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.     

Joking aside: Theorizing laughter in organizations

Humour is becoming an increasingly prevalent topic in organization studies. On the one hand, humour is said to enable workers to undermine management control; on the other hand, humour is said to provide managers with a resource for ensuring compliance with corporate objectives. This paper seeks to challenge the duality found in the literature between rebellious and disciplinary forms of humour by examining the meaning and significance of laughter in organizations. Following Bergson, it will be argued that laughter serves to rectify overly rigid behaviour that has temporarily disrupted the natural elasticity of life. This will serve to attune us to the way in which laughter – whether it is directed at a dominant group or a marginalized group – plays a socially normative role in organizations through processes of ridicule and embarrassment.     

Capabilities,human value and profound disability: capability theory and its application to theatre,music and the use of humour

According to capability theory, we can identify everything that is of fundamental importance in the lives of people with profound and multiple learning difficulties and disabilities if we take full account of their human capabilities. In this paper I both acknowledge the contribution of capability theory to our understanding of the condition of profoundly disabled people and express some scepticism about the extent of that contribution, suggesting that there is more to the value of a human being than an audit of their capabilities might reveal. I explore human capabilities as discussed by Martha Nussbaum, and in connection with theatre, music and the use of humour.     

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.     

You Must Be Joking: The Sociological Critique of Humour and Comic Media

Recent work in the sociological critique of humour and comic media has challenged the notion that humour is an absolute good. In this article, we review some of the most interesting work that takes humour seriously and addresses the difficult topic of whether there are ethical limits to humour and media comedy. We outline three main reasons for taking humour seriously and review some of the ways in which humour has been studied sociologically through a consideration of how British 'alternative' comedy directed the work of those interested in the limits of humour in relation to gender, race and ethnicity. We also summarise some of the most controversial examples of contemporary media comedy – the comedic performances and personae of Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G and Borat) and the Danish cartoons of the Holy Prophet Muhammad – in order to illustrate the importance of the critical analysis of humour and how the ethics of humour can be applied to comic media.     

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.     

Reconsidering the Evolution of Nonlinguistic Communication: The Case of Laughter

Nonlinguistic communication is typically proposed to convey representational messages, implying that particular signals are associated with specific signaler emotions, intentions, or external referents. However, common signals produced by both nonhuman primates and humans may not exhibit such specificity, with human laughter for example showing significant diversity in both acoustic form and production context. We therefore outline an alternative to the representational approach, arguing that laughter and other nonlinguistic vocalizations are used to influence the affective states of listeners, thereby also affecting their behavior. In the case of laughter, we propose a primary function of accentuating or inducing positive affect in the perceiver in order to promote a more favorable stance toward the laugher. Two simple strategies are identified, namely producing laughter with acoustic features that have an immediate impact on listener arousal, and pairing these sounds with positive affect in the listener to create learned affective responses. Both depend on factors like the listener's current emotional state and past interactions with the vocalizer, with laughers predicted to adjust their sounds accordingly. This approach is used to explain findings from two experimental studies that examined the use of laughter in same-sex and different-sex dyads composed of either friends or strangers, and may be applicable to other forms of nonlinguistic communication.     

When Sharing a Laugh Means Sharing More: Testing the Role of Shared Laughter on Short-Term Interpersonal Consequences

Laughter is a common social behavior. Yet when, why, and how laughter may cause positive relationship change is largely unexamined, empirically. The current studies focus on shared laughter (i.e., when), drawing from theory in relationship science to emphasize the importance of conceptualizing laughter as situated within the dyadic context (i.e., why). Specifically, these studies target untested possible short-term outcomes from social interactions involving shared laughter: positive emotions, negative emotions, and perceived similarity. In turn, each are tested as possible mechanisms through which shared laughter promotes more global relationship well-being (i.e., how). A series of online and laboratory studies provide correlational and causal support for the hypothesis that shared laughter promotes relationship well-being, with increased perceptions of similarity most consistently driving this effect. Discussion focuses on the importance of considering the behavior of laughter itself, as situated within the social context, when making predictions about laughter’s relevance for social life.     

Human beings as receivers,doers and judges. The anthropological foundations of sustainable public action in the capability approach

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we argue that the capability approach can suggest avenues to reform social policies in the direction of a more valuable and sustainable conciliation between people's different engagements in community, work and family. We thus develop a theoretical framework for assessing the extent to which social policies support the freedom to lead a valuable life and to choose how to combine in a sustainable way employment, family life and active citizenship. With this aim, we study the anthropological conception at the core of the capability approach and its implications for social policy. We argue that in the capability approach human beings are seen as receivers (i.e. vulnerable beings in need of support), doers (i.e. actors able to contribute to society) and judges (i.e. political beings with aspirations, values and desires). By the same token, the capability approach sheds light on three prerequisites for developing a sustainable community, work and family interface: a) recognizing the multiple dimensions of human beings (and not seeing them only as ‘doers’ or ‘human capital’ for the economy), b) including all human beings, with their strengths and weaknesses, and allowing them to lead valuable lives (and not excluding those that cannot abide by the ‘doer’ standards), and c) insisting that the development of such an interface is the joint responsibility of the individual and the community (and not only of the individual).     

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.     

Relationship based social work practice: the case for considering the centrality of humour in creating and maintaining relationships

Relationship based social work practice has received increasing attention in recent years. The use of humour has infrequently been considered in relation to social work, and humour use is a neglected aspect in examining relationships in social work. As humour conveys humanity, is grounded in our earliest attachments and in the management of emotions, the purpose of this paper is to consider how humour operates in social work relationships. Importantly humour can help facilitate relationships with service users, and become a tool to help service users, social workers and their colleagues establish relationships.     

