Norbert Elias in Troubled Times: Figurational Approaches to the Problems of the Twenty-First Century (Palgrave Studies on Norbert Elias)

"Beautifully written, this book engages thoughtfully with current issues within a solid understanding of their historical background. It covers a hugely impressive range of topics, developing an innovative mobilisation of Elias's sociological perspective that will underpin a wide variety of new research efforts. In a world becoming increasingly interdependent and complex, this book provides an essential guide to developing the kind of understanding of the world in which we live required for a genuinely democratic politics." --Robert van Krieken, Emeritus Professor, The University of Sydney, Australia "Readers will encounter in this volume an unusually wide-ranging collection of innovative papers that revisit core Eliasian ideas, provide new insights into violence and war, and explore through diverse empirical cases the classical analysis of relations between established groups and outsiders. The result is an inventive study which is essential reading for students of the endlessly surprising consequences and challenges of the global integration of modern societies." --Andrew Linklater, Emeritus Professor of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, UK This edited collection brings together texts that discuss current major issues in our troubled times through the lens of Norbert Elias's sociology. It sheds light on both the contemporary world and some of Elias's most controversial concepts. Through examination of the 'current affairs', political and social contemporary changes, the authors in this collection present new and challenging ways of understanding these social processes and figurations. Ultimately, the objective of the book is to embrace and utilise some of the more polemical aspects of Elias's legacy, such as the exploration of decivilizing processes, decivilizing spurts, and dys-civilization. It investigates to what extent Elias's sociological analyses are still applicable in our studies of the developments that mark our troubled times. It does so through both global and local lenses, theoretically and empirically, and above all, by connecting past, present, and possible futures of all human societies. Florence Delmotte is Research Associate at the Belgian Foundation for Scientific Research (FNRS) and Professor of Political Science at Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles, Belgium. Barbara Górnicka is Research Fellow in Sociology at University College Dublin, Ireland, where she completed her doctoral degree in 2016 Foreword Acknowledgements Praise for Norbert Elias in Troubled Times Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Chapter 1: Troubled Times: Editors’ Introduction 1.1 Our Troubled Times 1.2 Troubles That Are Not Only Ours or of Our Times 1.3 Renewing Classical Themes 1.4 Violence and Faces of the War 1.5 Established–Outsiders Relations and Habitus Issues 1.6 Conclusion: The Need for New Means of Orientation References Part I: Renewing Classical Themes Chapter 2: The Question of Inequality: Trends of Functional Democratisation and De-democratisation 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The Concepts of Functional Democratisation and De-democratisation 2.3 The Classical Controversy: Tocqueville Versus Marx 2.4 Assessing Trends 2.5 Explaining Trends 2.6 Recent Developments 2.7 Concluding Remarks References Chapter 3: Vox Populi Then and Now 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The Origins of Populism 3.3 Myth Making in America 3.4 The Strange Death of Parliamentary Democracy 3.5 The Brexit Double-Bind 3.6 Elias’s Troubled Times 3.7 Conclusion References Chapter 4: Figurational Sociology of the Rule of Law: A Case of Central and Eastern Europe 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Figurational Sociology of the Rule of Law: The Research Agenda 4.2.1 Social Construction of Norms: Moral Laws and Game Rules 4.2.2 Transparency Versus Latency of the Law 4.2.3 Habitus-Dependence of Legal Norms 4.2.4 Law and Symbol Theory 4.3 Hungary and Poland: An Outline of a Comparative Case Study 4.3.1 A Socio-historical First Look 4.3.2 Moral Laws and Game Rules: De-moralising the Rule of Law 4.3.3 Reversal of Transparency and Latency 4.3.4 Articulating Habitus-Dependence of the Rule of Law 4.3.5 Symbolic Force of Law: Redesigning the Past 4.4 Conclusion: The Illusion of Good Behaviour? References Chapter 5: Transformations of Human Rights Within Ruptures and Continuity: A Historico-Sociological Approach 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Contributions and Limits of Sociological Approaches to Human Rights 5.2.1 Between Suspicion and Indifference 5.2.2 A Booming Research Area 5.3 Norbert Elias’s Sociology: Another Perspective on State and Human Rights 5.3.1 Law and Rights in a ‘Reality-Congruent’ and Long-Term Approach 5.3.2 