Abstrakt På morgonen 22 mars 2016 gjorde sig den jihadistiska terrorismen återigen påmind i Europa. Två snabbt på varandra följande dåd skakade om Bryssel – och Europa. 35 personer miste livet och dåden kom enligt medierapporteringen inte som en överraskning. Terrororganisationen Islamiska staten (IS), med det territoriella målet att återskapa det historiska Bagdadkalifatet, tog snabbt på sig dåden. Dessa dåd är bakgrunden till denna uppsats i vilken jag undersöker hur den svenska mediediskursen om terrorism konstrueras och hur diskursen korrelerar med hotsamhället, politics of fear och culture of fear. Denna formulering fungerar som uppsatsens primära frågeställning medan skillnaden mellan den amerikanska diskursen och den svenska är uppsatsens sekundära frågeställning. Uppsatsens syfte är att lämna ett bidrag till dels den svenska forskningen om terrorism, dels den svenska forskningen om hotsamhället, culture of fear och politics of fear – samt hur dessa fenomen konvergerar. Undersökningens metod är diskursanalys där Richard Jacksons (2005) diskursanalys av hur de amerikanska politikerna och ämbetsmännen konstruerade diskursen om ”the war on terrorism” fungerat som utgångspunkt. Empirin utgörs av 36 nyhetsartiklar från Aftonbladet (pappersupplaga), Dagens Nyheter (pappersupplaga) och Sveriges Television (webb). Empirin inhämtades från det datum respektive medium inledde sin rapportering, fram till dess att det uppstod en mättnad i materialet där mönster kunde urskiljas. Diskursen visar att terrorismen och dess hot har normaliserats och blivit en del av den europeiska vardagen. Denna konstruktion är tydligt influerad av en politics of fear- och culture of fear-retorik. Dåden beskrivs som väntade och terroristerna gestaltas inte lika barbariska som de görs i den amerikanska diskursen, även om terrordåden som handlingar beskrivs som avskyvärda. I större utsträckning än i den amerikanska diskursens tas sociala bakomliggande mekanismer upp. Diskursen visar tydligt att det finns en hotbild mot hela Europa och därmed mot Sverige. Definitionen av hotbilden mot Europa har demokratiska förtecken: demokratin, öppenheten och det fria livet är det som hotas. Den amerikanska diskursens definition av 11 septemberattackerna som en attack mot ”oskyldiga amerikaner” är liknande. Det råder en frånvaro av en motdiskurs, vilket beror på mediernas, politikernas och terrorexperternas symbiotiska förhållande. Den svenska diskursen beskriver attackerna som krigshandlingar på samma sätt som den amerikanska diskursen gör, men i den svenska diskursen är det inte lika självklart att svaret på attackerna är ett ”war on terrorism”.

This thesis draws primarily upon the work of Furedi (2001; 2002) and his notion of a culture of fear to explore contemporary parenting and childhood from a social psychological perspective. Furedi argues that contemporary society is dominated by a sense of anxiety which is ubiquitous and free-floating (2007) and it is arguable that this fear is particularly easily attached to issues around childhood as children are considered increasingly vulnerable - giving rise to the phenomenon of paranoid parents (Furedi, 2002). While these and related issues have been explored elsewhere in the social sciences (e.g. Jackson & Scott, 2000; Katz, 2008; Valentine, 1996) there has yet to be a study from a social psychological perspective which would seek to understand how these fears are articulated, constructed and managed in relational interaction. The first stage of analysis is a content analysis of newspaper articles, providing partial information about the socio-cultural backdrop of the study. This is complemented by focus group data from both parents and children (aged 12-13) which is analysed using strategies and tools drawn from discursive psychology (Edwards & Potter, 1992). This approach allows for an examination of how participants construct fears, anxieties and concerns that exist in and around modern parenting and childhood. Themes that emerged from this analysis include a focus on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a fear of hypothetical dangers, and a catalogue of potential risks. These concerns are also worked up in the participants talk as related to wider social changes (such as an increase in crime and changes in family structure) and connected with a nostalgia for a past which is constructed as safer, simpler and more liberated; even the children display a fondness for this utopian childhood. Hence the study begins to develop an empirical understanding of how aspects of a culture of fear may be worked up in relation to contemporary parenting and childhood, and so points toward some of its possible psychological implications.

