That joke isn’t funny anymore… An exploration of humour, jokes and their relationship to social work Stephen Jordan Professional Doctorate in Social Work D60 The Tavistock/Cass School of Education and Communities 2015 1 Work not submitted elsewhere for examination I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be submitted in whole or part in another university for the award of any other degree Name: Stephen Jordan Signed: Date: 2 Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. 6 Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 8 Research questions ............................................................................................................................ 14 Structure of the thesis ........................................................................................................................ 14 Chapter 2 Literature review ................................................................................................................... 16 Laughter and Humour ........................................................................................................................ 17 Types of humour ................................................................................................................................. 18 Theories of the causes of humour .................................................................................................... 19 Developmental theories of humour .................................................................................................. 20 Anthropological/ Superiority theories of humour ............................................................................ 22 Incongruity theories of humour ......................................................................................................... 25 Social ‘subversiveness’ theories ...................................................................................................... 26 Humour as a psychosocial mechanism for managing emotions (release theory) .................... 26 Jokes ..................................................................................................................................................... 28 Clare in the Community ..................................................................................................................... 30 The current context of social work practice .................................................................................... 31 Social work and humour .................................................................................................................... 33 The fear of not taking Social Work seriously .................................................................................. 35 What can an analysis of humour offer social work? ...................................................................... 37 Social work, Humour and stress ....................................................................................................... 40 Humour and organisations ................................................................................................................ 42 Values, empathy and humour ........................................................................................................... 44 Gender, Social work and humour ..................................................................................................... 45 Summary .............................................................................................................................................. 47 Chapter 3 Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 49 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 49 My research paradigm and core assumptions: .............................................................................. 49 The researcher is merged with the world ........................................................................................ 50 Findings and Arguments, based on interpretation, rather than descriptions ............................. 52 A clear plan, but one which is flexible .............................................................................................. 53 Rationale for analysing jokes ............................................................................................................ 54 Methodology in collecting jokes ........................................................................................................ 55 Telephone interviewing ...................................................................................................................... 57 3 Ethical Issues and telephone interviewing ...................................................................................... 60 The research design and theoretical basis for analysis ................................................................ 61 The role of concurrency ..................................................................................................................... 62 Reflexivity ............................................................................................................................................. 62 The role of language itself ................................................................................................................. 62 A Thematic psychoanalytic methodology for analysis .................................................................. 63 Validity, reliability and generalizability ............................................................................................. 65 Internet methodology: On-line data collection and social networking sites (SNS) ................... 66 Online ethical considerations ............................................................................................................ 71 Examples of how I developed the themes in my findings ............................................................. 75 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 77 Addendum ............................................................................................................................................ 78 Chapter 4 Findings ................................................................................................................................. 81 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 81 1. Humour and the work ................................................................................................................. 83 2. Humour and the emotional context of the work ..................................................................... 89 3. Humour and humanity ................................................................................................................ 93 4. Humour and relationships with service users ......................................................................... 97 5. Humour and risk taking ............................................................................................................ 100 6. Humour, hostility and fear ........................................................................................................ 105 7. Humour and laughing in an ‘unhelpful way.’ ......................................................................... 110 8. Social work managers and humour ....................................................................................... 114 9. Political correctness, Values and humour ............................................................................. 119 10. Social work training and humour- traffic wardens of child protection ........................... 122 11. Social work as a “hidden activity” ....................................................................................... 127 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 129 Chapter 5 Discussion and reflection- practice issues and humour ............................................... 130 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 130 Humour and contradiction- “The Inside Outsiders” ..................................................................... 130 Contemporary relationship based social work- risk and risk taking: “laughing in a helpful way” ............................................................................................................................................................. 133 Humour and becoming de-sensitised ............................................................................................ 137 Humour and reflective practice ......................................................................................................