Abstract

The ‘performativity’ of culture is established as a concept useful both descriptively and analytically. In Britain today a significant social drama is in play - “The Great Paedophile Panic”. The scenario of this drama is that the country is infested by an army of paedophiles, whose members are ready at any moment to swoop down on a child, kidnap, rape and murder it. There is no statistical basis for this widespread belief. An examination of potentially pathological elements in the culture, which might lie behind this social drama, reveals a society in which considerable confusion between adult and child identity, role and behaviour is increasingly exhibited. It is suggested that this psycho-social development contributes to increasing consumption in a ‘service economy’ such as that of the UK, but at the cost of significant social pathologies, including the sexualisation of children.