In 1969 the concept of ’mobbing’ [peer bullying, harassment] was introduced in Sweden by the physician Peter Paul Heinemann. He used the term to describe a behaviour he had noticed among school children, where a group of children physically or mentally attacked a single child. Heinemann’s main focus was to raise the opinion that this behaviour needed to be stamped as unacceptable and opposed by all means. The concept immediately attracted attention and was followed by a widespread debate in Swedish media on bullying in schools (Agevall 2007). In this debate it seems like the term ‘mobbing’ named a phenomenon that people in some way was familiar with. The conceptual invention made by Heinemann draw attention to the problematic aspects of bullying among kids. Since then this phenomenon has acquired interest not only in schools and public debate but also in social science in Scandinavia and, since the second half of the 1980s, world-wide (Eriksson et al 2002; Smith et al (eds) 1999). The aim of this paper is to analyze the historical background of the emergence of the concept of ‘mobbing’/bullying. The material analyzed in this study consists of firstly the article by Heinemann that introduced the concept and texts given by a close reading of Heinemann’s text, and secondly by advisory literature on upbringing addressing parents or teachers published in the 1950s and 1960s. These texts are analyzed by using tools from the research tradition of the history of concepts. In the history of concepts that has developed since the 1970s in England, Germany, Holland and Scandinavia, it is emphasized that concepts should be understood as linguistic expressions in the synchronic and diachronic contexts of a given historical period instead of seen as more or less imperfect varieties of later conceptual meanings (Skinner 1969, 1978, Koselleck 2002, Richter 1995, Hampsher-Monk, Tilmans & van Vree (eds) 1998, Lindberg (red) 2003). From this starting point the concept of ‘mobbing’ is analyzed by using the distinction between term and conceptual content as well as from semasiological and onomasiological aspect (Richter 1995). As a result we find a terminological history in ethology where the term ‘mobbing’ designated a kind of behaviour among birds (cf. Hegelbach 2003). The term ‘mobb’ [mob] for a gathering of people had also an earlier use, for example by early social psychologists in their theorizing on mass behaviour in revolutions and riots (cf McClelland 1989). Some, but not all, aspects of the content of Heinemann’s concept occurred in earlier texts on upbringing. The most manifest result of the introduction of the concept of ‘mobbing’ was that it focused, framed and drew attention to a phenomenon and established it as a social problem for parents, schools and society to handle. In the discussion I argue that the conceptual history of ‘mobbing’ promoted the quick acceptance of the concept in the Scandinavian contexts in the early 1970s.

Text analysis from a perspective of conceptual history.

The paper will show that the conceptual history of 'mobbing' - semasiologically found in ethology and social psychology and onomasiological examples found in earlier views on upbringing - promoted the quick acceptance of the concept in the Scandinavian contexts in the early 1970s.