ABSTRACT
According to Galtung, violence can be divided into two kinds: (i) direct violence, which is always physical in a wider sense (e.g., bodily harm or verbal abuse) or (ii) indirect violence that is either structural (i.e., the institution is structurally violent because it is organised so to privilege a group over others; e.g., a strict pyramidal organisational structure) or cultural (i.e., the institution is culturally violent because it encourages or fails to deal with cultural aspects that either privileges or is demeaning towards certain groups; e.g., institutionalised racism or misogyny). This chapter focuses on the issue of structural violence in a school setting, discussing its potential for generating conflict, and suggesting that it can be remediated through the implementation of dialogical spaces, which is based on Arendt’s notions of dialogue.