A especificidade desta investigação é a compreensão das violências no ambiente escolar como promotoras de medo e insegurança entre os professores, tornando a escola um espaço permeado pela cultura do medo. O foco do olhar do pesquisador são as violências na escola, entendidas como violências praticadas pelos alunos. A investigação foi realizada no Centro de Educação de Jovens e Adultos “Benedito Sant’Ana da Silva Freire” – CEJA, em Sinop, Mato Grosso, a partir de novembro de 2011 e no decorrer do ano de 2012. Os sujeitos da investigação foram oito alunos do Ensino Fundamental, tidos pela escola como alunos violentos, nove professores em sala de aula e na gestão, bem como doze familiares de todos os alunos envolvidos. A abordagem metodológica da pesquisa trilha por caminhos fenomenológicos, pautados pela abdicação de quaisquer tipos de julgamentos a priori e a posteriori, tanto dos sujeitos como de suas ações. Procura-se exercitar a “mostração” do fenômeno tal como ele é e tal como se apresenta. Para tal, Oficinas de Literatura de Cordel foram procedimentos de aproximação através das produções dos alunos em versos rimados sobre suas vidas e sua escola. O sociólogo francês Michel Maffesoli e a sua Sociologia da Compreensão dão suporte teórico a este estudo, sendo a violência entendida como integrante da dinâmica social, como um misto de criação e destruição presentes nas variadas formas de se expressar as paixões. Os três aspectos da violência apontados por Maffesoli, a violência dos poderes instituídos, a violência anômica, a violência banal, foram as bases de análise ao observado e vivido no percurso da pesquisa, no que se refere aos sujeitos (alunos) desta investigação, enquanto protagonistas e vítimas das violências. Fica evidente no estudo; (1) a cultura do medo presente na escola; (2) a divergência entre os docentes do que seja ou não violência; (3) os alunos rotulados de violentos que não se veem como tais; (4) a profunda identificação dos jovens com suas tribos; (5) as violências como resultados de afetos partilhados em comum; (6) a astúcia dos jovens para driblar as instituições normativas; (7) a fragilidade das famílias em relação às tribos juvenis; (8) O Centro de Educação de Jovens e Adultos “Benedito Sant’Ana Freire como uma escola que apesar das adversidades é uma escola acolhedora e inclusiva. / The specificity of this research is the understanding of violence in the school environment as promoter of fear and insecurity among teachers, making the school a space permeated by the culture of fear. The focus of the look of the researcher is the violence at school, understood as acts of violence committed by the students. The investigation was carried out in the Centre of Adult and Youth Education "Benedito Sant'Ana da Silva Freire"- CEJA, in Sinop, Mato Grosso, from November 2011 and during the year of 2012. The subject of the investigation were eight elementary school students, taken by the school as violent students, nine teachers in the classroom and in management, as well as twelve families of all students involved. The methodological approach of phenomenological ways trail research, guided by the abdication of any kinds of judgments a priori and a posteriori, both of the subjects as their actions. Seeking to exercise the "sample" of the phenomenon as it is and as it stands. For this end, Cordel (string) Literature workshops were approach procedures through the students' productions in rhymed verses about their lives and their school. The French sociologist Michel Maffesoli and his sociology of Understanding support this theoretical study, being violence understood as part of social dynamics, as a mixture of creation and destruction present in varied ways to express the passions. The three aspects of the violence targeted by Maffesoli, the violence of the powers, anomie violence, banal violence, were the basis of analysis of the observed and lived in the course of research, as regards subjects (students) this investigation, as protagonists and victims of violence. It is evident in the study; (1) the culture of fear present in school; (2) the divergence among teachers than whether or not violence; (3) students designated as violent that they don’t perceive themselves as such; (4) the deep identification of young people with their tribes; (5) the violence as results of affections shared in common; (6) the astuteness of youth to circumvent regulatory institutions; (7) the fragility of the families in relation to juvenile tribes; (8) the Centre of Adult and Youth Education "Benedito Sant'Ana Freire as a school that in spite of adversity is a welcoming and inclusive school.

