44

Newsletter of the Norbert Elias Foundation

PEOPLE CONTENTS ● Andrew Linklater, who as Woodrow People 1 Wilson Professor of International Politics at Aberystwyth University has always claimed From the Norbert Elias Foundation 1 ‘I am not a sociologist’, is now teaching a lecture course that looks very much like an In the media 2 Introduction to from a figurational point of view. Female sociologists in Norbert Elias’s circle of friends by Marion Keller 3 ● On 13–16 October 2015, Cas Wouters gave a ‘Seminar on Education: Reading Norbert Recent books and articles 4 Elias, under the auspices of the Research Group ‘Education and Civilising Processes’ at the Bibliographical retrospect 11 Universidade Federal de Grande Dourados, Brazil. Recent conferences 12 Social Character and Historical Processes: A Conference ● The Managing Editor of Figurations, in Honour of Stephen Mennell, Newman House, Barbara Górnicka, has successfully completed St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, 7–8 January 2016 her PhD at University College Dublin: see the abstract of her thesis elsewhere in this issue. Symposium: Figuring Organisations: People and Processes, Business School, Dublin City University, 25 November 2015 FROM THE NORBERT ELIAS Forthcoming conferences 14 FOUNDATION Changing Power Relations and the Drag Effects of Habitus: Theoretical and Empirical Approaches in the Foundation Website Twenty‐First Century, 8–10 September 2016, Institute of Sociology at the Westphalian Wilhelms- University, Münster, Germany In December 2015 and for most of January 2016, there was a serious malfunction Comparative, Longitudinal and Historical Research on the Foundation’s website, www. Sessions at the 9th International Conference on norberteliasfoundation.nl. The site was not Methodology (RC33), down altogether, but it was impossible to enter 11–16 September 2016, changes to it. United Kingdom This fault has now been fixed, but it has 16th SIPCS - International Symposium on Civilising Processes, become clear that the underlying code is now 22–25 November 2016, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo severely dated, and so in the not too distant (Ufes), Vitória, Brazil future we shall have to have a freshly designed website. Readers are invited to tell us what Obituary: Hermínio Gomes Martins 16 features they would like to see in a new website. Please send your ideas to Jonathan

Issue No.44 February 2016 Figurations Fletcher (jonathan@1052amsterdam. terrorism and climate change.’ On the Kuper does argue, in a neat but com), who has offered to collate Process of Civilisation is the bedrock of over-simple dictum summarising suggestions for us. Lepenies’s argument. Elias’s argument, that ‘States forced [people] to behave, and growing Human Figurations BBC Radio 4 broadcast a series of trade encouraged them to’. (Trade four programmes on manners, past and markets also force people to do Dr Barbara Górnicka has succeeded and present, on 4–7 January. Entitled certain things – it isn’t just a matter of Clare Spencer as Administrator Behaving Ourselves – Mitchell on incentives.) The point I want to make, of Human Figurations, the online Manners, they were introduced with though, is that the general safety and journal sponsored by the Foundation. wit and insight by David Mitchell. In predictability of everyday life – a Her email address in this capacity is the first episode, the value of Norbert diminishing danger of suffering harm [email protected]. Elias’s writings was introduced by or death, whether by violence, famine, Stephen Mennell and Steven Pinker disease or whatever – plays an essential Book reviews: Human Figurations has (and Cas Wouters received a mention in part in the development of the greater adopted a new policy towards book a later programme). capacity for habitual self-control that reviews. In view of the difficulty of we called ‘civilised behaviour’. It extracting reviews from reviewers to Network: Magazine of the British also facilitates the growth of trade, whom copies of books have been sent, Sociological Association, 121 (Autumn which therefore is not an ‘independent it has been decided that in future the 2015) contained a lengthy article by variable’ but one thread in a number of journal will instead rely on receiving Tom Trueman, ‘Copse to Corpse: intertwining long-term processes. expressions of interest from potential how key thinkers become forgotten reviewers. So, if you would like to after their deaths’, about the book So how does this relate to foreign review a book for the journal, please Sociological Amnesia edited by Alex policy? Well, I would argue that the contact the Reviews Editor, Paddy Law and Eric Royal Lybeck (see West has consistently underestimated Dolan, at [email protected] and he Figurations 43). There are lengthy the value of the simple calculability will request a review copy from the quotations from Stephen Mennell’s and safety of everyday life, mainly publisher for you. essay on Norbert Elias, who – not because its leaders take too much for having been forgotten – was almost the granted something that – by and large only exception to the rule among the – they enjoy for themselves. The other IN THE MEDIA figures discussed in the book side of this coin is that they ignore (in both the English and French senses Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitschrift Simon Kuper, ‘Why safety now trumps of the verb) the whole literature on published two articles concerning Elias. freedom’, Financial Times, Weekend the social foundations of democracy. Magazine, 27–28 June 2015 In consequence, they choose – for The first, on 27 July 2015, was by other people – what they think of Wolfgang Engler, who looked back to It’s good to see Elias being cited as ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ over his 1988 interview with Elias, included enthusiastically in the Financial Times. everyday security. in Interviews and Autobiographical But, when Eric Jones tipped me off Reflections (Collected Works, vol. 17). about Kuper’s article, from its title I To be more concrete, take the example The article is entitled ‘Zivilisation heißt drew the false conclusion that it related of Syria. Yes, Assad was (before the Gegenseitigkeit: Als sich die Theorie to world affairs. Kuper writes about the outbreak of the civil war) a tyrant, but noch nicht in Gänsefüßchen einschloss’ apparent decline in violent behaviour for most people most