Harm-related concepts expand over time to cover milder and more numerous cases.
Haslam's 2016 analysis tracked how bullying, trauma and prejudice broadened over decades to cover milder cases. Whether the broadening is progress or dilution is the contested part; the broadening itself is documented.
In practice
- A workplace policy written for harassment is invoked for a curt email, and both the policy and the word have moved.
- An organisation's "safeguarding" process expands from abuse to discomfort, and the reports that matter most are now filed alongside the ones that matter least.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
- Essay
- The measured patterns of social life