How Israelis Represent the Problem of Violence in Their Schools 151Others are more broadly based ideological propositions. They have a more general causal
relevance in that they are more widespread beliefs in society and, as such, appear more
frequently in very different kinds of discourse (i.e., in this case, something like, ̳Modern
Israel is falling apart‘) (cf. Urciuoli 2003).
This particular analysis of a contemporary discursive construction in Israel has a number
of interrelated goals. First, the paper will document a ̳single‘ discursive construct as it relates
to a specific, normatively established verbal practice (cf. Blommaert and Verschueren 1998).
This approach exists in contrast to other approaches in which the analyzed discourses are
themselves quite abstract and often problematically related to specific verbal practices (Bell
1991). Second, though only a case study, the results here are intended to contribute to our
general knowledge of how discourse and ideology are reflexively interrelated in human
cultural practice. Third, the approach here will be contrasted with more commonly found
indexical approaches to discursive constructions that interrelate abstract discourses and locate
them at the intersection, typically, of identity and/or power (Dijk 1985; Howarth 2000; Kress
1985; Myhill 2001; Seidel 1985; Wodak 1996, 1997). This will entail documenting a very
particular kind of indexical functioning that overlaps at a second order of analysis with the
denotational one focused on in the earlier parts of this paper. It will also be reflected in an
attempt to demonstrate, and draw lessons from, how denotational and indexical approaches to
discursive constructions reflexively complement each other.
The approach here will draw on a semiotic approach to the nature of ̳discourse‘ (i.e.
Agha 2003; Parmentier 1985, 1997; Peirce 1955; Sherzer 1987; Silverstein 1976, 1985, 1993,
1996, Urban 1991). While the introduction above makes this theoretical preference clear, the
more pressing concerns at present are methodological.
METHOD^5
Any attempt to study a discursive construction is quickly forced to face a series of related
methodological issues. Where do individuals in any society learn the propositions that at least
partially unite them within a presupposable discourse practice, such as one about ̳school
violence‘? This is clearly a relevant question when one realizes that quite often individuals
have not experienced the object of the discourse directly, but rather only instances of the
discourse itself. What then orients them to recognize the practice itself and thus to know what
the conventional modes of denotational participation in it are? More specifically here, where
is one to look in order to collect propositions about the problem of school violence in Israel?
Why are the mass media and particularly the newspaper being identified in this case as an
interesting site to collect instances of this practice?
Explicit propositions about ̳the problem of school violence‘ are quite common in the
Israeli mass media.^ Indeed, an argument could be made that the mass media plays a central
role in creating the discourses that give birth to ̳social problems‘, such as school violence.
(^5) At the core of this study there lies an analysis of particular newspaper texts over a two year period (2000-2001).
Over that same period, however, the author lived and worked in Israel. He lived in a northern city, Karmiel,
and for part of that period commuted to Jerusalem. These were the sites of the two ̳local‘ newspapers used in
this study. He also had a child attending a secular school in Israel and was involved in various ways in the
local school system. Here and throughout then, aspects of the argument also rely on ethnographic field notes
relating to the general subject matter of this study.