Book Reviews
Violence in Schools: Ten Approaches in Europe.
Eric Debarbieux & Catherine Blaya (eds.) (2001)
Issy-les-Moulyneaux:
Elsevier.
ISBN:
2 7101 1507 7
This book
grew out of the research activitiy of Eric Debarbieux and
Catherine Blaya at the European Observatory of Violence in
Schools, in particular from the highly successful conference
that took place in 2001 in the UNESCO building in Paris. Here
an international gathering of experts gave papers, shared
in round tables and displayed posters from all over the world
to tackle the issues that face society on the topic of violence
and the public policies that aim to tackle the problem. As
the editors point out, few, if any, liberal democracies escape
the phenomenon of violence in school and this phenomenon represents
one of the major educational and social challenges for the
21st century. The book was designed to coincide with the conference
'Violence in school and public policies' and includes
chapters by a number of the delegates from the scientific
committee that steered the conference. There are interesting
cross-disciplinary debates represented in the book. For example,
the concept of violence is not necessarily viewed in the same
way by a sociologist as by a criminologist or a psychologist.
The
book addresses public policies and the political and strategic
solutions that have been proposed by different countries.
Issues discussed include: preventive treatments; arbitration
experiments; global national projects; and services integrated
into schools. There is also an exploration of the development
of violence from minor 'incivilities' through to extreme examples
of aggression with discussion on how to limit the emergence
of 'career' victims or aggressors.
This book demonstrates the effective way in which the international community can work together to pool ideas, explore controversial social issues and collaborate on solutions. The book was supported financially by the Education and Culture department of the European Commission. The book is also available in French under the title 'La Violence en Milieu Scolaire - Dix Approches en Europe'.
This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards,but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.