Individualisation and Integration: Human Rights Between Continuity and Change 5.4 Conclusion References Chapter 6: Civilising Digitalisation: In Search of a New Balance with Today’s Technological Innovations 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Entzivilisierung as Regression of Developing Technology 6.3 Elias: Technisation and Civilisation 6.4 Sociogenesis and Psychogenesis of the Digital Worker 6.5 Conclusion References Chapter 7: Confronting Uncertainties: Process Sociology Converges with the Ecological Risk Sociology of the Becks 7.1 Introduction 7.2 The Processual Critique of Modernity 7.3 Orientation and Ecological Risk Sociology 7.4 Context, Risks and Knowledge Processes 7.5 Interdependence, Power Relations and Visualisation of Risks 7.6 Globalised Double Binds 7.7 Ecological, Economic, Violence, Health and Migration Risks References Part II: Violence and Faces of the War Chapter 8: The Civilising Process, Decline of Homicide, and Mass Murder Societies: Norbert Elias and the History of Violence 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Norbert Elias and the History of Violence and Criminal Justice 8.3 The Decline of Homicide and the Pacification of Society 8.4 The De-civilisation Process and Extremely Violent Societies 8.5 ‘Back to Normal’: Reconciliation and Re-civilisation Processes 8.6 Conclusion References Chapter 9: A Throwback to Violence? Outline for a Process-Sociological Approach to ‘Terror’ and ‘Terrorism’ 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Primary and Secondary Barbarism 9.3 Noogenetically Driven Violence 9.4 Reassessing ‘Terror’ and ‘Terrorism’ References Chapter 10: Violence and Power: The Kaiowá and Guarani Indigenous Peoples 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Formation of the Brazilian State 10.3 Kaiowá and Guarani Social Organisations 10.4 The Dourados Indigenous Reserve: RID References Chapter 11: Analysing European Defence with Elias’s Historical Sociology (1990–2020) 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Analysing European Defence with Elias’s Figurational Sociology: Explaining Interdependencies Between Relevant Groups of Actors Shaping European Defence Policy 11.3 European Defence Policy (CSDP) as a Specific Figuration in the European Union 11.4 How the Concept of Habitus Explains the Recurring Strategic Divergences Within the European Defence Policy Figuration in the Twenty-First Century? 11.4.1 Socialisation Processes as a Central Variable 11.4.2 Officers and Diplomats in European Defence Policy Figuration: The Weight of the Professional Habitus 11.5 Conclusion: Historical Sociology, Norbert Elias and European Studies: A Stimulating Research Agenda References Part III: Established–Outsiders Relations and Habitus Issues Chapter 12: Weaving Elias’s Thought with Indigenous Perspectives and Lives: Proposal for a Research Agenda 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Epistemological and Ontological Commonalities 12.3 Taking Seriously Civilising Processes in Indigenous Communities 12.4 Violence, Exclusion and Genocide 12.5 Ecology and Environment 12.6 Conclusion References Chapter 13: A Question of Function: Unequal Power Ratios and Asylum Seekers in Ireland 13.1 Introduction 13.2 The System of Asylum in Ireland 13.3 Institutionalisation, Poverty, and Exclusion 13.4 The State 13.5 Continuities: Institutions of Confinement 13.6 State Sovereignty and Border Control 13.7 Conclusion References Chapter 14: Thoughts on Describing Established and Outsider Figurations in Inner Mongolia 14.1 Introduction 14.2 Inner Mongolia 14.2.1 Chinese Settlers in Inner Mongolia 14.2.2 Cultural Neighbourhood 14.3 Territory, Economy and the Ignorance of the Others 14.3.1 Grassland 14.3.2 Mining 14.4 Similar Problems: Same Figurations? References Chapter 15: Generational Figuration and We-Group Formation in the Palestinian West Bank Since the 1970s 15.1 Introduction 15.2 Formation of the Intifada Generation in the 1980s 15.2.1 Political Mobilisation in the 1970s and 1980s 15.2.2 The Intifada Generation 15.3 Shifts in the Figuration of Classes and the Oslo Process 15.3.1 Closing Gap in the Figuration of Classes in the 1970s and 1980s 15.3.2 Social Transformations in the Course of the Oslo Process in the 1990s 15.4 Nascent Figuration of the Intifada Generation and the Oslo Generation 15.4.1 Elias’s Established–Outsider Figuration of Historical Generations 15.4.2 Generational Differences in Respect of Life Chances 15.4.3 Generational Differences in Opportunities for Meaning 15.5 Conclusion References Chapter 16: The Israeli National Habitus and Historiography: The Importance of Generations and State-Building 16.1 Introduction 16.2 Generational Periodisation Between Macro and Micro 16.3 Historiographic Generations as Shapers and Products of the Israeli National Habitus 16.3.1 The First Generation of Historians 16.3.2 The Second Generation of Historians 16.3.3 The Third Generation of Historians 16.4 Conclusion References Chapter 17: The Established and the Outsiders: An Incomplete Study? 