Edited by Kristof K. P. Vanhoutte, Gavin Fairbairn & Melanie Lang Bullying and the Abuse of Power Critical Issues Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher Dr Daniel Riha Advisory Board Dr Alejandro Cervantes-Carson Dr Peter Mario Kreuter Professor Margaret Chatterjee Martin McGoldrick Dr Wayne Cristaudo Revd Stephen Morris MiraCrouch ProfessorJohnParry Dr Phil Fitzsimmons Paul Reynolds Professor Asa Kasher Professor Peter Twohig Owen Kelly Professor S Ram Vemuri Revd Dr Kenneth Wilson, O.B.E A Critical Issues research and publications project. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/ The Ethos Hub ‘Bullying and the Abuse of Power’ 2010 Bullying and the Abuse of Power Edited by Kristof K. P. Vanhoutte, Gavin Fairbairn & Melanie Lang Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom © Inter-Disciplinary Press 2010 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/ The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Inter-Disciplinary Press. Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087 ISBN: 978-1-84888-045-0 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2010. First Edition. Table of Contents Introduction vii Kristof K.P. Vanhoutte, Gavin Fairbairn & Melanie Lang Part 1: The Source of Bullying Sovereign Authority or Leviathan Bully? Kojève on 3 Distinguishing the Use and Abuse of Power Murray S.Y. Bessette Bullying: The Root and Branch of Oppression 11 David R. Hufton Part 2: Bystanders in Bullying Sin of Omission: The Behaviour of Bystanders from 21 a Game Theoretical Perspective Agata Komendant-Brodowska Cyber-Bullying: Exploring the Audience 31 Sue Robinson & Suky Macpherson Part 3: Bullying in Educational Contexts The(Bad)ExampleoftheUniversity 41 Kristof K.P. Vanhoutte The Rage to Control: A Comparative Approach to 49 Bullying as a Symptom of Inoperative Communities Evy Varsamopoulou Intensive Training in Youth Sports: A New Abuse 57 of Power? Melanie Lang Suicide and Bullying 65 Gavin Fairbairn Part 4: Cultural Perspectives Violence and Intimidation in Street-Level 75 Drugs Trading David Frances Bullying Japanese Style 83 Jerry Cusumano Greek Students’ Perception of School Bullying: 91 The Profiles of Victims and Perpetrators Vassiliki Kalati, Anastasia Psalti & Vassiliki Deliyianni-Kouimtzi The Perception of Postgraduate Students Regarding 99 Workplace Bullying Christoff Botha, Mariëtta Basson & Jan du Plessis Part 5: Bullying at an International Level The Repercussions of US Coercion on Turkish 109 Foreign Policy in Two Case Studies: The Johnson Letter of 5 June 1964 and the Troop Deployment Proposal of 1 March 2003 Sarp Balci The Abuse Clause in International Human Rights 117 Law: An Expedient Remedy against Abuse of Power or an Instrument of Abuse Itself? Hannes Cannie & Dirk Voorhoof Introduction Kristof K. P. Vanhoutte, Gavin Fairbairn & Melanie Lang Bullying is present in every sphere of life and is perhaps the most important ethical problem in the modern world. It consists, essentially, in the abuse of power, and can involve psychological cruelty, cultural and personal insults, religious and sexual intolerance, the abuse of political and economic power and ultimately physical force. It can ruin lives and it can end lives. Like other enduring cultural phenomena it has an ability to mutate into new forms, which in recent years has included the invasive use of email to intimidate people and the use of text messaging and social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo to threaten and abuse people. Such bullying is particularly common among the young and has claimed many lives through the suicide of victims. Most of us first come across bullying in school, whether as victims, perpetrators or both. But it is much more significant in human affairs than a bit of pushing and name calling in the playground. It is to be found in education at all levels, from kindergarten to university, among both staff and students, in prisons and detention centres, in sport; in politics both within and between political parties and in workplaces of all kinds. It is found in families, where it manifests itself not only in the squabbling that goes on between siblings, but in domestic violence; in the physical and sexual abuse of children and elders; in the imposition, within some communities, of unwanted marriages, and in the explosions of human emotion that are honour killings. It is found in international relations, with powerful nations bullying less powerful ones.1 It is also found in international trade, with some multi-national companies abusing the power that their financial and business strength gives them to bully suppliers across the globe that provide the products they sell. It is found in the lack of empathy and fellow feeling that leads to the abuse of political power and physical force, by repressive political regimes that suppress dissent through torture and ‘disappearances’. It features strongly in the route that dominant groups in some countries and regions of the world have taken in moving from intolerance via discrimination, to genocide. Conceived in this way, bullying is clearly a multi-faceted phenomenon, of interest and concern to academics and professionals of all kinds, including psychologists, sociologists, teachers, ethicists, politicians, therapists, philosophers, theologians, political theorists, physicians and human rights’ workers. It is because bullying is so damaging to individuals and communities, and because it results in human misery and the corruption of societal values, that it is important to address it seriously. This is what we aimed to do during the 1st Global Conference on Bullying & the Abuse of Power: From Playground to International Relations, at which the papers in this volume were presented. The conference, which took place in Salzburg, Austria, for three days in November 2009, was part of the ongoing programme of Inter-Disciplinary.Net, an viii Introduction __________________________________________________________________ organisation that seeks to find new and invigorating ways of bringing together people with shared concerns, in mutually supportive dialogue about things that matter. Organised around a series of ‘hubs’, each consisting of ongoing conference-based projects on related topics, Interdisciplinary.net aims to bring together academics, professionals and others who want to make a difference. Bullying & the Abuse of Power is part of its Ethos Hub, which focuses on critical issues that are thrown up by contemporary life. In line with the ambitions of Inter- Disciplinary.Net, and with the realisation that the complex nature of bullying means it cannot be understood from a single discipline perspective, this project is resolutely inter-disciplinary in nature, and the conference brought together speakers from many walks of life, including a range of professional and academic disciplines, in a shared quest to examine the phenomenon of bullying in a variety of contexts. The selection of papers gathered in this volume offers a snapshot of the material that inspired the many fruitful discussions in which participants engaged as together we founded this ongoing project. Bullying & the Abuse of Power was a global conference in more than one sense. First, because bullying is an issue that manifests itself in every corner of the globe. Secondly, because it attracted interest from all over the world, and in the end had participants from around twenty countries. Thirdly, it was global in the sense that it gathered participants from a wide range of academic disciplines, including Communication Studies, Theology, Philosophy, Ethics, Education Studies, Health and Life Sciences, Sociology, Political Science, Psychology, English and Social Sciences. Many of the academics present also had experience in the professions, including policing, teaching social work and clinical psychology. Bringing together such a varied group, joined by others from outside academia including therapists and counsellors, helped to open our discussions to more than just theoretical talk. Finally, it was global in the sense that many instances of bullying are truly global in their manifestation and in their implications, including, for example, the bullying that is international terrorism. 1. Thinking about what Bullying Is and what It Isn’t Attempts to define bullying are likely to fail, as it wears different clothes depending on the context. For example, while some bullying is public, in the sense that everyone, including not only the bully and his or her victim but everyone else, can see what is happening, some is invisible to all but those who are personally involved, who experience the satisfaction it offers, or the misery it brings. Some bullying, though visible in the physical and psychological scars of the victims, is difficult to detect - sometimes because it is deliberately hidden by the bullies, but sometimes, as so often happens in domestic abuse, because it is hidden by those who are being bullied. Some bullying involves physical contact and physical pain. However, some relies solely