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RC 08. Research Committee on History of Sociology Session 150: Circulation of Social Science Knowledge – The Influence of Textual and Contextual Elements THE CIRCULATION OF TWO EPISTEMIC OBJECTS THAT CARRY SOCIAL SCIENCE

KNOWLEDGE: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND BULLYING

WORKING PAPER

TO BE DISTRIBUTED IN SESSION 150 OF RC08

Fernando A. VALENZUELA, School of Sociology, Universidad Andres Bello, Viña del Mar, Chile. Contact: fernando.valenzuela@unab.cl

Introduction Two kinds of violence emerged in the 1970s. They emerged not as kinds of violent behavior, but as

epistemic objects, as they have been defined by Karin Knorr Cetina (2001:181): objects of knowledge

that appear to have the capacity to unfold continuously in research practices. These objects are

domestic violence and bullying. Their appearance is most clear in texts published in Europe and in

the United States of America during the decades of 1970 and 1980. Their arrival to Chile took place

several decades later.

The circulation of these objects and their configuration in Chile required that complex networks be

established, which involve international organizations, social movements, research facilities, NGOs,

national governments, and the mass media. Since the social sciences also play an important role in

these networks, we can say that they not only describe the social world, but also contribute to giving

shape to it. They are performative in Michel Callon’s sense (Ramos 2012).

In this paper, I want to briefly compare the trajectories of these epistemic objects by looking at the

networks that had to be established so that they could emerge as such. Both kinds of violence had

very different trajectories as epistemic objects in Chile. International organizations, such as the

United Nations and the World Health Organization, together with the feminist movement, were vital

to the circulation of domestic violence. The same entities did not have the same importance in the

circulation of bullying. In this case, international organizations of a more limited regional scope

influenced the realization of educational reforms that were able to respond to the interests of a

wider array of social movements. Among these, the movement for peace education was particularly

relevant. The network that configures or performs bullying and school violence as epistemic objects

in Chile is composed mainly by the Ministry of Education, the schools, and a variety of actors that

have found in the evaluation and intervention of these objects a professional field. On the other

hand, the network of domestic violence is composed mainly by police stations, women shelters,

hospitals, attorneys and court rooms. In both cases, the mass media have contributed to the

diffusion of these objects in more stable, black-boxing packages that do not allow ordinary observers

to unveil the unstable nature of these objects.

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These are some preliminary results of a wider research, in which Claudio Ramos and I are trying to

understand the performativity of the social sciences in Chile (Fondecyt Nº1121124). They are based

mainly on interviews to key actors and on document analysis.

Domestic violence International organizations played a key role in the circulation of domestic violence. In this domain,

the II World Conference on Women, which took place in 1980, approved a resolution regarding the

prevention of violence against women and domestic violence. Following the third world conference

from 1985, participating states were to establish roles regarding the situation of women in all their

programs and divisions.

The international profiling of both kinds of violence (against women and domestic violence) had

important consequences in Chile. Beginning in the 1980s, members of the women movement, with

support of NGOs, denounced violence against women as a form of violation of human rights (Araujo,

Mauro, and Guzmán 2000). Among the most notorious organizations that led this process, there

was “La Morada” (1983), the Center for Women Studies (1983), a local branch of ISIS international

(1984), the House of Women in Valparaíso (1987), and the Institute for Women (1988).

At the same time, international organizations offered financial and technical support for the

realization of the first descriptive and exploratory studies of violence against women and domestic

violence in Chile: by Doris Cooper in 1986, by Ahumada and Alvarez in 1987, by Moltedo in 1988,

and by ISIS International in 1989. In this manner, a network begun to establish itself, where

heterogeneous interests and practices converged. The “Chilean Network against Domestic and

Sexual Violence” could be seen as a symbol of it. It was created in 1990 by researchers and members

of international organizations, as a space for reflection, where the enrolment of key actors could

take place. In the realization of these studies, forms of knowledge and practices that are

characteristic of the social sciences were linked to political and technical criteria, among others.