A especificidade desta investigação é a compreensão das violências no ambiente escolar como promotoras de medo e insegurança entre os professores, tornando a escola um espaço permeado pela cultura do medo. O foco do olhar do pesquisador são as violências na escola, entendidas como violências praticadas pelos alunos. A investigação foi realizada no Centro de Educação de Jovens e Adultos “Benedito Sant’Ana da Silva Freire” – CEJA, em Sinop, Mato Grosso, a partir de novembro de 2011 e no decorrer do ano de 2012. Os sujeitos da investigação foram oito alunos do Ensino Fundamental, tidos pela escola como alunos violentos, nove professores em sala de aula e na gestão, bem como doze familiares de todos os alunos envolvidos. A abordagem metodológica da pesquisa trilha por caminhos fenomenológicos, pautados pela abdicação de quaisquer tipos de julgamentos a priori e a posteriori, tanto dos sujeitos como de suas ações. Procura-se exercitar a “mostração” do fenômeno tal como ele é e tal como se apresenta. Para tal, Oficinas de Literatura de Cordel foram procedimentos de aproximação através das produções dos alunos em versos rimados sobre suas vidas e sua escola. O sociólogo francês Michel Maffesoli e a sua Sociologia da Compreensão dão suporte teórico a este estudo, sendo a violência entendida como integrante da dinâmica social, como um misto de criação e destruição presentes nas variadas formas de se expressar as paixões. Os três aspectos da violência apontados por Maffesoli, a violência dos poderes instituídos, a violência anômica, a violência banal, foram as bases de análise ao observado e vivido no percurso da pesquisa, no que se refere aos sujeitos (alunos) desta investigação, enquanto protagonistas e vítimas das violências. Fica evidente no estudo; (1) a cultura do medo presente na escola; (2) a divergência entre os docentes do que seja ou não violência; (3) os alunos rotulados de violentos que não se veem como tais; (4) a profunda identificação dos jovens com suas tribos; (5) as violências como resultados de afetos partilhados em comum; (6) a astúcia dos jovens para driblar as instituições normativas; (7) a fragilidade das famílias em relação às tribos juvenis; (8) O Centro de Educação de Jovens e Adultos “Benedito Sant’Ana Freire como uma escola que apesar das adversidades é uma escola acolhedora e inclusiva. / The specificity of this research is the understanding of violence in the school environment as promoter of fear and insecurity among teachers, making the school a space permeated by the culture of fear. The focus of the look of the researcher is the violence at school, understood as acts of violence committed by the students. The investigation was carried out in the Centre of Adult and Youth Education "Benedito Sant'Ana da Silva Freire"- CEJA, in Sinop, Mato Grosso, from November 2011 and during the year of 2012. The subject of the investigation were eight elementary school students, taken by the school as violent students, nine teachers in the classroom and in management, as well as twelve families of all students involved. The methodological approach of phenomenological ways trail research, guided by the abdication of any kinds of judgments a priori and a posteriori, both of the subjects as their actions. Seeking to exercise the "sample" of the phenomenon as it is and as it stands. For this end, Cordel (string) Literature workshops were approach procedures through the students' productions in rhymed verses about their lives and their school. The French sociologist Michel Maffesoli and his sociology of Understanding support this theoretical study, being violence understood as part of social dynamics, as a mixture of creation and destruction present in varied ways to express the passions. The three aspects of the violence targeted by Maffesoli, the violence of the powers, anomie violence, banal violence, were the basis of analysis of the observed and lived in the course of research, as regards subjects (students) this investigation, as protagonists and victims of violence. It is evident in the study; (1) the culture of fear present in school; (2) the divergence among teachers than whether or not violence; (3) students designated as violent that they don’t perceive themselves as such; (4) the deep identification of young people with their tribes; (5) the violence as results of affections shared in common; (6) the astuteness of youth to circumvent regulatory institutions; (7) the fragility of the families in relation to juvenile tribes; (8) the Centre of Adult and Youth Education "Benedito Sant'Ana Freire as a school that in spite of adversity is a welcoming and inclusive school.

