Peer Bullying – Anxiety of Social Exclusion in a Real-Virtual Mediated School Life" |
Af Dorte Marie Søndergaard Afholdt på 2009 Australian Association For Research In Education Abstract Why do school children bully? What kind of constitutive powers are involved in the phenomenon? This paper introduces anxiety of social of exclusion as a key concept in a social psychological approach to peer bullying. Social inclusion involves a number of, also emotionally mediated, interactions and practices - among these a mutual production of recognition and dignity. In school classes pervaded by anxiety of social exclusion however these tend to be replaced by an increased production of contempt and disgust. While the production of contempt may seem to alleviate social anxiety by its promise of easily read and managed premises for inclusion, it tends to simultaneously produce an intensified anxiety of potential exclusion. This intensified anxiety begs for more alleviation. In school classes with a high level of social anxiety struggles around premises for in- and exclusion may, as part of this vicious circle, increase and under certain circumstances tilt into dehumanisation as a focused strategy in relation to particular others. Movements like these risk to open into potential practices of bullying and molesting, partly because the dehumanised other eventually falls outside of emphatic relevance. The dehumanised other will in this way be embraced by the abjection (Judith Butler) desired by the socially panicked group of the 'still' included. Anxiety of social exclusion emerges from a number of intra-acting (Karen Barad) forces, including social, subjective, discursive and material aspects of as well child as adult (professional and parental) contributions to everyday life in the school class. The paper will, however, among all these forces focus a particular dimension, namely the virtual practices and media products offered to and taken up by the children. Video games, TV-programs and movies offer cultural models and interpretive repertoires to the children, including models of social positioning, of relating and emotional responding together with repertoires of norms and evaluation standards, models for crises and conflict navigation etc. Children on their hand approach, and choose, read, and rejects, mix etc. these offers in real-virtually mediated processes of subjectification and relating. Such processes therefore become a crucial part of any analyses aiming to understand the complexities of bullying in school. The paper is based on interviews with and observations among app. 100 school children (8-14 years of age), interviews with their teachers, headmasters, a number of parents, and on observations of video gaming practices in spare time institutions.
|
