Denna sida på svenska

Research project Humor as serious business: Power and resistance in multiethnic educational contexts

Humor can work both inclusively and exclusively and be both normative and subversive. Humor also enables a conversation space, where it can be pronounced that otherwise may not be said.

Photo: Alina Semenenko, Mostphotos.

The project focuses on the use and effects of humor in young people's peer relationships and in interaction between young people and adults in different educational contexts.

Project members

Project managers

Anna Gradin Franzén

Universitetslektor

Department of Child and Youth Studies

08-120 765 25

anna.franzen@buv.su.se

Members

Rickard Jonsson

Professor

Department of Child and Youth Studies

08-120 762 00

rickard.jonsson@buv.su.se

Martina Wiksten

Doktorand

Department of Child and Youth Studies

08-120 765 60

martina.wiksten@buv.su.se

Publications

Wiksten, M. (2025).

Negotiation (collective) identity: Authentication and community in youth talk about comedy. European Journal of Humour Research, 13(2), 160-181.

Jonsson, R. (2025).

Fyra nyanser av rashumor: Henrik Schyffert och det performativa-affektiva arbetet att hantera gamla skämt, Sociologisk forskning.

Jonsson, R., & Franzén, A. G. (2025).

Excluding unlaughter: Humor as affective practice in a youth detention center for boys. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology.

Franzén, A. G., & Jonsson, R. (2024).

Banal humor and social order: Overlooked affects in staff interaction with incarcerated boys. Incarceration.

Franzén, A. G., & Jonsson, R. (2023).

“A THIIIEF!”: Humour and affect at a detention home for young men. I Svendsen, B. A. & Jonsson, R. (Red.), Routledge Handbook on language and Youth Culture.

Franzén, A. G., Jonsson, R., & Sjöblom, B. (2021).

Fear, anger and desire: affect and the interactional intricacies of rape humor on a live podcast. Language in Society, 50(5), 763-786.

Jonsson, R., & Franzén, A. G. (forthcoming).

The (laughing) man behind the uniform: Humorous learning encounters between youth and police. In P. Aarsand, C. Tønseth, JM. Stenøien & L. Aarsand, (Eds.), Learning in everyday practices. Palgrave McMillan.

Wiksten, M., Jonsson, R., & Franzén, A.G. (Accepted).

“If you want some pussy, give us freedom”: Girls’ taboo-breaking humor between the subversive and the normative. Gender and Language.