A especificidade desta investigação é a compreensão das violências no ambiente escolar como promotoras de medo e insegurança entre os professores, tornando a escola um espaço permeado pela cultura do medo. O foco do olhar do pesquisador são as violências na escola, entendidas como violências praticadas pelos alunos. A investigação foi realizada no Centro de Educação de Jovens e Adultos “Benedito Sant’Ana da Silva Freire” – CEJA, em Sinop, Mato Grosso, a partir de novembro de 2011 e no decorrer do ano de 2012. Os sujeitos da investigação foram oito alunos do Ensino Fundamental, tidos pela escola como alunos violentos, nove professores em sala de aula e na gestão, bem como doze familiares de todos os alunos envolvidos. A abordagem metodológica da pesquisa trilha por caminhos fenomenológicos, pautados pela abdicação de quaisquer tipos de julgamentos a priori e a posteriori, tanto dos sujeitos como de suas ações. Procura-se exercitar a “mostração” do fenômeno tal como ele é e tal como se apresenta. Para tal, Oficinas de Literatura de Cordel foram procedimentos de aproximação através das produções dos alunos em versos rimados sobre suas vidas e sua escola. O sociólogo francês Michel Maffesoli e a sua Sociologia da Compreensão dão suporte teórico a este estudo, sendo a violência entendida como integrante da dinâmica social, como um misto de criação e destruição presentes nas variadas formas de se expressar as paixões. Os três aspectos da violência apontados por Maffesoli, a violência dos poderes instituídos, a violência anômica, a violência banal, foram as bases de análise ao observado e vivido no percurso da pesquisa, no que se refere aos sujeitos (alunos) desta investigação, enquanto protagonistas e vítimas das violências. Fica evidente no estudo; (1) a cultura do medo presente na escola; (2) a divergência entre os docentes do que seja ou não violência; (3) os alunos rotulados de violentos que não se veem como tais; (4) a profunda identificação dos jovens com suas tribos; (5) as violências como resultados de afetos partilhados em comum; (6) a astúcia dos jovens para driblar as instituições normativas; (7) a fragilidade das famílias em relação às tribos juvenis; (8) O Centro de Educação de Jovens e Adultos “Benedito Sant’Ana Freire como uma escola que apesar das adversidades é uma escola acolhedora e inclusiva. / The specificity of this research is the understanding of violence in the school environment as promoter of fear and insecurity among teachers, making the school a space permeated by the culture of fear. The focus of the look of the researcher is the violence at school, understood as acts of violence committed by the students. The investigation was carried out in the Centre of Adult and Youth Education "Benedito Sant'Ana da Silva Freire"- CEJA, in Sinop, Mato Grosso, from November 2011 and during the year of 2012. The subject of the investigation were eight elementary school students, taken by the school as violent students, nine teachers in the classroom and in management, as well as twelve families of all students involved. The methodological approach of phenomenological ways trail research, guided by the abdication of any kinds of judgments a priori and a posteriori, both of the subjects as their actions. Seeking to exercise the "sample" of the phenomenon as it is and as it stands. For this end, Cordel (string) Literature workshops were approach procedures through the students' productions in rhymed verses about their lives and their school. The French sociologist Michel Maffesoli and his sociology of Understanding support this theoretical study, being violence understood as part of social dynamics, as a mixture of creation and destruction present in varied ways to express the passions. The three aspects of the violence targeted by Maffesoli, the violence of the powers, anomie violence, banal violence, were the basis of analysis of the observed and lived in the course of research, as regards subjects (students) this investigation, as protagonists and victims of violence. It is evident in the study; (1) the culture of fear present in school; (2) the divergence among teachers than whether or not violence; (3) students designated as violent that they don’t perceive themselves as such; (4) the deep identification of young people with their tribes; (5) the violence as results of affections shared in common; (6) the astuteness of youth to circumvent regulatory institutions; (7) the fragility of the families in relation to juvenile tribes; (8) the Centre of Adult and Youth Education "Benedito Sant'Ana Freire as a school that in spite of adversity is a welcoming and inclusive school.