of the time only [Civilisation is reciprocity: When in many countries, referring not just a moderately oppressive tyrant. One theory is not in quotation marks]. to Elias but also to ‘one disciple of had to keep one’s nose clean, but the Elias, the Harvard psychologist Steven risk of being killed or bombed out of The second, published on 5 January Pinker’ and to Manuel Eisner’s data one’s home was relatively small. This 2016, was by the celebrated German on trends in homicide. But he uses is not to set him on any kind of pedestal sociologist and public intellectual all this to infer that there has been a (though reflect on the fact that it is not Wolfgang Lepenies (who, at the generational shift in Western countries all that many years since he was a guest very beginning of what was to be a from the rather wild generation of the at Buckingham Palace during a state stellar career, was given the chore of 1960s, preoccupied with ‘freedom’, to visit). It is merely to say most Syrians shortening the draft of Elias’s Was ‘a new type of being: the well-behaved today, I suspect, would gladly go back ist Soziologie?). In a feature under teen’. Kuper should have read Cas to the status quo ante, to the lives they the general heading of ‘Terror is Wouters! lived before the civil war. barbarism, climate is civilisation’, Lepenies argued that ‘Our civilization Of course, Kuper may prove to be right. It is also to point to another corollary has never been completed. But in the technical sense in which we of Elias’s theory, that the unleashing – first invented Western civilization. use the term, ‘civilising processes’ are whether intended or unintended – of the It must prove it anew in the face of slow, fluctuating and reversible – so, to kind of violence, danger and instability global challenges such as international echo Chou En-Lai, it is too early to say. that we now see in the Middle East has

2 Figurations Issue No.44 February 2016 precisely the consequence of generating friendships, which were characterised Gisèle Freund to Elias in Elias’s papers lower levels of ‘civilised behaviour’. by intermittent collaboration, mutual is from January 1936. Freund became support and loyalty. Despite the known for her photographic portraits of This is not to undervalue ‘democracy’. geographical distance, the friendships writers and artists. She had matriculated As Elias notes in Studies on the lasted over half a century until the at the University of Frankfurt in the Germans, a democratic political regime friends’ deaths. winter semester of 1929–30 and is more conducive to producing a completed her doctoral studies in 1935 ‘civilised habitus’ than a tyrannical 3 The preserved letters and photos at the Sorbonne in . She later and arbitrary one. But that is over and document these friendships. In the repeatedly and emphatically indicated above the need for everyday physical inventory of the legacy of Norbert that Elias, and not Walter Benjamin, safety. Elias, there is a copy of the well-known was the intellectual ‘father’ of her photo by Gisèle Freund, which doctoral dissertation (see Freund’s Stephen Mennell shows Elias and his students and his essay in the 1977 Festschrift). Some of later friends Ilse Seglow and Evelyn her experimental portrait shots of Elias Anderson in the garden of Café in Paris around 1934 are preserved in FEMALE SOCIOLOGISTS Laumer. It is perhaps one of the photos the photo section of the Elias archive. IN NORBERT ELIAS’S – perhaps the photo) that was viewed Freund procured Elias a publishing CIRCLE OF FRIENDS most often, because it shows the most opportunity in the journal of Adrienne signs of usage. Monnier. For the follow-up volume to Marion Keller her dissertation, she once again asked University of Frankfurt am Main 4 Elias generally presented himself him for expert support. For a joint as apolitical, and he played down project, an illustrated book on Elias’s Hardly anything is known about the or kept quiet about his own active collection of African art that Elias had female sociologists in Norbert Elias’s participation in the Jewish Blau–Weiss planned since the middle of the 1960s, networks. However, it was above all fraternity. It is therefore surprising Freund took the photographs, although Gisèle Freund and Ilse Seglow whose that he repeatedly pointed out that the volume was never realised. personal memories had a lasting effect most participants in Karl Mannheim’s on the image of Elias as a teacher. sociological seminar were politically 7 A very close friendship connected Therefore I decided to search for clues left to far left, and that in February Elias to Evelyn Anderson (née Lore in the Elias papers in the Deutsches 1933 he took the membership list of Seligmann) and her sister Ilse Seglow Literaturarchiv (DLA) at Marbach. The the Roten Studentengruppe (RSG (née Ilse Seligmann). Her son, Peter most important results of my research – ‘Red Student Group’) and other Seglow, has recently provided a vivid can be summarised under the following detrimental things out of the rooms account of this special connection points. of the Sociological Institute before between Elias and his family (see the SS searched the rooms. However, Figurations 40). During his time in 1 The fragmentary exchange of letters he did not mention that he had close Leicester, Elias rented a room that for preserved at the DLA regarding the friendships with some of the active several years he used during his stays in female sociology students who were members of the RSG at that time: London as a subtenant of Ilse and Peter supervised by Norbert Elias between Gisèle Freund, Evelyn Anderson and Seglow. 