Abstract
Responding to concerns raised by Michael Billig (2018) regarding the functions of humour in capitalist organisations, this essay strives to convey how humour and satire can have liberating and empowering affordances for subjects in organisational contexts as they can potentially intervene in the negotiation and exercise of power through fostering negative dialectical thinking and estrangement. Revisiting the scepticism of Marcuse, Fromm, Horkheimer and Adorno toward humour, it strives to provide an initial theoretical framework to accommodate a more nuanced understanding of the functions of humour in power structures by locating it within the contingencies acknowledged by Frankfurt School critical theorists.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 184-200 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | European Journal of Humour Research |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2023 |
Keywords
- capitalism
- Frankfurt School
- humour
- positive psychology
- work and organisational leadership