Trots människors ökade levnadslängd och förbättrade levnadsvillkoren på det stora hela konstateras att upplevda risker och hot dominerar medierapporteringen och den allmänna uppfattningen. Med framväxten av risksamhället och culture of fear som bakgrund syftar denna studie till att undersöka riskbegreppets förändring i de svenska budgetpropositionerna mellan åren 1997-2020. Att genom en kvantitativ ansats få ökad förståelse och diskutera begreppets förekomst, innebörd och eventuella förändring samt i vilket sammanhang det används. Specifikt undersöks förekomsten av begreppet risk och semantiskt liknande begrepp och om frekvensen har förändrats under mätperioden. Därefter undersöks begreppet risk och dess associationer och om dessa har förändrats under de 25 åren. Resultatet visar att användning av begreppet har ökat i antal under mätperioden men inte följer samma skarpa trend som medierapporteringen. Vidare konstateras att begreppet risk fått något annan innebörd och andra associationer över tid.

<p>Over the past few decades, issues of school violence and crime have received international attention. High profile events, such as the Columbine or Virginia Tech school shootings, have led schools and boards of education world-wide to create and implement numerous policies and procedures in an attempt to keep students safe. However, data on school violence trends demonstrate a far more equivocal situation. School violence trends demonstrate stability over time at low levels of actual violence. In this dissertation, I attempt to account for the gap between the high number of school responses and the relatively low and stable trends in the prevalence of school crime and violence. Three main hypotheses, stemming from the culture of fear, institutional theory, and confirmatory bias, account for this gap. The culture of fear hypotheses suggests that the gap has been created by widespread fear that is pervasive, decoupled from the ecology of school crime and violence, and generated widely by the mass media. Although this is a cultural theory, institutional theory takes an organizational approach to account for this gap. Institutional theory suggests that the gap has been created by institutional processes of schools seeking legitimacy and reflecting how centralized hierarchies respond to the institutional environment, where fear takes a more loosely coupled form, and can be sensitive to the ecological variation of school crime and violence. The third hypothesis is a cognitive one, and suggests that confirmatory bias processes are the mechanisms by which scattered and sporadic acts of school violence receive large scale exposure, and therefore not only are able to generate cultures of fear, but also serve to legitimate policy. These three hypotheses are tested using a mixed-methods approach, including 66 interviews with key-players associated with schools (students, teachers, administrators, and parents), descriptive analyses of existing survey data (e.g., National statistics; Safe Schools Survey), and a content analysis of the media’s presentation of issues surrounding school crime and violence. This mixed methods approach provides a unique and holistic approach to test these hypotheses, asking several different research questions of various levels of analysis (from the individual to the community). Explaining the gap between school violence trends and school responses provides a unique contribution to the literature: it furthers our understanding of the complexities associated with school safety; it operationalizes and tests the culture of fear theory which, to date, has not been accomplished, and; it utilizes institutional theory and confirmatory bias in new ways, by applying them to issues of school safety.