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The Self and the ‘Selfie’: Cyber-Bullying Theory and the Structure of Late Modernity

Violence and Crime in the Family: Patterns, Causes, and Consequences

ISBN: 978-1-78560-263-4, eISBN: 978-1-78560-262-7

Publication date: 3 September 2015

Abstract

Purpose

This paper addresses the lack of conceptual and theoretical consensus around cyber-bullying and problems associated with over-reliance on mainstream criminological thinking to explain this phenomenon.

Methodology/approach

The paper offers a critical criminological perspective on cyber-bullying encouraging scholars to engage with fundamental complications associated with the relationship between late-modernity, neo-liberalism and cyber-bullying. It argues for an approach that contextualizes cyber-bullying within the realities and consequences of late-modernity and neo-liberalism.

Findings

The paper argues that a robust understanding of cyber-bullying entails contextualization of the problem in terms of the realities of consumption, individualism, youth identity formation and incivility in late modern society.

Originality/value

In addition to challenging extant theoretical approaches to cyber-bullying, the paper has important implications for intervention that surpass the limitations of law and order policies which tend to focus on criminalizing poorly understood bad behaviour or indicting internet technologies themselves.

Keywords

Citation

Alvi, S., Downing, S. and Cesaroni, C. (2015), "The Self and the ‘Selfie’: Cyber-Bullying Theory and the Structure of Late Modernity", Violence and Crime in the Family: Patterns, Causes, and Consequences (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 9), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 383-406. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1530-353520150000009016

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015 Emerald Group Publishing Limited