The social functionality of humor in group-based research
Hewer, Rebecca and Smith, Katherine and Fergie, Gillian (2019) The social functionality of humor in group-based research. Qualitative Health Research, 29 (3). pp. 431-444. ISSN 1049-7323 (https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732318800675)
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Abstract
Citizens' juries provide deliberative fora within which members of the public can debate complex policy issues. In this article, we reflect on our experience of undertaking three citizens' juries addressing health inequalities, to explore the positive and facilitative role that humor can play within group-based research focusing on sensitive health policy issues. We demonstrate how both participants and researchers engaged in the production of humor in ways which troubled prevailing power dynamics and facilitated positive relationships. We conclude by recommending that researchers, particularly health policy researchers and those pursuing the kind of lengthy group-based fora associated with deliberative research, consider the positive role humor can play when engaged reflexively. In so doing, we make a major contribution to extant literature on both deliberative fora (which is yet to consider humor's facilitative capacities) and the role of humor in qualitative (health) research (which rarely explores researcher complicity in humor production).
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Item type: Article ID code: 68523 Dates: DateEvent1 February 2019Published19 October 2018Published Online11 August 2018AcceptedSubjects: Social Sciences Department: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Social Work and Social Policy > Social Work and Social Policy > Social Work Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 19 Jun 2019 13:37 Last modified: 20 Aug 2024 05:22 URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/68523