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Den moderna informations- och kommunikationsteknologin har inneburit genomgripande för­änd­ringar av vårt sätt att leva och kommunicera men nya tekniker har också mötts av skepti­cism och väckt kontroverser. Ett aktuellt exempel är motståndet mot den femte genera­tion­ens mobil­nät, 5G. Trots att det inom den etablerade vetenskapen saknas stöd för att 5G skulle utgöra en hälsofara har en växande antistrålningsrörelse hävdat att tekniken för med sig nya och ökade strålningsrisker. I den här uppsatsen utforskas den svenska 5G-kritiska rörel­se som vuxit sig stor på Facebook. Syftet är att undersöka hur risk, rädsla och misstro i relation till mobilnätet 5G konstrueras diskursivt inom den 5G-kritiska rörelsen, med utgångspunkt i två av de största och mest aktiva 5G-kritiska grupperna på plattformen. Uppsatsen utgår från en socialkon­struk­tionistisk ansats och fokuserar tre analytiska teman: risk, rädsla och misstro. Dessa teman ligger även till grund för det teoretiska ramverket som utgår från Ulrich Becks (2012) risksamhälle och Frank Furedis (2006) teori om rädslokulturer. Studien bygger på en netnografisk insam­lings­metod där såväl språkligt som visuellt innehåll har samlats in och analyserats i en multi­modal diskursanalys. Analysresultaten visar att risk, rädsla och misstro konstru­eras via ”version­er av världen” där riskerna med 5G framställs som verkliga, akuta och hotande och där makt­hav­ande aktörer porträtteras som opålitliga, korrupta och in­kom­­petenta. Dessa diskur­s­iva mönster är såväl språk­­liga som visu­ella; de sker inte bara genom menings­skapande ord­val, narrativ och tecken utan också genom använd­ning av så kallade inter­net­mem och emojis. Studiens resultat visar också att sociologiska perspektiv på risk, rädsla och misstro kan fördjupa förståelsen för dessa konstruk­tioner och ge perspektiv på hur rörelsen förhåller sig till det omgivande sam­hället. Analysen tyder på att de definitions­strider och olika rationalitets­anspråk som Beck (2012) har beskriv­it som typiska för risksam­hället också präglar konstruk­tionen av riskerna med 5G. Furedis (2006) rädsloteman fördjupar vidare förståelsen för hur risker till­skrivs ett hotfullt innehåll genom sociala och kulturella pro­cesser. Dessutom visar analysen på att misstro gentemot etablerad expertis kan leda till fram­växten just den alter­na­tiva expertis som såväl Beck som Furedi har beskrivit. Samtidigt tycks social organi­sering online också innebära vissa nya förutsättningar som har potential att för­flytta tradi­tion­ella makt­positioner som finns beskriv­na i teorin. / Modern information and communications technology has brought about radical changes in the way we live and communicate. However, new technologies have also sparked scepticism and created controversies. A recent example is the opposition to the fifth-generation mobile network technology, 5G. According to the established science community, there is no evidence that 5G would pose a health hazard. Still, a growing anti-radiation movement has claimed that the tech­nology will cause new and increased radiation risks. This essay explores the Swedish 5G critical movement that has grown large on Facebook. The aim is to examine how risk, fear, and mistrust in relation to the mobile network 5G are constructed discursively within the 5G critical move­ment, based on two of the largest and most active 5G critical groups on the platform. Drawing on a social constructionist approach, the study focuses on three analytical themes: risk, fear, and mistrust. These themes also form the basis of the theoretical framework, consisting of per­spec­tives from Ulrich Beck’s (2012) risk society and Frank Furedi’s (2006) theory on culture of fear. The study is based on a netnographic collection method where both linguistic and visual data have been collected and analysed in a multimodal discourse analysis. The result of the analysis shows that risk, fear, and mis­trust are constructed via "versions of the world" in which the risks of 5G are presented as real, acute, and threat­ening and actors in power are portrayed as unreliable, corrupt, and incom­petent. These discursive patter­ns are both linguistic and visual; they take place not only through mean­­­ingful choices of words, narra­tives, and signs but also by using so-called internet memes and emojis. The results also show that sociological perspectives on risk, fear, and mis­trust can deepen the understanding of these construc­tions and provide perspectives on how the move­ment relates to the surrounding society. The analysis indicates that the definitional strugg­les and different claims of rationality that Beck (2012) has described as typical for the risk society also characterize the construction of risks related to 5G. Furedi’s (2006) themes of fear also deepens the understanding of how risks are assigned a threat­ening content through social and cult­ural processes. Moreover, the analysis reveals that distrust of established expert­ise can lead to the emergence of an alter­native expert­ise, which has been described by both Beck and Furedi. However, the results also suggest that social organization online entails some new con­ditions that have the potential to shift trad­itional positions of power described in theory.