In 1991, the National Service for Women (SERNAM) of the Government of Chile, was created. Its

aim was to promote equal opportunities for women and men in Chile. Through this office, the

elimination of violence against women and of domestic violence was made part of public policy. This

service organized a Program for Domestic violence, which included the creation of community

centers for women. It also began to make campaigns to inform about this form of violence as a social

problem that required immediate action. In this manner, the new social object, domestic violence,

came hand in hand with a new institution. Its creation was marked by yet another event that was

central in the trajectory of this object. In 1992, having been able to get financial, technical and

administrative support from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Development

Fund for Women (UNIFEM), its first director, Soledad Larraín, who was also a social scientist –

psychologist-, led the realization of the first study of violence against women in Chile that allowed

to make statistical inferences regarding the composition of the whole population of the

Metropolitan Region of Chile. In her study, she adapted the questionnaire developed by Gelles and

Straus in 1988. Its main result had an important impact in the media: 25.9% of women in this area

had suffered physical violence, and 33.9% had suffered psychological violence (Larraín 1994). The

institutional position from which this research was made, SERNAM, helped to amplify its results to

the public realm, as it never had occurred before in Chile. In the decade of 1990, many other studies

on this subject were published.

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In the international arena, new events occurred that had important consequences for the trajectory

of this object. In 1993, the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed the declaration for

the elimination of violence against women. In 1994, the Organization of American States (OEA), in

response to the Inter-American Commission of Women, prepared the Inter-American Convention

on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (Convention of Belém

Do Pará). In it, violence against women is defined as “any act or conduct, based on gender, which

causes death or physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, whether in the public

or the private sphere” (Organization of American States 1994). These distinctions where

incorporated in international measurements, directly influencing how this object was shaped also

in Chile, where the convention was ratified in 1998. By participating in this convention, the state

was also to study and compile statistical information about violence against women, aimed at

preventing, sanctioning and eradicating it.

Even though the focus of this convention was violence against women, the first Chilean law in this

respect –law nº19.325, from 1994- tackled domestic violence (Violencia Intrafamiliar). According to

our interviewees, this decision was aimed at representing a wider array of interests, even if it was

against the specific interest of the women movement. In 2005, almost ten years later, a second law

was published, which included mechanisms to further protect victims of domestic violence, and

defined this conduct as a crime. This would allow the Ministry of Internal Affairs to assume a more

active role in the gathering of statistics on domestic violence, based on cases reported in police

stations. These statistics are regularly published in the Ministry’s web page, allowing for the public

monitoring of this object.

These datasets are used along with the ones that are created using surveys. These correspond to

the Basic Protocol developed and published by the World Health Organization (OPS/OMS 1998). The

definition of domestic violence and main aspects of the questionnaires used in surveys in Chile since

1999 have been taken from this protocol (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006). In 2008 and

2012, national surveys on domestic violence and sexual offences were made.

This brief review of the trajectory of this object allows to observe the fragile and complex network

in which it is rooted. Social-science knowledge circulates through this network. At the same time, it

brings forth its instability as an epistemic object: its being permanently subject to new definitions

that are made concrete in different instruments.

Bullying The trajectory of bullying as an epistemic object in Chile differs greatly from the one that led to the

configuration of domestic violence. In Chile, bullying was marked and felt as a foreign concept until

very recently. Nowadays, this concept is used ordinarily in schools and government agencies. Its

circulation from Europe and the United States to Chile was again made possible by the presence of

networks of researchers, social movements, political parties, and international organizations.

The inclusion of transversal educational objectives in official curricula, which occurred following

1992, was a prerequisite for its configuration as an epistemic object. In this respect, Chile was

following international experiences that had been undertaken since the 1960s. The inclusion of

transversal educational objectives allowed to respond to the demands of diverse social movements:

environmental, feminist, and for peace education, among other (Villaseñor García 2001). This

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process crystallized in the educational reforms undertaken in the United Kingdom (1988), France

(1989) and Spain (1990), all of which led to the treatment of school life –what in Spanish has been

called convivencia escolar- as an object of programed intervention (Sereño et al. 2007).

Similar educational reforms took place in Latin America in the decade of 1990. In this region,

however, in the light of recent experiences of military dictatorships that systematically violated the

human rights, the inclusion of transversal educational objectives was seen as an opportunity to

educate future generations in a culture of peace. This was a strongly felt necessity of human rights

activists in Chile, as it can be read in the following text by Abraham Magendzo and Patricio Donoso:

“Hace 15 años [1986], en plena dictadura pensamos que recuperar la democracia significaba

capacitarnos para conocer, defender y exigir el respeto a los derechos humanos. Sabíamos

que en la violación de los derechos no se puede construir una sociedad moderna y

democrática. Entonces, hablar de este tema no sólo era muy peligroso, sino que además los

espacios de interlocución eran muy escasos. Había temores reales. Son embargo, debemos

reconocer que algunas instituciones, algunos profesores y profesoras y activistas en

derechos humanos, desafiando el contexto represor y apoyados por la solidaridad

internacional se organizaron en talleres de educación en derechos humanos.” (Magendzo

and Donoso 2000:5)

The inclusion of transversal educational objectives in official study programs allowed to respond to

these demands, as well as those of other social movements interested in influencing how future

generations are socialized.

