Humor and social order: Towards the perspective of figurational sociology

Abstract

The paper discusses the division of humor into ?positive? and ?negative?, and focuses also on ?negative? aspects, which allows a comprehensive sociological analysis of this phenomenon. In this sense, the central issue of sociological analysis is the function of humor related to the management of tensions in all types of social relations. The aim of the paper is to relate humor to the maintenance of social order, power relations, hierarchy and discipline. It is about conceiving humor as a regulatory mechanism of social control that is used to ridicule or embarrass actors who violate prevailing social norms. On the other hand ?rebellious? aspect of humor is analyzed, that is, humor conceived as resistance, i.e. ?weapons of the weak?. Given that it is possible to point out both disciplinary and ?rebellious? functions, the debate on the issue of the conservative or subversive nature of humor has not been resolved in the literature. The paper points out the developmental perspective of humor, i.e. the figurational explanation, that focuses on contextual and historical differences in which different functions of humor prevail, and humor is conceived as a kind of ?negotiation? within given social power relations and status relations between actors.