1930 and 1933 at the University of Ilse Seglow. Like Elias, they came from Frankfurt am Main are an exciting the Jewish, Zionist or socialist youth 8 Ilse Seglow was introduced by source that has so far not received much movements. her sister to the inner circle around attention. Even when the letters often Mannheim and Elias in 1931 (see had to do with everyday occurrences, 5 Seglow, Anderson and Freund Seglow in the 1977 Festschrift). such as arranging the next meeting, were expelled from studies in July On Elias’s recommendation, the they nevertheless provide information 1933 because of their ‘activities in the former actress began a dissertation about the friendships with Elias and the spirit of communism’. At that point in on the structure of the theatrical life of the Jewish academics who were time, however, they had already fled profession in Germany, but was not driven out of Germany. Germany. The first stop in their life able to finish it after 1933. Nor was of exile was Paris, where Elias also her attempt in the early1980s to 2 In their contributions to the arrived shortly thereafter. The three have her doctorate recognised at the Festschrift Human Figurations for intensive years in Frankfurt in a highly University of Frankfurt was successful. Elias’s eightieth birthday in 1977, intellectual atmosphere, the existential Seglow supported Elias during his while Ilse Seglow and Gisèle Freund break in 1933, as well as the precarious imprisonment as an ‘enemy alien’ on did expressly mention his role as living conditions during their first years the Isle of Man. She endeavoured to a teacher and supervisor, they did in exile in Paris constitute important secure his release through Richard not mention that, from this, lasting reference points in their letters and Löwenthal (Rix) and Franz Borkenau, friendships were formed that connected shared memories. and she sent him food and books. Today them with Elias and also each other. Seglow is recognised as a pioneer of These were personal and intellectual 6 The first preserved letter from Group Analysis, and in the 1970s she

Issue No.44 February 2016 Figurations 3 contributed significantly to the reimport RECENT BOOKS AND and methods of training both groups. of psychoanalytical group therapy ARTICLES In addition, Elias presents a brief to Germany. The interest in Group comparison with the early stages of Analysis connected her with Elias. Norbert Elias, Seeleute und development of the naval profession Together they led joint sessions, and Gentlemen, trans. Jan-Peter Kunze, in France and Spain, showing he was a member of the management with an introduction by Hermann Korte how the social structures of each board of the Group Analytic Society. country interacted with some of the characteristics of the naval profession 9 Anderson had already studied in the countries to which they belong. in under Mannheim and Elias, and followed them in 1930 Nathalie Heinich, Dans la pensée to Frankfurt, her hometown. Since de Norbert Elias [On the thought 1932, she had been a member of of Norbert Elias] (Paris: CNRS Neu-Beginnen (‘Start New”‘), a small Éditions, 2015). 160 pp. ISBN: Leninist left group within the SPD. 978-2-271-08662-4. In 1934, she emigrated together with her husband, Harold Müller, to Great Britain, where they assumed the names Evelyn (Eve) and Paul Anderson. From 1943 to 1952, Eve was an employee at the Tribune, and she worked as a broadcast journalist for the BBC for several decades (during the Second World War for the European Revolution Broadcasting Service of the BBC). She published two books (in 1928 and 1948) in which she examined the unsuccessful co-operation between the labour movement, socialists and an afterword by René Moelker and and communists in the fight against Stephen Mennell (Wiesbaden: Springer National Socialism. She lived in VS, 2016). ISBN 978-3-658-09849-0 London, and on several occasions, (pb); ISBN 978-3-658-09850-6 (ebook) she organised meetings of the This is the German translation of ‘Alt-Frankfurtern’ (“Old Frankfurters”), The Genesis of the Naval Profession, as she called them, in which Elias also published by UCD Press in 2007, participated. edited by René Moelker and Stephen Mennell on the basis of René’s research 10 The familiar connection of Norbert on Elias’s study of the development of Elias to the families of Seglow and the naval profession in England (see Anderson shows a previously unknown Figurations 27). These papers, only Nathalie Heinich is prominent in side of Elias. Elias was one of the small parts of which were published in French intellectual life, notably for regular guests at the Christmas dinner Elias’s lifetime, were among the first her writing on art. She is also one of at Eve’s and the New Year’s Eve event things that he wrote in English rather the most important champions of the at Ilse’s. He was also in contact with than in German. work of Norbert Elias. She boldly Caesar and Ella Seligmann, the parents states the purpose of her latest book of Ilse and Eve, as well as their brother, Elias examines the career of naval as being ‘To make his thinking more Erwin Seligmann, and his wife, Lydia, officers in England in the seventeenth accessible by excavating its concealed who all emigrated to England in 1939. and eighteenth centuries, and sets themes and by dispelling some of out the reasons for the emergence the misunderstandings that it has 11 The friendly connections show of this new profession. The crew suffered. Several case studies from that Elias was not isolated and could of warships had for a long time various fields illustrate the fertility fall back on supportive circles of consisted of ‘Gentleman’ soldiers, of his contribution: the question of friends. The frequent references to his who dominated the fighting, and the authenticity, the notion of elite, the reluctance to write indicates that it was sailors, the Tarpaulins, who knew how status of the artist in modernity, and Elias who remained distant (see also to sail and manoeuvre a ship. From the the role of excitement in sporting Jiitschin in Figurations 40). cooperation and competition between spectacles and in reading works of these two groups with very different fiction. social backgrounds finally emerged the naval profession and a hierarchy of The scope and strategy of the book can naval offices combining the functions be seen in the (translated) chapter titles:

