‘Carry on laughing and I’ll punish you as well!’: Humour, power, and relationship negotiation in a prison workshop

Pandeli, Jenna; Alcadipani da Silveira, Rafael; Liao, Qiandan

Abstract

Drawing on a 10-month ethnographic study of a private prison in the UK, this paper examines how humour is used between prisoners and prison staff to negotiate working relationships in prison. We show how both the presence and absence of humour can shape power relations. Three situations are presented to understand the role that humour plays in negotiating relationships: (1) humour is used reciprocally to build relationships, (2) humour is explicitly avoided to maintain formal relationships, and (3) the acceptability of humour is constantly changed by those in positions of power to assert and maintain said power. Whilst theory often assumes management use humour to exercise control, we argue that equally, management can refuse to engage in humour to exercise control. It is not just humour that can embarrass, ridicule or punish, but our responses to humour too.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 13, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Feb 12, 2025
• Deposit Date: Feb 13, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 13, 2025
• Journal: Culture and Organization
• Print ISSN: 1475-9551
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-2760
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2025.2454988
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13753623
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=gsco20; Received: 2024-03-26; Accepted: 2025-01-13; Published: 2025-02-12