The Ministry of Education of the Chilean government created in 1991 a committee for elaborating

the Fundamental Objectives, the Minimum Obligatory Contents and the Fundamental Transversal

Objectives (OFT) of these study programs. Following Sereño (Sereño et al. 2007:20), we can

distinguish two main phases in the process of implementing these OFTs in the context of a general

reform of the Chilean educational system.

The reform was planned in general terms between 1991 and 1996. A first proposal of what the OFTs

should be was published in 1992, triggering a public controversy. A final version was promulgated

in 1996. The OFTs were defined as objectives that, being oriented to the personal development, and

to the moral and social conduct of students, have a comprehensive and general character

(Ministerio de Educación Pública 1996:2.1). They should be implemented in all educational

activities. Among three dimensions considered, they included the relationship of the students with

others and with their environment. Even though not all three dimensions had to be implemented in

every school, by including this third dimension the reformed allowed for the configuration of

bullying as an epistemic object.

Throughout the controversies that took place regarding the definition of these transversal

objectives, both social movements and international organizations made their interests be felt. I

have mentioned the movement for peace education as the most clear example of the first

(Magendzo and Donoso 2000; Magendzo, Toledo, and Rosenfeld 2004; Magendzo 1994, 1998).

Regarding the later, four organizations where especially important. Interestingly, the role played by

the United Nations –mainly through UNICEF- wasn´t as determinant for the lack of this object as it

was for domestic violence. The Convention of the Rights of the Child, from 1989 (ratified in 1990),

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identified for the first time the schools as spaces where the rights of the child had to be protected

by participant states (Art. 19). However, the plan of action that was signed one year later, didn’t

make any reference to school violence. One wanted to widen the access to education, and violence

ony appeared as a contextual factor in cases of armed conflict.

Other three international entities had influence in the trajectory of bullying in Chile (Sereño et al.

2007:16). They all favored the inclusion of transversal objectives: the World Conference for the

Education of All (Jomtien, 1990), the Comité Regional Intergubernamental del Proyecto Principal del

Educación (PROMEDELAC) (1991, 1993 and 1995), and the Comisión de Educación para el Siglo XXI

(1996).

It is important to note at this point that those doing research about schools in Chile in 1995 did not

use the concepts of “school violence” or “bullying”, for they were not available at the time. A very

influential author, Ana María Arón, did not use any of these concepts even though she reported

observing very violent behaviors in schools. Instead of “school violence” of “bullying”, she uses

concepts such as “abuse” or “acoso”. However, everything was about to change. In a second phase

of the educational reform (1996-2004), specific curricular frameworks were elaborated and study

programs were created (Sereño et al. 2007:20). This second phase coincides with the emergence of

bullying as an epistemic object in Chile.

I will briefly relate one experience that was very influential in this respect. Between 1996 and 1998,

Abraham Magendzo and Patricio Donoso undertook a research about mechanisms of social and

cultural discrimination that were in place in schools (Fondecyt Nº196095). In their report, they

distinguished a form of discrimination that they called “construction of the intimidated subject”

(Magendzo and Donoso 2000). Between 1998 and 1999, members of the research team went to the

University of Masachusetts to continue their bibliographic research on this topic. There, after having

some discussions with local researchers, the Chileans noted that what they had called the

“construction of the intimidated subject” was the same kind of social relationship that the literature

had been calling bullying or mobbing for the last thirty years:

“Durante la estadía en la Universidad de Masachusetts se identificó el fenómeno del

matonaje o hostigamiento (bulling) [sic], gracias al contacto que se sostuvo con el profesor

Erwin Staub del Departamento de Psicología Social. Este fenómeno se revela como

elemento central del proceso de discriminación escolar, en el cual grupos de alumnos

proceden a hostigar y acosar, por razones muy diversas a cierto tipo de estudiantes y se

reveló como presente en nuestra investigación” (Magendzo and Donoso 2000:7).

