International
International
Bullying does not exist inside national borders. The words we use, the ways we recognise harm, the relationships around us and the responses we develop are shaped partly by where and how we live. AntiBullyingWeek.co.uk is primarily a UK website, but looking beyond the UK can help us see our own assumptions more clearly.
The purpose of this section is not to search for the country that has found the right definition, the best programme or the lowest bullying rate. It is to ask something more useful:
What can we learn from one another?
Sometimes another language makes us notice an experience we have overlooked. A different legal system may act at a different point. Research elsewhere may challenge something we assumed was universal. An idea developed in one country may change when young people in another place begin using it. International learning works in more than one direction. We can share what we know while remaining open to what other people, cultures and communities may help us see differently.
Same behaviour, different words?
If we cannot completely agree on what bullying means in English, what happens when we move between languages and cultures? Explore words including ijime, ragging, mobbning, buli and others, and discover why translation can give us understanding without necessarily giving us an exact match. Explore Same behaviour, different words?
Who decides when action is needed?
People do not always agree about what has happened or what to call it. Different countries and systems also draw the point for action in different places. What can we learn from the ways young people, schools, communities and legal systems decide when something needs a response? Explore Who decides when action is needed?
Power, hierarchy and belonging
An imbalance of power is one of the most influential ideas in bullying research. But where does that power come from? Looking across cultures and institutions takes us beyond physical strength towards seniority, status, friendship, exclusion, belonging and the influence of groups. Explore Power, hierarchy and belonging
How do we learn conflict and non violence?
Children learn something about conflict from the people and communities around them. Experience among the Temiar and historical research with Semai communities raise an unusual question. What might it mean to grow up where interpersonal violence is not modelled as an ordinary response to other people? Explore How do we learn conflict and non violence?
Can an anti bullying solution travel?
Ideas cross borders. KiVa travelled from Finland. Kia Kaha developed in Aotearoa New Zealand and influenced work elsewhere. The No Blame Approach developed in England and later influenced Kia Kaha. Actionwork projects connected young people and practitioners across Europe and between Britain and Japan. But ideas rarely arrive unchanged. Explore Can an anti bullying solution travel?
Can we really compare the numbers?
International statistics can give us valuable snapshots of young people's experiences around the world. They can also create misleading comparisons when the questions, ages, time periods or research methods differ. The number matters, but so does the story of how the number was made. Explore Can we really compare the numbers?
Explore the International Globe
The International Globe offers another way to explore this section. Rather than travelling only from page to page, you will be able to explore countries, cultures and connections through themes such as language, law, research, young people's participation, non violence, cyberbullying and international collaboration. Some places will appear more than once because they have more than one thing to teach us. Some connections will cross borders because anti bullying research, ideas and projects have always travelled between people.
The Globe is an alternative way into the material, never the only way. Everything available through it will also be accessible through ordinary website navigation. Explore the International Globe
Keep exploring
The International section connects closely with other parts of AntiBullyingWeek.co.uk. The Definition Wheel explores how different definitions are constructed and what changes when ideas such as power, repetition, intention, harm and isolation are added or removed. Our History section follows the international development of bullying research, programmes, policy and law. Our Research section looks more closely at how evidence is produced and how confidently we can interpret it.
International asks a different question:
What becomes visible when we look beyond our own borders?
We may not always agree with what we find. We do not need to. We can still learn from one another.