“I spy, I spy with my little eye”. Perceptions Beyond (or Within) Violence

Abstract

This essay is based upon a reflection on the images and meanings of violence. In the interest of a identifying a set of clichés about the perception of violence, which eradicate all problematization of “the real”, it submits these representations to a critique followed by a proposed analytical shift. In order to do this, the article will examine different situations related to adolescents and school contexts in which particular attention is paid to the indecipherable, to the disturbing and the clash of bodies, obstacles to the construction of “togetherness”. Based in this examination, the proposed analytical shift suggests a moving away from discourses based on the idea of deficit and supported by strong moral referents and toward perspectives that inquire about the potential power of chaos.