Reflecting upon vulnerable and dependent bodies during the COVID‐19 crisis

This article is a short narrative on how feminism helped me find a balance in my life and how this balance has been disrupted with the COVID‐19 crisis. I reflect on how this crisis is showing our vulnerabilities as human beings. This crisis reflects how our bodies depend on each other, moving away from the dominant patriarchal ontology that perceives bodies as being independent. This crisis is letting the most vulnerable in situations of survival because the infrastructures that support their bodies are not functioning. At the same time, this crisis is providing visibility to certain occupations that are dominated by issues of race, class and gender. These occupations are being at least temporarily rehabilitated to their central position in society. We are living a time where we could show, through our teaching, possible resistance to the neoliberal ontology that captured humanity.     

Can’t buy me laughter – Humour in organisational change

This article reflects upon the potential role of humour during an organisational change process. We focus on three facets that are of special importance during change: coping with the change, resisting the change, and leading the change. For each facet, we present relevant quantitative and qualitative studies; and in a final section, we derive implications for employees, leaders, and organisations.In regards to coping with change, we focus on the stress-buffering effects of humour. High-humour individuals maintain higher levels of positive affect in stressful situations and appraise a potentially stressful event as a positive challenge rather than a threat. In regards to resisting change, we show that aggressive humour can be an indicator of serious distress and a means to express resistance towards authority or aspects of the change process. In regards to leading change, we point out how effective leaders may utilise humour to manage followers’ emotions in order to increase positive affect and to reduce perceived threat associated with change.We conclude by suggesting how humour can be used as a diagnostic tool, to foster a humour-supportive climate, to improve communication strategies, and to support an error management culture.     

The Role of Rhythm and Pitch in the Evaluation of Human Laughter

Human laughter vocalizations are composed of highly variable sounds. We investigated the evaluation of laughter sounds and concentrated especially on the role of two acoustic features of laughter series: specific rhythms and changes in the fundamental frequency. Experimentally modified laughter series were evaluated using listener self-report data. Participants evaluated laughter series with differences in duration (Experiment 1), or in duration and frequencies (Experiment 2) of successive elements. Serial patterns with varying parameters received good ratings that were close to those received for natural laughter. By contrast, series with a stereotyped patterning received poor ratings. In addition, we found that self-report data strongly correlated to participants' direct behavioral reactions while listening to a specific stimulus. We suggest a three-part model to describe mechanisms underlying the evaluation of laughter.     

Relearning Childthink

Therapists meeting families with young children need to understand how children think. This paper aims to help beginner family therapists regain their lost childhood fluency in the language of childthink, by reviewing the clinically relevant essentials. Six to eight year old children learn with their eyes and by doing and touching rather than by talking. Young children think concretely and have a limited vocabulary. Moral realism implies clear cut goodies and baddies. They can externalise troubles and master them assisted by heroic goodies. Their humour is visual and slapstick. Application of childthink is demonstrated with mastering allegories developed by local therapists. General principles are identified and illustrated with White's Sneaky Poo. Case vignettes illustrate other documented allegories for abdominal pain, monster taming, Fierce Fears and The Temper. Newer allegories such as Dreamy Dawdle, Tricky Itch, Slippery Mouth, Tricky Wee and Chubby Lie show promise. This paradigm has much uncharted potential.     

SOMETHING IN THE AIR: OTHERNESS,RECOGNITION AND ETHICS

This essay will address the troublesome matter of relatedness between human beings. Taking everyday interactions as a point of investigation and exploration I will explore how recognition is simultaneously essential to human relatedness and impossible to achieve. Similarly, I will argue that an ethical stance is crucial for human relatedness. Using a psychoanalytic and philosophical framework, I will contend that it is essential to know our separateness and our profound connections to one another, and that in short, we are nothing without the other. Drawing upon the work of Arendt, Benjamin, Levinas and Young the complexities of recognition and alterity will be explored. The illusion of feeling emotionally settled and bolstered through the fantasies of recognition are here conceptualised as part of being human and sustaining oneself, and are approached here as problematic processes that need urgent investigation and action.     

Young People as Moral Beings: Childhood,Morality and Inter‐Generational Relationships

This article uses the work of Goffman to explore how a group of older children presented a moral self in a study of inter‐generational relationships. By reflecting critically on their own behaviour and that of other young people and adults, they presented themselves as morally competent agents, whilst questioning the taken‐for‐granted moral competence of adults. Their presentation of a moral self involved portraying themselves as moral beings, whilst acknowledging that they are also moral becomings. The findings highlight how the embedded authority and associated moral accountability of adults in relation to children militate against recognising children's moral agency.     

The roles of humour and laughter in youth focus groups on school food

The article examines young people's group interaction and the roles of humor and laughter in relation to school food and school lunch situations. The analysed focus group discussion data is drawn from a broader case study (2012?2013) with 9th grade students (15–16 years old; 62 pupils; 25 boys and 37 girls; 14 groups; 4?6 pupils per group) in a Finnish secondary school. The analysis is based on existing interpretations and classifications of humor in literature, which is complemented by notions drawn from the study's data set. It is argued that an analysis of humor and laughter can provide valuable notions of how collective attitudes towards school food are constructed, enforced and distributed among students, while also providing insight regarding what kinds of issues around school lunch practices are considered important and worthwhile in the context of students' informal peer cultures. The results illustrate how humor and laughter functioned for the students as a space for (1) Constructing ‘us’ versus ‘them’; (2) Negotiating social order; and (3) Engaging in fun and safe interaction. Results are discussed in the light of how humor and laughter uphold or divide social groups, as well mediate shifts between formal conventions and students' informal worlds.     

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.