. In this article, I analyse the processes referred to above and their complex relationships from the vantage point of a cultural studies interrogation of the affective and the popular, focusing on two Colombian regions: Montes de María and Mapiripán. My goal is to understand how different groups and actors are experiencing these processes in their everyday lives. Here, I include victims and their organizations but also government officials and entrepreneurs related to agro-industry initiatives – mentioned below – today refashioned within the new mantra of corporate responsibility. I want to understand the issue of where people are located and what they are doing, facing, consuming, or resisting in terms of these new challenges. Finally, I wish to offer an analytical study that can capture the everyday textures of these processes in a complex and concrete fashion.     

Only joking? Online humour in the 2005 UK general election

Humour has long been a part of election campaigns but rarely has election humour been subject to scholarly analysis. The increasing popularity of new forms of Internet-based humour has, however, raised questions about the significance of humour in campaigning and whether online humour can be used as means of stimulating political engagement. This article assesses online humour in the context of the 2005 UK election, exploring both the motivations of the different actors who distributed web-based political humour and the nature of the texts themselves. We find that whilst the official party campaigns use humour very cautiously, there has been an upsurge in humour based campaigns from net activists as well as more traditional broadcasters. Yet, overall, the way that humour is used is paradoxical, since it often attempts to encourage participation but portrays politics as a cynical game, leaving the rationale for political participation unclear.     

The Institutionalization of Solidarity and Globalization: The Case of Darfur1

This article uses the suffering in Darfur and the world's responses to it to discuss how contemporary solidarity and globalization is characterized by an institutionalization that contains elements of both extension and limitation. The extension thesis is supported by the involvement of international institutions such as the UN, the EU, and the AU. It also draws support from the involvement of civil society organizations. The limitation thesis is supported by observations of state activities, which do not always adhere to cosmopolitan norms. The limitation thesis is also strengthened by the fact that civil society organizations played a relatively marginal role in the debate and that those who did take part were a small group of large professional organizations. This leads to the conclusion that solidarity and globalization risk becoming de-popularized and de-democratized. On the other hand, it is also remarked that this institutionalization of civil society responses is an advance because it allows a routine professional response to distant suffering.     

Laughter in Conversation: Features of Occurrence and Acoustic Structure

Although human laughter mainly occurs in social contexts, most studies have dealt with laughter evoked by media. In our study, we investigated conversational laughter. Our results show that laughter is much more frequent than has been described previously by self-report studies. Contrary to the common view that laughter is elicited by external stimuli, participants frequently laughed after their own verbal utterances. We thus suggest that laughter in conversation may primarily serve to regulate the flow of interaction and to mitigate the meaning of the preceding utterance. Conversational laughter bouts consisted of a smaller number of laughter elements and had longer interval durations than laughter bouts elicited by media. These parameters also varied with conversational context. The high intraindividual variability in the acoustic parameters of laughter, which greatly exceeded the parameter variability between subjects, may thus be a result of the laughter context.     

Coffee and the Business of Pleasure: The Case of Harbucks vs. Mr. Tweek

In this paper, I examine the representation of organizations in the television cartoon series South Park . In particular the South Park episode 'Gnomes' is reviewed - this episode contains a direct parody of the role and conduct of organizations in society as its story revolves around a 'fictitious' coffee chain, Harbucks', attempt at a hostile takeover of a small town coffee shop. Drawing on the episode's roman a clef (or perhaps cartoon a clef ) depiction of the global coffee retailing organization Starbucks, it is argued that this popular culture representation offers opportunities to critique and debate organizational behaviour in a way not available to modes of representation common to Organization Studies. Following Bakhtin's model of the carnival, South Park is read as exemplary of a subversive culture of folk humour that mocks, satirises and undermines official institutions - a culture rich in understandings of contemporary organizations and their relationship with society.     

On Using Appreciative Language in Constructing Promising/Illusionistic Realities

This article is a carnival: besides Peter Lang, the protagonist it gives appearance and voice to many other people, as in a play or dance. In this dialogue, facts are not considered to be anything given; they are constructed in the relationships and interactions, thoughts formulate themselves in the carnival whirl of language. The postmodern team appearing in the article have taken their voices from the literature. They are saying partly what they have said in print partly what they might have said – or will be saying in the future. What happened to the director of the discussion was the same thing that can, in a best‐case scenario, happen to a therapist: the director was simultaneously the writer and the product of the story. Through it he died and was reborn. You can never predict the future through the past because the past changes all the time (Mihail Bakhtin). To be systemic means you accept everything, defy everything, accept nothing. Life is like a carnival or like a parody (Peter Lang).     

Shifting repertoires: understanding cultural plurality in policing

The police is one of the most prominent organizations in the frontline of public administration. In order to deal with high external expectations, the organization has been said to develop and nurture multiple police cultures. Applying Grid Group Cultural Theory, or GGCT, we address the following questions: what sets of values, beliefs and practices has the police organization developed to deal with high expectations stemming from their publics? How do cultural tensions play out in real-life practices of policing “under pressure”? We find that cultural patterns described in the general literature on policing can be plotted on the GGCT map. Zooming in on the case of policing in the Netherlands, cultural plurality appears to be not only prominent in the police organization as such, but can also be found in the form of continuous cultural “tap-dancing” – swift, flexible and improvisational shifting – at various levels of active policing.     

Equal gender opportunity: Couples in the gap between principles and practice

This paper begins with reference to Nordic evidence claiming that practice is not measuring up to widespread ideals of parent couples sharing housekeeping and childcare tasks when both parents work. Relatedly the paper brings observations of what family practice may look like today in a sample of dual earner heterosexual Norwegian couples with children in day care. There seems to be a discrepancy – a gap – between generally accepted principles and practice as described. The observations are interpreted in relation to a set of concepts with the intention of trying to understand meanings of the gap for people living in the situation. A number of burdens on mothers are highlighted. This situation – through its influence on individual well-being and setting interactions – is of importance not only for couples and their children, but also for communities and organizations. Involvement from institutions around the family, notably from work organizations, is needed in the struggle for change.     

Toward ethical guidelines for network research in organizations

All sociological/anthropological research (network or otherwise) in organizations (particularly corporations) is complicated by the need to obtain consent not only from the potential respondent but from the organization itself. Whereas in ordinary research there are essentially two parties that must come to agreement – the researcher and the respondent – in the organizational research there are three. In addition, the fact of organizational hierarchy means that the employee's participation in the research entails considerably more risk than in other situations. At the same time, social network research involves special challenges due to the lack of anonymity at the questionnaire level and the sensitivity of some of the questions. This paper seeks to lay out some of the issues and to propose a set of standard guidelines for ethical research on networks in organizations. It is hoped that developing a set of standard guidelines and forms will help Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to allow network research. Examples of proposed forms are included as appendices.