The Palgrave Handbook of Humour Research

This handbook is the updated and expanded second edition of a highly cited and impactful collection, which provides new perspectives on humour from transdisciplinary perspectives. The collection’s focus is on humour as a resource from different socio-cultural and psychological viewpoints, bringing together authors from different cultures, social contexts and countries. The handbook enables researchers and practitioners to unlock research findings which give new directions for contemporary and future humour research.
By employing transdisciplinary and transcultural perspectives, the volume further discusses humour in regard to different cultural and political contexts, humour over the lifespan, in therapy and counselling, in pedagogical settings, in medicine and the workspace. The contributions also highlight the connections between humour and the COVID-19 pandemic and promise new inspiring insights. This second edition includes a new introduction from theeditors, updates to the majority of the chapters, and five new chapters which take a humour-research approach to contemporary issues such as the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, the consequences of the pandemic, and tackles developments related to artificial intelligence and gamification. With an expanded scope, this handbook will continue to appeal to researchers, practitioners and students in the fields of industrial and organisational psychology, positive psychology, organisational studies, future studies, health and occupational science and therapy, who will find each chapter highly topical, insightful and applicable to practice.

Elisabeth Vanderheiden is a pedagogue, theologian, intercultural mediator. She is the CEO of the Global Institute for Transcultural Research and the President of Catholic Adult Education in Germany. Her publishing activities focus on pedagogy, in particular on the further education of teachers and trainers in adult education, vocational and civic education, but also on the challenges of digitalisation.

Claude-Hélène Mayer (Dr. habil., PhD, PhD) is Professor in I/O Psychology at the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa; Adjunct Professor at the Europa Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany and Senior Research Associate at the Department of Management at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.