4 Figurations Issue No.42 January 2015 Introduction: Thinking to be understood volumes. According to a note in the last centuries show the interdependence of and used chapter about his theory on civilisation, nation-building and parenthood. Six Part I – Elias in himself a third volume was supposed to research areas display the impulses 1. Sublimating resentment Elias and reveal the history and structure of and counter-impulses of change: 1. the five roads to a different sociology the family (including gender aspects) Formation of a nation as an enlarged 2. Some misundertandings concerning and its advancing threshold of shame family, 2. Population development, 3. Elias’s thinking and embarrassment. As we know, Changes in the conception of descent, 3. On ‘The changing balance of power unfortunately, Elias never found the 4. Organisation of work in job and between the sexes: a study in process opportunity to write this third volume. family in the national economy, 5. sociology’ Transition from parent-centered to Part II: Using Elias Up to the present day process sociology child-centered concepts, 6. Changes 4. At ease with decivilisation has not made much headway in this in social standards of honour and 5. Returning to the notion of elie field. Thus, in recent decades the shame regarding the parental position. 6. The artist, ideal-type of the history and structure of the family The long-term development shows a individual in modernity? has been described by a multitude growing multi-level formation around 7. The quest for excitement as a of researchers, but is still lacking the national interest in the child – private value an explanation of the direction and resulting in a declining power ratio of 8. Resurgences of anti-Semitism and internal dynamics of its development. parents. civilising processes Research obviously suggests some Afterword: The eye [or ‘gaze’] of kind of interdependency between the Finally, based on the findings, a concept Norbert Elias development of society and family of parenthood is developed that allows over time. The understanding of the systematic disclosure of implicit This is an important book for French – long term social developments point concepts of parenthood in research and and French-reading – sociologists. towards taking a closer look at: 1. our practice. Parenthood is described as the contemporary understanding of the indispensable social core process of Désirée Waterstradt, Prozess- history and structure of the family, generativity, interweaving bio-, psycho- Soziologie der Elternschaft: 2. its internal and external positions and sociogenetic sub-processes. In Nationsbildung, Figurationsideale and power balances, and 3. the order to guarantee its own future und generative Machtarchitektur connection between psychogenesis and every society has to embed the core in Deutschland [Process-Sociology sociogenesis within that. process of parenthood. Thus, individual of Parenthood: Nationbuilding, processes of parenthood evolve Figurational Ideals and Generative This new book on parenthood shows from this fundament, based on the Power Architecture in Germany] that a closer look was overdue because, changing social standards, figurational (Münster: MV Wissenschaft, 2015). in research, the concepts of ‘parents’ ideals, habitus and power balances of ISBN: 978-3-95645-530-8 (pb). and ‘parenthood’ still appeared to be parenthood. When Norbert Elias wrote On the clear and taken-fopr-granted. Despite the crucial position of parents in the The book is also available as a family – therefore also for society – hardback, e-book and on Google and the significant socio-historical Books. changes exploring the implicit concepts of parenthood, the history and Stephen Mennell, ‘Sociogenesis of parenthood just seemed and psychogenesis: Norbert Elias’s to be unnecessary. Nevertheless, historical social psychology as a without a concept of parenthood, it research tradition in comparative is impossible to disclose the hidden sociology’, Comparative Sociology 14 understandings of family, parenthood, (2015) 548–64. childhood and their corresponding professions. Interdisciplinary research Abstract: What is widely known as shows that the lack of understanding ‘figurational sociology’, or alternatively has fundamental consequences for ‘process sociology’, is the research research and society as a whole; tradition stemming from the writings the demystification of family and of Norbert Elias. The tradition extends parenthood and the development of beyond sociology to historians and consistent knowledge are hindered. many other branches of the social sciences. Elias’s Collected Works run Germany was taken as an example to 18 volumes, but the bedrock of in investigating long-term changes his oeuvre is his early study On the in parenthood. The breaks and Process of Civilisation, in which the Process of Civilisation he considered discontinuities of German nation- interrelation of long-term sociogenetic it to be not quite complete with its two building in nineteenth and twentieth processes like state formation and

Issue No.42 January 2015 Figurations 5 equally long-term psychogenetic values and compete in preparation for social relations? How are discourses processes like conscience- and habitus- hypothetical self-defence encounters, I of inclusion and exclusion related to formation is first clearly elaborated. Of ask how the boundary between violence conditions of war and conditions of the many directions in which the theory and social regulation is negotiated in peace? has been subsequently developed, the an arena that putatively aims to remove most important is Elias’s sociological the latter. Drawing on more than three Ramona Marinache, ‘Sleep – a theory of knowledge and the sciences, years of ethnographic fieldwork, I sociological perspective’, European which involves a radical rejection specify the mechanisms that moderate Journal of Research on Education 3: 1 of central assumptions of Western action: (1) the cultivation of a code (2015), pp. 17–29. . of honour and linked dispositions to replace codified rules; (2) the The sleep is a new topic in sociological Note: This special issue of the interactional hesitance that arises study. The first three studies date journal Comparative Sociology on when participants lack clear rules or from the second half of the twentieth ‘Sociological Schools of Thought and norms to coordinate action; and (3) century. These remained without any Comparative Analysis’ is the product the importation of external rule sets, echo till the end of the century. From of a conference held in Strasbourg such as self-defence law, to simulate then on more articles were published in 2014, under the auspices of ISA the ‘real’ world. Contrary to surface on this theme. In this article I present RC20, Comparative Sociology and its readings of ‘no-rules’ discourse, I a synthesis of the research about the President Jean-Pascal Daloz. Other conclude that the activity is deeply sociology of sleep to highlight the contributions are: embedded in larger societal norms of social nature of this phenomenon, order. Participants’ ethos of honourable which in the scientific sphere has Jean-Pascal Daloz: Grand theories and self-governance, ‘thresholds of hitherto been assigned either to biology