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We investigate the importance of spatial, material, and organisational factors to gendered peer relations on the school football pitch. The study is part of an ethnographic research project exploring the relations between school bullying and the institutional context of schooling, focusing on the perspectives of teachers and pupils from preschool class up to grade eight (approximately ages 5-13). The findings in this study are based on participant observations and semi-structured interviews with pupils at three schools in Sweden. Our findings illustrate how social-ecological elements of spatial, material, and organisational factors such as school design, the material construction of the pitches, and the temporal organisation of the space through scheduling promote gendered positioning and fevered interactions which influence peer relations and sometimes contribute to degrading treatment, harassment and bullying. Our study demonstrates how these processes need to be understood as complexly related to social-ecological factors beyond the football pitch setting.

In this qualitative study, we explore teachers' perspectives on spatiality, school design and school bullying. The study is part of a larger, ongoing ethnographic research project into the relations between school bullying and the institutional context of schooling being conducted in schools in Sweden, focusing on the perspectives of teachers and students from pre-school class up to grade eight. The findings from this particular study are based on participant observations and semi-structured interviews with teachers from pre-school class to grade six (i.e. approx. ages 5-13) at three schools in Sweden. The findings demonstrate that environmental, social and structural elements of school spaces affect both social relations between students and teachers' ability to prevent school bullying. Taken as a whole, the study highlights the importance of looking beyond the issue of supervision in schools and considering in more detail the ways in which spatiality and school design influence school bullying and preventative work in schools.

Background: Despite considerable anti--bullying efforts and greater awareness of the social processes underpinning bullying, bullying is still a serious problem across schools in many countries. In exploring the social processes that contribute to school bullying, research indicates complex relationships between bullying and the maintenance and building of friendships. While such findings provide important information about the social context of school bullying, more needs to be understood about the institutional context within which school bullying -- and friendship -- occur. Purpose: The aim of this study is to better understand how school bullying relates to friendship processes, and how these are, in turn, influenced by the institutional constraints of the school context. Method: The findings discussed draw on 3 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted at one Swedish elementary school. The fieldwork involved participant observations, as well as semi-structured group interviews with 34 sixth-grade pupils (approx. 12 years of age), which were conducted towards the end of the fieldwork. Data were analysed thematically. Findings: The analysis highlighted the importance of friendships to pupils but also identified the ways in which understandings of friendship relations were closely tied to the importance of social perceptions and the organisational constraints of the school context. Conclusions: Taken together, the findings suggest that school bullying cannot be de-contextualised from the social and institutional contexts of school but may rather be connected to the perceived need for control in that particular arena. The study draws attention to how the complex relations between bullying, friendship and school context need to be better understood, in order to support efforts to prevent school bullying.

The past 30 years has seen a significant increase in research interest and public discussion about school bullying and an associated diversification in perspectives on the issue. In attempting to bridge divisions between different research paradigms, there have been calls for cross-paradigmatic dialogue. In this short think piece, I seek to facilitate such dialogue by addressing the question of power and considering its analytical implications for school bullying research, anti-bullying initiatives, and education more generally. In doing so, I relate the discussion to the various systems of the widely used social-ecological framework. I argue that a focus on power suggests a need for more consideration of the various levels of the social-ecological framework, more consideration of the importance of social difference, and more consideration of the importance of the school context and issues of power and resistance therein.

