Bullying: another mask
of neoliberalism?
Why is this manifestation of violence in
school commonly known as bullying a form of violence that meets the structures
of neoliberalism?
Among the various forms of violence that are experienced in the classroom
every day, peer bullying is without a doubt the most visible in the media.
In fact, the word that the Norwegian psychologist Dan Olweus(1) used to define this form of
manifestation of peer harassment, bullying, is
mistakenly used, even to discuss political issues.
It is particularly
odd that in a country affected by the crudest violence which denotes the
insecurity and poverty of its citizens, the most discussed form of violence in
schools is that which works in the folds, in the empty horizons of perception
until It manages the automation that becomes a symptom. It is strange that
a manifestation of violence so subtle is
talked about so much when there are concrete manifestations of violence which
seem to be a reflection of what occurs in the social sphere which are not
discussed at all by the media, or are rarely examined.
What
is the objective when talking about bullying? What is trying to be said, but
not actually said? What is the real accusation made but not really discussed?
Perhaps these questions have no specific answers. However, we must
recognize that there is something behind what is said about bullying that
actually lies beneath and that which is hidden is precisely what makes events
novel and therefore newsworthy. We could be tempted to say that what is hidden in the speech is the
symbolic representation of the kind of violence established by the
cyber-consummerist paradigm which settles a form of unfair competition that
always tends to destroy the other and make him dependant. For example, the media do not talk about
this manifestation of violence until neoliberalism sets in the 90s in Latin
America.
There was always bullying, but
the "bullying" which is always cyberbullying is a neoliberal
violent manifestation, a result of the structure proposed by education in times
of neoliberalism, which Lewkowicz calls “school shed” (2).
It is understood from various texts read that bullying has always
existed. We can not deny it, but
as we understand it now, it is new, as this form of violence breaks the
boundaries between public and private . It denies the child any safe spaces.It denies being at home
because the other is there prowling with a camara, a cell phone or a Facebook
account. This boundary between what is public and private differentiates
the way violence is exercised regarding any previous form of harassment among
peers. Before the 90's, one was called "fat" at school, the
“hooker” at the club in the rugby team and José or Pepe, to everyone at
home. These different worlds did not intersect, or they slightly touched
if ever. There was protection and shelter. There were rules and moral
values.There were group-codes and heteronomy of spaces. A friend was a
friend. The “gang” was never betrayed or you would be called “snitch”
and pay your mistakes dearly Now there are individuals in permanent
competition, there is no private space, everything becomes public . And “the other” is there as a
useful object or an opponent. So you play “Playstation” games but you
actually compete against the other and that is the structure of the game (3) , and that is how “dumping” is
proyected on international markets and that is how you get promoted.
There is bullying-mobbing (4) -
dumping (5) . These
are forms of violence imposed by neoliberalism which do not exclude its
predecessors deriving from classic liberalism. Consequently, it is clear that the rules
imposed by neoliberalism on social practices install new forms of violence, and
therefore of violence at school. To what extent is the program of educational inclusion in schools not the
last desperate gesture, the latest reaction to the neoliberal Leviathan?
The “school shed” excludes, it generates acts of violence just as the
exclusive economic system does. For example, in a secondary school for
adults in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires, 35 students were enrolled in
March to attend 1st year, in May there are only 6 students who are
actually attending classes this average is thoroughly replicated in most
courses, that is to say that when 150 students were enrolled in the 1st year, less than a
hundred actually show up when school begins in March and around 30 will finish
that very same year. Similar situations take place in other high schools as
told by our colleagues. But that's
not all, because neoliberalism is
built from the practices of exclusion and competition that enables dumping on
the market and by extension on individuals, it is even worse if one compares
the possibilities of access to culture that are presented to young people
attending bilingual schools which give the possibility of having an
international baccalaureate, those attending parochial schools and the vast
majority who attend public schools in the
Gran Buenos Aires area (we prefer to speak about the northern area
because it is the place we teach, but we believe. that the same reality is
experienced in the rest of the province and in much of the country) Let's be clear, we are not criticizing the
state's education, or the need for the school to be inclusive, but what the
neoliberal system has done with the “model” state education that educated us
and gave us the possibility of access to culture, with its limited encyclopedic
model and its problems, of course. But beyond the problems and models,
school “leveled the terrain” and was inclusive, with rules and referals, this
school generated a structure of values and commitments. Today the education system and schools are
exclusive because they broaden the gap between social classes .Of the destruction, of the violence
that is generated against the school from the neoliberal paradigm, nobody talks
about, the monopolies that dominate the hegemonic discourse do not say
anything. In the same way that they say nothing is said when they talk about
bullying and the relationship that specific manifestation of violence keeps
with the ground rules of coexistence practiced in the very institutions
responsible for education. And they say nothing about the real perpetrators of
the acts of harassment which are automated; The media only talk about what
sells well: A boy (the victim) was assaulted by another boy (the offender) in
front of their peers (silent witnesses) this is better advertised if what is
being told attacks a public school or the public school system to highlight
their depletion and destruction
Translation: Prof. Verónica Santocildes.
NOTES
(1) To learn more about Dan
Olweus see Organisation
Violence Prevention Works
(2) In a lecture at the Posadas Hospital on September 18, 2002 (included in
the book “Pedagogía del aburrido” edited by Paidos Educator in 2011), Ignacio Lewkowicz says: "Some time ago, from various
experiences, we built a metaphor to name situations in which the subjectivity
is not forged for human habitation: the metaphor of the shed. A shed is an
enclosure whose materiality does not assume symbolic dignity. The metaphor
of the shed allows us to appoint an agglomeration of human material without a
shared task, without a collective understanding, without a common subjectivity
in common. A shed is what remains of the institution when there is no
institutional sense: the bricks and a regulation is there, but no one knows if
they order anything inside that materiality. In short, human matter with
some routines and the rest to be invented by agents. Just as in the days
of the nation - state we went from institution to institution, today, in the
absence of prior institutional framework, we remain in the shed until a
situation is not actively shape. But that no longer depends on the
institutions but to the agents. " Destitucion de la
Infancia
(4) The German teacher, Heinz
Leymann - Doctor in Work Psychology and professor at Stockholm
University - was the first to define this term for a Congress on Health and
Safety at Work in 1990:
"A situation in which a person holds
an extreme psychological violence, systematic and recurrent and for a long time
about another person or persons in the workplace in order to destroy
communication networks of the victim or victims, destroy their reputation, disrupt
the exercise of their duties and ensure that such person or persons ultimately
end up abandoning the workplace ".
(5) According to the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade : "There dumping when sales are made at prices below those set by
the same company within the market prices when those prices are different from
those of the various export markets or when They are lower than factory price
" . E-conomic .
