Mechanisms of normalising friendship violence of young people (MEND)

MEND

The MEND-project examines representations of children’s and young people’s friendship and violence in school documents, everyday school practices, and young people’s narratives. It makes visible the normalisation of peer violence and provides new knowledge and tools for identifying and disrupting norms that produce and conceal violence within young people’s friendships.

Project information

Project duration

-

Funded by

Research Council of Finland - Academy Project

Project funder

Academy of Finland

Funding amount

531 354 EUR

Project coordinator

University of Oulu

Unit and faculty

Teacher education, school and society
Faculty of Education and Psychology

Contact information

Project leader

Other persons

  • Yliopisto-opettaja, väitöskirjatutkija
    Iiris Jokela

Researchers

Project description

Peer violence of young people within friendships is an overlooked issue even though in 25% of cases the abuser is a close friend. Friendships of young people are vulnerable to violence. Young people do not necessarily recognize the violence in their close relations. To avoid loneliness and exclusion, they may accept abusive relationships.

This research produces novel knowledge about how friendship violence among youth becomes silenced and normalised, and how young people navigate with the norms of friendship and violence. To do this, the project looks at perceptions of friendship and violence 1) in official documents, 2) in everyday school life, and 3) as lived and told by young people. The research makes visible young people's means of navigating in situations of normalised peer violence. It provides much needed tools for those working with young people to identify and dismantle the norms around friendships that hide violence.

Project actions

Data Protection Notice for the MEND Project (in Finnish)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hYwWJQ_JM0OKiQ0OpFb8UdTjU4YHZRLU/view?usp=drive_link

Project results

Articles

Lanas, M., Petäjäniemi, M., Väisänen, A. M., Kauhanen, I., Juutinen, J., & Viljamaa, E. (2024). The production of a child in conflict in teacher education – research on available storylines. European Journal of Teacher Education, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2024.2425335

Webinars
9 October 2025
An Ethnographic Approach to Wicked Problems in the Lives of Children and Young People
Keynote Lectures
“The Participation Paradox” – Tomi Kiilakoski (Finnish Youth Research Network)
“Enacting sexuality education: fragments from a practice-based research project on a dynamic field” – Karin Gunnarsson (Stockholm University)
“Feminist ethnography dismantling processes of racialisation” – Sirpa Lappalainen (University of Eastern Finland)
“Investigating the space beyond: How to proceed ethnographically when there are signs of wickedness in the air?” – Paul Horton (Linköping University)
“Video as method: The mattering of practices in the entanglements of displacement and children’s caring relations” – Maria Petäjäniemi (Tampere University)

Conferences

Kasvatustieteen päivät Turku 21.-22.11.2024

Ystävyyttä ja väkivaltaa koskevat normit koulua ohjaavissa dokumenteissa

The Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) Conference Helsinki 5.-7.3.2025

Discourses of friendship and violence in primary school books and school policy documents

Kasvatustieteen päivät Rovaniemi 5.-7.11.2025

  • Ystävyyden varjoista kouluetnografian ja taiteen keinoin: Lasten kokemuksia verkkoympäristöissä näkyväksi
  • "Haluatko olla kiusaaja vai kaikkien kaveri?" Kriittinen analyysi alakoulun oppikirjojen ystävyys- ja kiusaamisdiskursseista
  • Pelkovallasta kelpovaltaan: Ystävyys- ja väkivaltapuhe oppikirjoissa ja asiakirjoissa
  • Ystävyys ja väkivalta koulutuspoliittisissa dokumenteissa

Research groups

Social Justice at the Focus of Education (SAFE)