Workplace bullying has been increasingly reported amongst a range of commentators as an organizational phenomenon that is on the increase. Narratives and accounts of workplace bullying have appeared from a range of sources that might lead some observers to suggest that bullying is a product of the activities of moral entrepreneurs or is the result of the workplace being perceived as a place of increased risk. This thesis is based on a triangulated pan-Wales study of full and part-time lecturers working in further (FE) and selected higher education (HE) institutions in Wales. The study encompasses unstructured interviews with lecturers who have been bullied; semi-structured interviews with human resource managers and trade union representatives; and a postal questionnaire survey of members of a trade union representing the further and higher education sectors. The study has sought to investigate how lecturers working in FE and HE in Wales have constructed certain behaviours as workplace bullying. By comparing the accounts of victims, ordinary lecturers and key informants such as human resource managers and trade union representatives, we find multiple interpretations and repertoires for bullying in work. For some, bullying is organizational and/or managerial while for others, bullying is the product of individualised conflicts. The lack of direct exposure to accounts of bullying for some participants has resulted in collectivising and shared paradigms, while for others, bullying is perceived as something more akin to school playgrounds. The evidence in this study points to a rejection of bullying at work as a product of moral entrepreneurs and other external labelling sources. Instead, the main finding from this study is that workplace colleagues’ play a central and pivotal role in the social construction processes for workplace bullying. The activities of work colleagues are consistently shown to be at the heart of bullying experiences at work. This is most likely to be in a validating or affirmatory role where they help label managers and the activities of the organization in the localised social constructions of bullying.

The findings show that the proactive-moderating (PM) approach is the one most frequently used by class teachers to tackle physical, verbal and indirect bullying. This approach seeks to tackle bullying before incidents happen, and stresses the importance of teacher-pupil interaction at the regular class level. Teachers report that the PM approach is the most effective method of tackling pupils’ bullying behaviour. The teachers clearly see their role as important in that the strategies most highly recommended to pupil victims and bullies are at the class level. There are significant differences among teachers in terms of the relationships between their perceptions of the nature of bullying, their beliefs and attitudes, their teaching experience, support from the Head and senior staff, school size, and teachers’ choice of approaches to tackling bullying. Teachers have broad perceptions of the nature of bullying, so they tend to adopt the RM and PM approaches in the classroom. The strongly humanitarian teacher has positive beliefs and attitudes towards his/her teaching and classroom management. He/she will adopt counselling skills to guide pupils’ bullying behaviour instead of using a RE or ignoring approach. Teachers with many years teaching experience tend to adopt a proactive approach (PM and PE) to tackle bullying behaviour, because they believe that prevention is better than cure. If the Head and senior staff have a clear policy towards bullying, then a proactive approach will be used in the school. Bullying incidents happen most frequently in larger schools. Hence, these schools tend to use a proactive approach to prevent pupils’ bullying. It appears from the findings that many Taiwanese teachers recognise their important roles in schools in relation to dealing with the bullying problem. Both senior staff and class teachers need in-service training, because the complex nature of bullying compounds the difficulty of detecting bullying. The provision of core material on the topic should be seriously considered as an essential part of basic training for teachers. This study represents a good starting-point for school staff to utilise in formulating a more effective whole-school anti-bullying policy, thereby helping to reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency in Taiwan.

My understanding of ‘race’ and racism in Britain is that it is discussed variously. Sometimes it steals the headlines as when Stephen Lawrence was murdered (Macpherson 1999). Yet at other times there is a preference not to mention the subject at all. Public discourse on ‘race’ and racism can be reticent. Why is this? Is ‘race’ a difficult subject of conversation? The first chapter of this thesis examines the roots of ‘race’. In Chapter Two the silence and silencing at a public level but also in everyday interaction becomes the focus. Difficult conversations are considered. The dynamic of reticence and fluency in the discourse of ‘race’ is explored and conceptualised with reference to the limited material in the literature on the silence and silencing of ‘race’ discourse. This raises the question as to who is responsible for silence; and, whose interests, if any, might be served. Chapter Three presents a real world enquiry – the Swapping Cultures Initiative in Coventry and Warwickshire; involving over 1,000 children and young people that took place mainly between 2002 and 2004. It reveals that a significant proportion of participants (3 8.1 %) experienced bullying, racism, or being picked on, based on their cultural background, and that these issues are difficult matters for conversation (38%). What is revealed is both the complexity of the participants’ identities and the subtle and sophisticated ways in which their cultural backgrounds are managed through conversation. What then does silence mean when the subject is ‘race’? Certainly it is nuanced and complex. Chapter Four provides a series of concluding reflections on ‘race’ and silence, identifying the major factors when seeking to understand and address ‘race’ issues in their local context. It places centrally the ‘discourse of reticence’ as a significant, hitherto underestimated, element when considering the prevailing and pervading presence of ‘race’ and racism.

With the increasing prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity, more young people than ever before are at risk of stigmatisation and psychosocial consequences of obesity. This research consists of two individual studies exploring the social and psychological experiences of obese young people. One study investigated the relationship between obesity, bullying, and self-esteem in preadolescents. Data was examined from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), including anthropometric data (height and weight) measured at age 7.5 (n = 8210) and 8.5 (n = 6792), and psychological data (overt (n = 7083) and relational (n = 6932) bullying, and global self-esteem (n = 6942)) collected at age 8.5. Objectives of this study were to investigate if weight status (underweight, average weight, overweight, and obese) predicted bullying involvement concurrently or prospectively over a one year period. Global self-esteem scores of obese preadolescents were also examined. Obesity predicted overt bullying involvement. Preadolescent obese boys and girls are likely to be victims of overt bullying because they deviate from appearance ideals, while other obese boys may use their heightened physical strength to bully peers. No evidence was established of significantly lower self-esteem in obese preadolescents. The second study, qualitative in nature, explored global and physical self-perceptions of five obese female adolescents, and the impact of these self-perceptions on peer relationships and weight management behaviours. Multiple in-depth interviews were conducted, in addition to single interviews with the mothers of these adolescents. Interview transcriptions were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. One case provided unique views of high self-acceptance, high self-confidence, positive self-esteem and independence. The other cases exhibited lower self-esteem related to body dissatisfaction, heightened self-awareness, and self-consciousness. These self-perceptions affected the development and strength of peer relationships. Physical self-perceptions included heightened physical strength, ‘functional’ problems of an obese body and restricted physical activity. Social and psychological consequences of obesity are unique, suggesting individual differences in social development and behaviour. Theoretical implications to enhance self-perceptions and practical implications for weight management are discussed.

This study identifies the negative effects of bullying behaviour on thirty people in their place of work. Personality differences between participants in the study who claim to have been bullied and a matched control group, and the coping strategies employed in stressful periods were sought. Possible individual and organisational antecedents to bullying were identified. In addition, to using psychometric measures to obtain quantitative data the findings were enriched by including qualitative research methods.