t h e c h a l l e n g e o f comparative a n a l y s i s repugnance’ when exposed to serious or psychology. Andrey V. Rezaev, Dmtrii M. injury, and aim of transforming Zhikharevich and Pavel Lisitsyn: The emotive, violent reaction into reflective, [Note: This Romanian researcher Marxian materialist interpretation of instrumental action all indicate that rightly pays a good deal of attention history and comparative sociology the ostensibly unrestrained violence to Elias but, curiously, does not cite Fumiya Onaka: and is, in Elias’s technical sense, precisely a classic Eliasian essay on sleep: comparison civilised. Peter Gleichmann ‘Einige soziale Lars Mjøset: Stein Rokkan’s Wandlungen des Schlafens’, Zeitschrift methodology of macro-historical Aurélie Lacassagne, ‘War and peace für Soziologie, 9: 3 (1980), pp. 236–50. comparison in the Harry Potter series’, European – SJM] Niilo Kauppi and David Swartz: Global Journal of Cultural Studies (2015). doi: Bourdieu 10.1177/1367549415592895. John Goodwin and Henrietta Hanno Scholtz: Rational choice theory O’Connor, Norbert Elias’s Lost in comparative sociology The Harry Potter series functions as Research: Revisiting the Young Worker an allegory of twentieth-century world Project (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2015). 198 Neil Gong, ‘How to fight without rules: history and the war against Nazism. pp. ISBN: 9781409404668. On civilised violence in “de-civilised” In this literary work, one finds several spaces’, Social Problems 62: 4 (2015), interrelated discourses on peace and Based on the re-discovery of a lost pp. 605–22. violence, affect and , as well sociological project led by Norbert as civilising and decivilising processes Elias at the University of Leicester, Abstract: Sociologists have long that mirror our ‘muggle’ real world. this book re-visits the project: The been concerned with the extent All of these themes constitute the Adjustment of Young Workers to Work to which ‘civilising processes’ foundation of Norbert Elias’s sociology. Situations and Adult Roles. Norbert lead to the increasing salience of Therefore, this article develops an Elias’s Lost Research makes use of rationalised behavioural guidelines Eliasian interpretation of the thematic the interview booklets documenting and corresponding internal controls, discourses of Harry Potter and defends the lives of nearly 900 Leicester especially in social situations the position that literary works can school leavers at the time, to give a characterised by violence. Following and should be taken seriously as unique account of Elias’s only foray Norbert Elias’s identification of a sociological accounts. The first part into large-scale, publicly funded civilising process in combat sports, deals with violence: How is violence research. Covering all aspects of the sociologists have debated, though alternately exercised and eschewed? research from the development of the not empirically established, whether Why do some people employ violence research proposal, the selection and emerging ‘no-holds-barred’ fight easily and delight in inflicting harm management of the research team, the practices indicate a rupture in the on others? The second part looks at fieldwork, Elias’s theoretical work to historical civilisation of leisure time discourses on peace and war and how the ultimate demise of the research violence. Using a critical case study of they reflect discourses of good and project, this book makes a significant a ‘no-rules’ weapons fighting group, evil: How does obtaining, maintaining contribution to our understanding of where participants espouse libertarian or refusing power affect the totality of existing Eliasian texts by introducing

6 Figurations Issue No.44 February 2016 this project to a wider audience and as institutional theory and the role of times. Focusing specifically on groups investigating and applying Elias’s translation in sociological practice. within England and France, chapters theoretical work to the areas of youth address communities as diverse as and school to work transitions. Miriam Adelman and Lennita Ruggi, the monastery of Rievaulx in twelfth- ‘The sociology of the body’, Current century England and the ducal court of Shedding new light on Elias’s Sociology (September 2015), DOI: fifteenth-century Burgundy, assessing thought, whilst exploring questions of 10.1177/0011392115596561. the ways in which emotional norms and methodology and the relevance of older modes of expression respond to, and research to modern questions, this book Although classical sociology was in turn create, their social, religious, will be of interest to social theorists, not always oblivious or indifferent to ideological, and cultural environments. as well as sociologists with interests in the embodied dimensions of social Contemplating emotions experienced research methodology and the history relations, contemporary sociology ‘on the ground’ as well as those of sociology. has developed new perspectives and theorised in the treatises of Alcuin, frameworks for understanding the Thomas Aquinas, Jean Gerson and Giselinde Kuipers, ‘How national body as a social and cultural construct Thomas Hobbes, this insightful study institutions mediate the global: and fundamental element in material offers a profound new narrative of Screen translation, institutional and symbolic processes of power and emotional life in the West. interdependencies, and the production conviviality. What do contemporary of national difference in four European sociological approaches contribute Peter K. Andersson, ‘How civilised countries’, American Sociological to our understanding of corporeality were the Victorians?’, Journal of Review 80: 5 (2015), pp. 985–1013, and embodiment? What kind of Victorian Culture 20: 4 (2015), pp. DOI: 10.1177/0003122415599155. changes does this represent in relation 439–52. to classical perspectives? How do How do national institutional contexts different theoretical approaches connect This article addresses the role mediate the global? This article aims to contemporary interests and empirical of the ‘civilising process’ in the to answer this question by analysing research? The present article attempts historiography of the Victorian period. screen translation—the translation of to answer these questions, looking at The author develops a critique of audio-visual materials like movies the development and diversification perspectives that