17.1 A Cuckoo’s Egg Among the Works of Norbert Elias? 17.2 The Critique: A Theoretical Straitjacket? 17.3 A Longer-Term Perspective on Established and Outsider Relations: The Power Balance Movement in the Case of Refugees After the War in Germany References Part IV: Conclusive Reflections Chapter 18: Some Political Implications of Sociology from an Eliasian Point of View 18.1 Introduction 18.2 The Inspiration of the Game Models 18.3 The Problem of Ideologies 18.4 Representative Democracy 18.5 Conclusion References Index "Beautifully written, this book engages thoughtfully with current issues within a solid understanding of their historical background. It covers a hugely impressive range of topics, developing an innovative mobilisation of Elias's sociological perspective that will underpin a wide variety of new research efforts. In a world becoming increasingly interdependent and complex, this book provides an essential guide to developing the kind of understanding of the world in which we live required for a genuinely democratic politics." --Robert van Krieken, Emeritus Professor, The University of Sydney, Australia "Readers will encounter in this volume an unusually wide-ranging collection of innovative papers that revisit core Eliasian ideas, provide new insights into violence and war, and explore through diverse empirical cases the classical analysis of relations between established groups and outsiders. The result is an inventive study which is essential reading for students of the endlessly surprising consequences and challenges of the global integration of modern societies." --Andrew Linklater, Emeritus Professor of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, UK This edited collection brings together texts that discuss current major issues in our troubled times through the lens of Norbert Elias's sociology. It sheds light on both the contemporary world and some of Elias's most controversial concepts. Through examination of the 'current affairs', political and social contemporary changes, the authors in this collection present new and challenging ways of understanding these social processes and figurations. Ultimately, the objective of the book is to embrace and utilise some of the more polemical aspects of Elias's legacy, such as the exploration of decivilizing processes, decivilizing spurts, and dys-civilization. It investigates to what extent Elias's sociological analyses are still applicable in our studies of the developments that mark our troubled times. It does so through both global and local lenses, theoretically and empirically, and above all, by connecting past, present, and possible futures of all human societies. Florence Delmotte is Research Associate at the Belgian Foundation for Scientific Research (FNRS) and Professor of Political Science at Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles, Belgium. Barbara Górnicka is Research Fellow in Sociology at University College Dublin, Ireland, where she completed her doctoral degree in 2016 1. Troubled Times: Editors Introduction -- Part I: Renewing Classical Themes -- 2. The Question Of Inequality: Trends Of Functional Democratisation And De-democratisation -- 3. Vox Populi Then And Now -- 4. Figurational Sociology Of The Rule Of Law: A Case Of Central And Eastern Europe -- 5. Transformations Of Human Rights Within Ruptures And Continuity: A Historico-sociological Approach -- 6. Civilising Digitalisation: In Search Of A New Balance With Todays Technological Innovations -- 7. Confronting Uncertainties: Process Sociology Converges With The Ecological Risk Society Of The Becks -- Part Ii: Violence And Faces Of The War -- 8. The Civilising Process, Decline Of Homicide And Mass Murder Societies: Norbert Elias And The History Of Violence -- 9. A Throwback To Violence? Outline For A Process-sociological Approach To Terror And Terrorism -- 10. Violence And Power: The Kaiowa And Guarani Indigenous Peoples -- 11. Analysing European Defence With Eliass Historical Sociology (19902020) -- Part Iii: Establishedoutsiders Relations And Habitus Issues -- 12. Weaving Eliass Thought With Indigenous Perspectives And Lives: Proposal For A Research Agenda -- 13. A Question Of Function: Unequal Power Ratios And Asylum Seekers In Ireland -- 14. Thoughts On Describing Established And Outsider Figurations In Inner Mongolia- 15. Generational Figuration And We-group Formation In The Palestinian West Bank Since The 1970s -- 16. The Israeli National Habitus And Historiography: The Importance Of Generations And State Building -- 17. The Established And The Outsiders: An Incomplete Study? -- Part Iv: Conclusive Reflections -- 18. Some Political Implications Of Sociology From An Eliasian Point Of View. Florence Delmotte, Barbara Górnicka, Editors. Electronic Reproduction. Ann Arbor, Mi Available Via World Wide Web.