In recent years, bullying has come to be established as a significant issue for contemporary workplaces, in Ireland as elsewhere. Our research knowledge is largely psychologically-based, with many studies focusing on the personality characteristics of the victim or perpetrator and bullying has been viewed as an “interpersonal” conflict. However, when other characteristics are considered, research has repeatedly found that workers in the public sector are more likely to report bullying than private sector. In order to investigate this finding, the current study takes a sociological approach and focuses on the workplace, which is arguably shaped by its broader institutional context in terms of the labour market, with specific sectoral characteristics. Part of the rising concerns about workplace bullying can be contextualised in terms of the increasing emphasis placed on the psychological well-being of workers, with the recognition of “new risks” of stress and harassment. However, this focus on individual subjective well-being arguably obscures the collective nature of the phenomena, in terms of its association with the “changing workplace”.

This study aims to use Foucault’s ideas to analyse the nature of bullying and to understand how it is constituted by the literature and research, school policies and from the perspective of young people who experience it. This study examines the issue of bullying in schools from a number of perspectives: from the viewpoint of young people who have experienced it, from the literature and from school policies which seek to guide interventions. The research included eight initial interviews with teenagers from three different schools and focused on their experiences with bullying. Six of those participants were re-interviewed and asked for their views on their schools’ anti-bullying policy. Three school policies were analysed to explore how they constituted bullying. This research suggests both existing research and school policies focus on bullying as an individual occurrence and on behaviours and their management. Such a view is also evident in the way in which young people who experience bullying see themselves and perceive how they are positioned by others. The conclusion is that this focus effectively excludes the subjective experience of the person being bullied from consideration and in its focus on managing individual instances leaves out from the discussion possible approaches which might focus on the prevention of bullying. Included in these might be a consideration of the norms which govern inclusion and exclusion and a focus on how more inclusive environments can be created in schools. Bullying needs to be understood in terms of how deeply it affects those who experience it. Therefore, managing it needs to become more than simply policing behaviours; it is about structural and social change that encourages and fosters attitudes where individuals treat each other with mutual care and respect. Talk needs to change from how we can prevent it to how people should treat each other.