deem the nineteenth and television programs—in four of sociological approaches to the century to be an era of discipline European countries: France, Italy, the body, from Elias and Bourdieu to and self-restraint, arguing that these , and . A cross- contemporary feminist, Foucauldian result from the hegemonic position of national, multi-method research project post-structuralism and queer theories. literary perspectives within Victorian combining interviews, ethnography, The authors highlight current research Studies and their frequent reliance and a small survey found considerable that is intersectional, international and on Foucauldian-inspired techniques cross-national differences in translation path-breaking. They also pay particular of discourse analysis. In response, he norms and practices, sometimes attention to connections between outlines and illustrates the potential leading to very different translated the social, cultural and the political, for alternative research agendas and versions of the same product. The as expressed in and through bodies, approaches that move away from analysis shows how differences and point to the unresolved nature of representational sources in order that between national translation fields the relationship between narrative, the Victorian period can be viewed in are produced and perpetuated by the discourse and the materiality of the a new light. These include the study interplay of institutional factors on body. of vernacular photography, cultures of four interdependent levels: technology, leisure, and the subcultures of groups and the organisational, national, and Barbara H. Rosenwein, Generations where the importance of ‘nonverbal’ transnational fields. On each level, of Feeling: A History of Emotions, practices and the cultures inherent in various institutions are influential in 600–1700 (Cambridge: Cambridge bodily experiences are highlighted – shaping nationally specific translation University Press, 2016). 386 pp. ISBN: forms of expression that reach beyond norms and practices by producing 9781107480841. established discourse. It is argued that institutional constraints or imposing the failure of scholars of the Victorian specific meanings. I propose a model Generations of Feeling is claimed period to consider this ‘nonverbal’ that explains the persistence of national to be ‘the first book to provide a culture means that the theoretical translation systems – not only from the comprehensive history of emotions in frameworks of comprehension that logics of specific institutions, fields, or pre- and early modern Western Europe’. currently characterise Victorian Studies levels – but by the feedback loops and Charting the varieties, transformations are underdeveloped. The essay calls for interdependencies between institutions and constants of human sentiments over Victorianists to broaden their theoretical on various levels. This analysis has the course of eleven centuries, Barbara perspectives, engage with new sources, implications for the sociological H. Rosenwein explores the feelings and embrace new methodologies in understanding of globalisation, the expressed in a wide range of ‘emotional order to enlarge our understanding of production of culture and media, cross- communities’ as well as the theories nineteenth-century culture. national comparative research, as well that served to inform and reflect their

Issue No.44 February 2016 Figurations 7 Roderic Broadhurst, Thierry of the most salient problems in our Whatever it is in the Zeitgeist that Bouhours and Brigitte Bouhours, current debate about globality: How a causes such shifts must remain a larger Violence and the Civilising Process global community is possible. She is mystery, but since the millennium we in Cambodia (Cambridge, Cambridge asking: How do we make the rules of seem to be living through what has University Press, 2015). 382 pp. our games? Where does the normativity been dubbed ‘an affective turn’, an ISBN: 9781107109117. of our moral laws, statutory provisions unprecedented era of the academic and table manners come from? How do study of emotions, particularly in In 1939, the German sociologist we strive to keep naked violence at bay the unashamedly emotive vehicles Norbert Elias published his ground- by allowing power to be vested with of literature and drama, history and breaking work On the Process of the right of correction? Can humanity musicology. Following in the wake Civilisation, which has come to be as a whole become a global community of pioneering work by Norbert Elias, regarded as one of the most influential of self-defense? Marta Bucholc recent contributions by Barbara works of sociology today. In this seeks answers to these questions in Rosenwein and William Reddy have insightful new study tracing the history the writings of Norbert Elias, while developed historical methodologies of violence in Cambodia, the authors watching the players in the field go on for the history of emotions, though evaluate the extent to which Elias’s ... the application of these to literature is theories can be applied in a non-western arguably limited. In the former case, to context. Drawing from historical [This book will be reviewed in consider as ‘emotional communities’ and contemporary archival sources, Contemporary Sociology by Stephen examples of, let us say, The Comedy constabulary statistics, victim surveys Mennell.] of Errors and Henry V, not to speak of and newspaper reports, Broadhurst, the Globe’s London in the 1590s, we Bouhours and Bouhours chart trends Carol A. Archbold, ‘Established– find each so complex and various that and forms of violence throughout outsider relations, crime problems, and it barely makes sense to speak of them Cambodia from the mid-nineteenth policing in oil boomtowns in Western at all in these terms. At the same time, century through to the present day. North Dakota’, Criminology, Criminal Reddy’s proposition that emotions are Analysing periods of colonisation, Justice Law, & Society 16:3 (2015), pp. ‘performatives’ (‘emotives’) and cause anti-colonial wars, interdependence, 19–40. change is so axiomatic in relation to civil war, the revolutionary terror of the fictional works that it does not take 1970s and post-conflict development, In recent years, many rural communities us far along the path towards deeper the authors assess whether violence has have experienced significant population understanding of emotions in