Background: Research suggests that negative peer interactions that compromise student safety and wellbeing often occur in spaces at school that are not easily visible, not adequately monitored, overcrowded and/or relatively unstructured. In a large online survey conducted in Swedish schools by the anti-bullying organisation, Friends, a small proportion of students indicated that they felt unsafe in the school canteen and responded to a question about why they felt unsafe there. As the canteen is often reported to be a space where negative peer interactions, such as harassment, bullying and other forms of school violence, occur, but little is known about why negative peer interactions occur there, we were particularly interested in exploring "why" some students perceived their school canteen to be an unsafe space. Purpose: Taking a social-ecological perspective, our aim was to investigate why students reported feeling unsafe in the environment of the school canteen. Method: In order to investigate this question, we analysed 1,547 responses from students in Swedish schools in grades 3-6 (ages 9-12). The responses were from the anti-bullying organisation Friends' online questionnaires from 2011 to 2016. In the responses, students who indicated that they felt unsafe in the school canteen explained why they felt this way. Data were analysed qualitatively, using a six-step thematic approach. Findings: The analysis identified four key themes: Space constraints, Time restrictions, The risk of social blunders and The negative actions of others. We discuss the findings in terms of the macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem and microsystem. Conclusions: In matters of student safety and wellbeing, we argue that it is not only important to consider the social context, but also how that context is interconnected with environmental and structural elements.

The aim of the study was to examine Swedish school pupils' perspectives on why some pupils engage in bullying, support bullying or avoid standing up for the one(s) being bullied, despite a shared understanding that bullying is wrong. Through the use of focus group interviews combined with two bullying vignettes, a total of 74 pupils from grades 5 and 6 (i.e. 11-12 years of age) from two public primary schools in socioeconomically diverse areas were asked for their perspectives on various participant roles in bullying. In interpreting the vignette scenario, the participants emphasised the importance of perceived coolness, as well as the risk of being bullied. In seeking to avoid becoming a 'victim' of bullying, the situational roles of 'bully', 'assistant', 'reinforcer' and 'outsider' were understood as potential means for promoting, maintaining or protecting one's own social position. The findings of the study challenge previous understandings of bullying as an act of harmful or aggressive intentionality and rather highlight the relational and situational aspects of bullying.

The article explores 5th and 6th grade pupils' reflections on why pupils may refrain from intervening in bullying, despite understanding that bullying is wrong. The findings are based on focus group interviews conducted with 74 Swedish school pupils, who were asked for their perspectives on the various participant roles depicted in a bullying vignette. The findings were analysed using methods from constructivist grounded theory and through the theoretical lens of Goffman's concept of social stigma. The interviewees emphasised the implications of being positioned as the 'victim', including being socially stigmatised, isolated, denigrated and further bullied, and suggested that the fear of being 'singled out' would be a main concern for pupils, and hence the driving force behind why they may refrain from intervening in defence of a victimised peer. The study thus highlights the associated processes of social stigmatisation and the non-intervention of pupils in school bullying situations.

This article considers the ways in which school bullying is both gendered and embodied. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two lower-secondary schools in northern Vietnam, the article focuses on the experiences of one ninth-grade boy, who was regularly bullied by his classmates, and whose experiences of bullying appeared to be embodied for all to see. Inspired by Arthur Brittan's notion of masculinism, Elizabeth Grosz's use of the möbius strip metaphor for understanding embodiment, and Urie Bronfenbrenner's conceptualization of the ecological environment, I argue that school bullying needs to be understood not only in terms of the interactions between individuals or groups of individuals, but also in terms of the specific gendered social-ecological environment within which those interactions occur.

Despite a vast amount of research into school bullying and the widespread implementation of anti-bullying policies and programs, large numbers of students continue to report that they are routinely subjected to bullying by their peers. In this theoretical article, I argue that part of the problem is that there has been a lack of critical discussion of the theoretical foundations upon which such studies are based. Drawing on recent theoretical contributions within the field of school bullying, the work of anthropologist James C. Scott, and the work of philosophers Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, I take particular issue with the notion of power that has long been a foundational pillar of bullying definitions. Utilizing a Foucauldian understanding of power, I argue that rather than focusing on the power imbalance involved in bullying relations, focus instead needs to shift onto the role that bullying plays in power relations. Reimagining Agamben's figure of "homo sacer" as a victim of school bullying, I consider the ways in which some individuals are reduced to bare life and forced into a state of exception whereby social laws are no longer deemed applicable. The article concludes with a discussion of how this state of exception might be challenged.

