The Fire: Bullying and Violence by Adults at Work

Abstract

The ‘fire’ metaphor used for the title of this chapter can be understood as the way fire ‘spreads’ to other areas, and so here I move beyond the realms of history, violence in schools, and consumer culture to show how bullying and violence ‘engulfs’ all parts of South Korean society (i.e., it exists throughout the social structure and social relations because it is embedded within culture). In a general way, I follow a ‘developmental life-cycle’ approach, beginning with abuse of young children at day-care centres by violent (female) day-care workers, then move on to bullying, violent, abusive, and corrupt conduct by teachers and professors. Violence in the military is then analysed before turning attention to bullying in the workplace and certain bullying tactics employed by South Korea’s most powerful companies. The chapter ends with cases of vulnerable and ‘weak’ employees being exploited, which include the disabled and elderly security guards.