literature decreased and whether such a decline growth as a result of increased oil and drama. There is little doubt that can be attributed to Elias’s civilising production in the Bakken oil shale Shakespeare’s works ‘move’ audiences process, identifying a series of region in western North Dakota. Most of and readers in more senses than one, universal factors that have historically the people moving into the area looking and there needs neither ghost come reduced violence. for employment are from communities from the grave, nor modern theorists, located outside of North Dakota. The to tell us this. The real questions (how? Marta Bucholc, A Global Community current study examines how the influx why? what?) begin rather than end of Self-Defense: Norbert Elias on of new residents has changed police at this point. (Reddy has, however, Normativity, Culture and Involvement officers’ perceptions of their community, published a book which is significant to (Frankfurt: Verlag Vittorio citizens living in their community, and the study of romantic love in literature. Klostermann, 2015). 202 pp. ISBN: crime problems in eight oil ‘boomtowns’ [This is probably a reference to William 9783465042327. located in western North Dakota. M Reddy, The Navigation of Feeling:a Interviews with 101 police officers and Framework for the History of Emotions Wittgenstein writes: ‘We can easily sheriff’s deputies from four counties (Cambridge: Cambridge University imagine people amusing themselves located in the Bakken region, crime Press, 2001] ). in a field by playing with a ball so as data, and population data serve as data to start various existing games, but sources. Elias and Scotson’s (1994) André Saramago, ‘Orientation in playing many without finishing them theory of established–outsider relations World Politics: Critical Theory and and in between throwing the ball explains the changes in police officers’ Long-Term Perspectives on Human aimlessly into the air, chasing one perceptions. Development’. Unpublished PhD another with the ball and bombarding thesis; Aberystwyth University, 2015. one another for a joke and so on. R. S. White, ‘Reclaiming Heartlands: And now someone says: The whole Shakespeare and the history of Abstract: The need for orientation is time they are playing a ball-game and emotions in literature’ in R.S. White, shared by human beings everywhere. following definite rules at every throw. M. Houlahan and K. O’Loughlin People need to learn about their And is there not also the case where (eds) Shakespeare and Emotions: conditions of existence in order to we play and make up the rules as we Inheritances, Enactments, Legacies exercise some degree of control over go along? And there is even one where (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, them as a fundamental requirement we alter them – as we go along.’ In 2015). for their survival both as individuals this book, the author is tackling one and as societies. This thesis is

8 Figurations Issue No.44 February 2016 about the challenges that human among different societies. This study personality and ‘mimetic excitement’, global interdependence raises to is broadly concerned with attitudes in order to show how it is possible the fulfilment of this task. It argues towards the naked human body in to enjoy nakedness without sexual that the globe-spanning webs of Western societies and how they change implications. interdependent humankind produce over time. It examines the problem of a collective problem of orientation the naked body and shameful feelings Mieke van Stigt, Alles over pesten [All characterised by the requirement for a surrounding it, using the figurational About Bullying] (: Boom, more cosmopolitan perspective on the sociology of Norbert Elias, in order to 2014). 222 pp. ISBN: 978 90 8953 human condition while recognising explore how the relationship between 2510. the difficulty in achieving just that, nakedness and feelings of shame given how all theorising is necessarily developed over time. Shortly before his death, Mieke van embedded in particular social, cultural Stigt was one of the last of Norbert and historical contexts. Through The central rationale of this thesis is Elias’s assistants. In her book, she a reinterpretation of the works of to combine a short-term focus on Irish tries to advance a new, or at least an Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, Jürgen naturists, with a long-term perspective integrated, perspective on bullying. Habermas and Norbert Elias the on the changes and developments Bullying is very often seen as an thesis asks how critical international in the social history of nakedness in individual problem, caused by a lack theory might provide a more adequate western societies. The first part of my of resilience on the part of the victim. answer to the problem of orientation. study focuses on the case of naturism In a broader perspective, it mainly Its main argument is that this as a most ‘extreme’ form of social considered to be either a characteristic answer implies a recovery of grand nudity; extreme in the sense that never of children (‘children can be so cruel’) narratives on the long-term process in the history of western societies did or a natural phenomenon, a biological of human development which avoid there exist a group or a movement of mechanism that is inevitable in social a reproduction of the shortcomings people of both sexes, who willingly and life. The main attitude towards bullying with which they have been historically consciously choose to socialise without seems to be that, though we do not associated; namely, serving as a clothing, in spite of numerous taboos, approve of it, people have to learn to channel for the projection of parochial prejudices and fears that encompass deal with it. In her book, Van Stigt aims and ethnocentric points of view which, it. Here I describe my first-hand to debunk these positions. under the cover of cosmopolitanism, experiences with naturist practice and legitimise practices of exclusion and use it as a guiding tool for the process First of all, it is not the deviation domination. The conclusion to this of interviewing Irish naturists, and I from group norms – whether red thesis is that a synthesis between then draw my findings for the purpose hair, fatness, homosexuality – that critical theory and process sociology of understanding the mechanisms explains the bullying. The same would enable the production of