Laughing at Energy Solutions

Humour, Expertise, and Belonging in Engineering Culture

Abstract

In this study, we explore humour in engineering education and its relation to disciplinary culture. Previous research has shown that humour is not merely a form of entertainment or relaxation in educational settings, but a powerful discursive tool through which values, hierarchies, and belonging are negotiated. Our aim is to capture how students’ humour reflects engineering norms, as well as their engineering identity. In this study our empirical data consist of a video recording of four engineering students who were working on a project concerning the wolf population in Sweden. We zoomed in on moments when the students laughed of any reason. One particular episode, in which they made jokes about ill-conceived energy-saving solutions, was chosen for deeper analysis using positioning theory. The jokes were primarily ironic suggestions for solving energy shortages, such as installing wind turbines on cars or positioning two wind turbines to face each other. Thes jokes made everyone in the group laugh and the humour functioned both as a means of releasing tension and as a way of fostering group cohesion. However, our analysis also shows that the engineering students positioned themselves as knowledgeable about how energy works, in contrast to politicians, who were positioned as ignorant. At the same time, technical knowledge was positioned as the most valid form of knowledge. According to the jokes, engineers were positioned as more reliable decision-makers on national issues than politicians. In other words, although technology and engineering have traditionally been described as apolitical subject areas with a weak connection to social change, these engineering students constructed themselves as important contributors to society at large, through humour.