In this paper, we draw on the concepts of figurations, capital, and hegemonic masculinity to analyse a bullying relation involving two fifth-grade boys at a Swedish comprehensive school. The findings are based on ethnographic fieldwork, which included participant observations and group interviews with eight teachers and fourteen students (seven girls and seven boys) from the same class. Our findings demonstrate the complexity of the relation between the boys and suggest that rather than constituting a straight-forward bullying situation involving a problematically aggressive 'bully' targeting a less powerful 'victim', it is part of a more complex figuration involving interdependent social relations that are tenuously balanced in terms of power dynamics and where the boys position themselves and are positioned in relation to the long-term symbolic norms of status dominant within their specific school field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weight bias in educational settings can lead to bullying and have a severe negative impact on the mental well‐being and educational experiences of school children. Indeed, extensive research has shown that children who are labelled overweight are more likely to be victims of school bullying and that weight‐based bullying can lead to loss of self‐esteem, lower self‐confidence, social isolation, higher levels of anxiety and the development of psychosomatic issues. In this article, we utilise Butler's concepts of performativity and othering to analyse three written narrative accounts of weight‐based bullying in schools, published in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. In doing so, we adopt a narrative approach to not only investigate how the narrators depict the bullying they were subjected to in their childhood and the effects it had on them, but also how they position themselves in their narratives. Two themes, ‘performative othering’ and ‘a changeable body’, are identified in the narratives. These demonstrate how the narrators were co‐constructed as different, othered and dehumanised, and how the normative cruelties to which they were subjected as children served to police their corporeality in line with societal ideals. Taken together, our findings point to the importance of listening to the stories of those subjected to bullying and not only addressing bullying in terms of the negative actions taken, but also in relation to broader societal norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically considers the discourse on school bullying through the conceptual framework of lenses and argues that a macro lens has been utilised by school bullying researchers to bring into focus the characteristics of the individuals involved and the types of actions used. By considering earlier understandings of bullying, the article illustrates how this macro lens has become a metalens through which school bullying is understood. This has had implications for how bullying is understood and addressed, as well as for how vast numbers of school-aged children are perceived and treated. The article argues that the macro lens needs to be replaced with a wide-angle lens, so as to bring the social, institutional and societal contexts into view.

While researchers agree that note passing is predominantly an activity engaged in by girls, there has been relatively little consideration of why this is the case. In this article, I argue that gendered expectations about the appropriate characters of boys and girls in Vietnam are incorporated into the disciplinary framework of schools, and that note passing provides the means for girls to adjust to the gendered disciplinary techniques to which they are subjected. The article is based on extended ethnographic fieldwork conducted within two ninth-grade classes at two lower secondary schools in the northern Vietnamese port city of Haiphong.

Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at three lower secondary schools in the northern Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Haiphong, this article provides a contextually nuanced conceptualisation of Vietnamese school bullying. In doing so, the article not only addresses the lack of knowledge about Vietnamese school bullying, but also poses a number of critical questions about how school bullying is more widely understood. The descriptions of school bullying provided by teachers and students in this article suggest that school bullying cannot be reduced to the negative actions and aggressive intentionality that are so often used to define it in the mainstream literature. Instead, these actions are perceived as "instruments" for bullying that serve a function in the social and institutional context of the school. Furthermore, the descriptions provided by teachers and students challenge the view of meekness (the passive victim) as an individual personal trait. While they suggest that students who are perceived as meek in the social context of the school are most likely to be bullied, they also highlight that some students accede to the demands of their peers in order to escape being subjected to more direct negative actions. The study thus suggests that a key for understanding the role that bullying plays in students' day-to-day life at school is to acknowledge the "function" of "meekness" in bullying situations and to thus place more focus on the social and institutional context within which bullying occurs.