Saturday, April 16, 2016
Aria B (DoubleTree by Hilton Philadelphia Center City)
This paper presents early results of a study on the uses of humour by members of the European Parliament. The paper is based on semi-structured interviews done with French, German and Romanian MEPS. The interviews reveal how humour is used by MEPS as well the constraints the interviewees perceive when trying to use this powerful tool of communication. Inspired by early enthomethodology, the study focusses on the notions of member, group and language. Usages of humour reveal complex codes of behavior, which are important but ambiguous resources for daily interactions. On the one hand, they help develop political strategies which are adapted to the particularities of the political and institutional game at play in an atypical parliament like the EP. On the other hand, they reveal cultural and language borders between MEPs who may have a harder time than expected evolving in a multicultural and multilingual environment.
