From Columbine to Suzano: a socio-historical analysis of school shootings

Abstract

Despite the eleven school shootings registered in Brazil, academic debate on the subject is still scarce. This essay sought to identify the historical-social categories that inform the offenders’ singularity. We consulted media materials about the Brazilian shootings and the categories found in the international literature. Based on a Marxist analysis, we highlight the social, historical and material conditions of the attacks. Male socialization, association with far-right groups and reproduced structural violence emerge as fundamental historical-social configurations. Moreover, job precarization and the assimilation of the neoliberal individual aggravate the split between collective and private dimensions, producing subjects that use market competitiveness as a measure for other relations. The precarization of public school makes it a target of attacks due to the break it establishes between the subject, education and work.