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Henrique Meira de Castro.pdf: 968354 bytes, checksum: efc12339e49fe6013a418d2e3fee45c5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-16 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This work on fear and relations of power is a bibliographical research and a theoretical approach to how fear can be used as an instrument of social control. All the reflection about fear and its possible uses as an instrument of social control is made from the synthesis of Vygotsky in his studies on the theory of emotions. For him, emotion, and therefore, fear is not a simple natural and instinctive survival strength, but also a higher psychological function that constitutes itself on a mediation between person and society, thus a complex synthesis of multiple determinations. After a very brief history of the fears that have plagued, and continues to plague, the human race, some situations in which fear is used as one of the forms of power in relationships are presented, from biblical scriptures and indigenous legends to the 21th century establishment of massive frightening news announcements, through the relations of power within families, schools and the labor s world. Also, we discuss the possible consequences of this culture of fear as an expansion of armed conflicts, social hygienism, as well as the increase in related diseases to that phenomenon, the perpetuation of disciplinary forms of education and how some sectors of society profits from these fears. Finally, a reflection on how we can overcome these relationships, and if this is possible within a class society / A presente dissertação sobre medo e relações de poder é pesquisa bibliográfica e reflexão teórica sobre como o medo pode ser utilizado como instrumento de controle social. Toda a reflexão sobre medo e seu possível uso como instrumento de controle social é feita a partir da síntese que Vigotski faz em seus estudos sobre a teoria das emoções, na qual a emoção e, por conseguinte, o medo não são uma simples força natural e instintiva de sobrevivência, mas também, uma função psicológica superior que se constitui na mediação entre indivíduo e sociedade, portanto complexa, em transformação e síntese de múltiplas determinações. Após traçar uma breve história dos medos que afligiram, e continuam a afligir, o gênero humano, são apresentadas diversas situações nas quais o medo é utilizado como uma das formas de poder nas relações, desde textos bíblicos e lendas indígenas à veiculação massiva de notícias amedrontadoras do século XXI, passando pelas relações de poder dentro das famílias, escolas e no mundo do trabalho. A partir disso, discute possíveis consequências dessa cultura do medo como, uma expansão de conflitos armados, higienismo social, aumento de doenças relacionadas a esses fenômenos, a perpetuação das formas disciplinares na educação e como alguns setores da sociedade lucram com esses medos. Faz uma reflexão sobre como podemos superar essas relações e se isso é possível numa sociedade de classes

The thesis is focused on the terrorism after the attacks of 09/11, which is a key factor in its considering as a one of the most serious security threats in the 21st century. The thesis deals with a perception of the terrorist threat, particularly if it corresponds with reality and what it is influenced by or constructed by. Further the thesis is concerned about "the war on terrorism" as a reaction on the attacks which has become an American national mantra. It is tried to find out if the reaction was adequate in relation with seriousness of the attacks, if it was effective in regard of fulfilling its aims and if it was legitimate in comparison with our values and moral principles.