Popular talk, targeted to the general public, by the ACEE member Dr. Guillem Castañar Rubio that took place on June 9, 2022 in the Delta building of the University of Tartu.
The title and abstract of the talk read as follows:
Title: Humour, scandal and conflict in Europe’s public sphere: an interdisciplinary analysis.
Abstract: In contemporary, information-saturated European societies, humour often takes the central stage in societal conflicts. While humour and satire are recognised as indispensable elements of freedom of speech, humorous manifestations are increasingly debated, condemned and even censored. This project, funded by the Celsa Alliance, aims to study the relationship between humour and conflict in the public sphere. It brings together a multidisciplinary and international team from universities in Poland, Belgium and Estonia to investigate, firstly, the modes of expression of humorous communication and, secondly, the reactions to such communication in the public sphere. For this purpose, an analysis of the role of humour in all kinds of public controversies in these four countries will be carried out. Our long-term goal is to create an extensive research network to study the role of humour across Europe.