Lacking a literal translation for “bullying” or “mobbing” into Spanish, they used the word

“matonaje”. In 2004, they used the concepts of “intimidación” and “hostigamiento permanente”. In

any of these version, bullying as an object had finally landed in Chile. When realizing that this kind

of violent social relationship had been completely invisible in Chile (even if it did occur!), Magendzo

and his team assumed the task of making it visible and to guide its intervention in schools and in

public policy. They include simplified versions of intervention models that had been developed in

other countries and actively publicized them through their books, web pages, and seminars, among

other activities. Their objective was clear: to include discrimination and bullying (intimidation)

among the transversal educational objectives and in the educational projects of schools, and in

public policy:

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“Sin embargo, lo más importante para abordar la problemática de la intimidación en las

escuelas es la decisión política de hacerlo. Esperamos que este texto contribuya a tomar

esta decisión sobre la base de un conocimiento más acabado de la intimidación, de una

mayor comprensión de las vivencias de los que la experimentan y la sufren en carne propia

y con la comprensión de los programas, métodos y procedimientos de atención de la

intimidación que se han desarrollado en otros lugares del mundo.” (Magendzo et al.

2004:13).

The educational reform was fertile soil for this epistemic object. In year 2000, an Unidad de Apoyo

a la Transversalidad was created: a governmental division whose function was to support schools

in the implementation of the OFTs. By law, their implementation had to be considered in the

educational projects of schools, which meant that their progress was to be evaluated by the

government. This forced schools to treat school climate and “convivencia escolar” as objects that

had to be monitored and intervened.

The Unidad the Apoyo a la Transversalidad was not alone in this position. Other actors entered the

scene in this period, to provide assistance in the creation of educational projects and in dealing with

the OFTs, including school climate and school violence. The following intervention programs were

created in this period (Varela and Tijmes 2007):

1. 1991: Programa “Valoras UC. Programa para Comunidades Educativas”. Escuela de

Psicología Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

2. 1998: Programa “Educación para la No – Violencia”. Escuela de Psicología Pontificia

Universidad Católica de Chile.

3. 1998: Programa “Apoyo integral al educando”. Centro de Mediación y Convivencia Escolar

Corporación Municipal de Educación y Salud de San Bernardo.

4. 1998-2001: Programa “En la escuela aprendemos a convivir”. Centro de Investigación y

Desarrollo de la Educación (CIDE), Universidad Alberto Hurtado.

5. 2004-5: Programa “Conversando en la escuela. Resolución no violenta de conflictos”.

Fundación de Ayuda Social de las Iglesias Cristianas (FASIC).

6. 2006: Proyecto “Resolución pacífica de conflictos: Mediación y Convivencia Escolar en la

Florida”. Corporación de Educación y Salud de la Florida.

7. 2006: “Proyecto Bullying”. Servicio de Psicología Integral Universidad del Desarrollo.

These programs carried bullying as an epistemic object to the schools. Two further steps were

needed to finish its configuration: to make it visible as an urgent social problem and to enroll actors

that could include it explicitly in public policy.

The first was achieved through the application of national surveys and the publication of their results

in the mass media. The most relevant series of surveys was led by the State: Encuesta Nacional de

Violencia en el Ámbito Escolar (2005, 2007, 2009, and 2014). In these surveys, bullying demonstrates

its instability as an object. While it was called “amenaza u hostigamiento permanente” in 2005, it

was called “discriminación” in 2007 and 2009. For this reason, their results cannot be compared.

The diffusion of bullying as an object through the mass media began in 2004, with a small note about

Magendzo’s text from the same year. In general, during the first years of configuration of this object,

its appearance in the media followed the same pattern: the media informed on the realization of

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surveys and other research on this object. When doing so, the media tended to eliminate the

modalities (Latour and Woolgar 1986) of original references to bullying, blackboxing its original

instability. In 2006 the arrival of bullying to the media was completed, as the death of a student was

publicly framed as a consequence of bullying.

The final step in the configuration of this object consisted on the publication of a Law on School

Violence in 2011 (Law nº20.536), which was meant to regulate how different actors that conform

the educational communities react in relation to acts that are typified as bullying. Now all schools

are forced to create a code of school life (“reglamento de convivencia escolar”), which specifies how

school violence (including bullying) is to be sanctioned. Committees must also be created that design

activities for developing a good school climate. Finally, every member of the school community is

obliged to denounce events of bullying. These reports are used by the Ministry of Education to

gather data about the behavior of this object in regional and national levels.

In this manner, bullying has become part of everyday life in schools in Chile: an object that can be

recognized by students, teachers and parents, and which is subject to systematic measurement and

intervention.

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