<i>Phenomenising</i> school refusal – when long-term school absence turned into school refusal

In this article, we address the question: How has school refusal become a phenomenon in Denmark? In recent years, long-term school absence has emerged as an incomprehensible problem and phenomenon, often referred to as ‘school refusal’. We suggest that, to understand the emergence of the phenomenon of school refusal, we must analyse what we have called a process of phenomenisation. The concept of phenomenisation developed here is based on poststructuralist conceptualisations and the idea that ‘things’ are perceived as stable and well-demarcated entities as a result of historically and societally embedded heterogeneous practices. In the analysis, we unfold how processes of enablement, demarcation, spreading, and agency work dynamically together to produce the phenomenon of school refusal. Finally, we discuss what practices might have the potential to dissolve the phenomenon.