behind embarrassment and shame, and personal trait can be cheered in one grand narratives that promote a more more importantly casting light on how group and despised in another. But, cosmopolitan perspective on the these can be managed and controlled. more important, the group codes are conditions of existence of globalised organised and formulated around the humanity while recognising and The next part of the study explores process of inclusion and exclusion, as protecting the plurality of forms of the historical development of attitudes a legitimation of the power balances human self-expression. In this manner, towards nakedness. Drawing on the of the group. This is related to the the thesis opens the way towards the historical accounts reaching as far as kind of leadership in the group and development of more adequate means the Antiquity, I argue, in the light of the way the group convictions as well of orientation on the basis of which the civilising processes theory, that as the properties of the individuals in people might better find their bearings the understanding of instances of the group are communicated – and of in the world and understand how they permissiveness or avoidance are crucial course this is an ongoing process. Elias might come to make more of their for our conceptualisation of shame and Scotson’s The Established and the history under conditions of their own today. Outsiders is an obvious reference here. choosing. Among other things, this connection Secondly, it is not just that bullying is Barbara Górnicka, ‘Nakedness and is supported by the observations of the a problem of group life rather than a embarrassment: a long-term perspective changes of the concept of ‘nature’ and problem of non-resilient individuals; on nudity, naturism and attitudes our relationship with it. the structure of our multiple group towards the naked body’. Unpublished life is the main cause of bullying. Van PhD thesis; University College Dublin, The final part of this study focuses on Stigt considers three main areas where 2015. theoretical explorations, which through bullying is a problem: in schools, the use of the case of nakedness helps at work and in institutions such as Abstract: As a social convention, nudity to conjure up an improved way of old people’s homes. The fact that has in general been circumscribed looking at the concept of taboo. In this individuals are forced to go to school, by various forms of restrictions and part I use theories of informalisation, to work, or to be in such institutions taboos, which at same time tend to vary and the concepts of ‘third nature’ defines their position of relative

Issue No.44 February 2016 Figurations 9 dependency or low power. So the fact Hans Bartsch’, in La Rocambole: gave a vivid picture of the emotional that, for instance, a student has to go to Bulletin des Amis du Roman populaire, dynamic of Americanisation and the school every day is the main source of Nouvelle série: 71–72 (2015), pp. creation of marketing-egos shaped the power of the bullies, and they know 217–32. by Hollywood; and finally, Siegfried it. Sassoon’s Memoirs of an Infantry Although the novel discussed in this Officer, which can also be treated as Johan Heilbron, French Sociology article (Der Flieger: Ein Roman aus a report on the soldier’s fear and the (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, dem Serbenkrieg [The aviator: A emotions related to courage in the Great 2015), 271 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8014- novel from the Serbian War] (Berlin: War. With the help of these examples, 5382-3 9hb); 978-0-8014-5663-3 (pb). Ullstein, Berlin 1915);) can be seen the methodology of selection, as a piece of propaganda to cheer up highlighting and analysing emotions French Sociology offers a the mood of the Austro-Hungarian is explained and its main problems comprehensive view of the oldest and population in the early part of the outlined. still one of the most vibrant national First World War, it may also serve as a traditions in sociology. Covering document that refers to difficult moral Helmut Kuzmics, ‘Habitus versus the development of sociology in issues. In the beginning clash between Situation: Elias und Collins’ France from its very beginnings in humanistic, universalistic codes of Erklärungen von Gewalt und the early nineteenth century through behaviour and the necessity to kill for Gewaltbereitschaft im Krieg am the discipline’s expansion in the late state or nation, the author exposes both Beispiel eines habsburgischen twentieth century, it traces the careers discourses in a very detailed way. The Militärhabitus im Ersten Weltkrieg’, of figures from Comte to Bourdieu. emotional logic of a pacifist mind-set, in H. P. Waldhoff, C. Morgenroth, Heilbron not only presents fresh so familiar today, is juxtaposed to A. Moré and M. Kopel (eds) Wo interpretations of renowned thinkers, the manly, warlike and forceful act denken wir hin? Lebensthemen, he includes a host of less well known of violence that here wins the day. Zivilisationsprozesse, demokratische figures, and examines how the groups Furthermore, the novel gives a vivid Verantwortung (Gießen: Psychosozial- and networks they formed contributed impression of the intricate network of Verlag, 2015), pp. 215–36. to renewals across a broad spectrum of complementary and conflicting national the human sciences. loyalties typical of the late Habsburg According to Norbert Elias’s theory monarchy, arguing for the kind of of civilising processes, human beings This study recounts the halting process German nationalism that would also acquire in ‘social mints’ a social by which sociology evolved from a survive the war. Theoretically, this habitus that will also influence their new and rather ‘improbable science’ paper compares Norbert Elias’s attempt way of exercising war-like violence. into a legitimate academic discipline. to explain German national we-feeling Randall Collins’s theory of physical Having entered the academic field with the approaches of authors like violence stresses, in contrast, mainly at the end of the nineteenth century, Benedict Anderson, Eric Hobsbawm its situational character. What does this sociology developed along two or Ernest Gellner, who rather stress mean for concrete empirical work in separate tracks: one in the Faculty the ‘construction’ aspect of all national a long-term sociological perspective, of Letters, engendering an enduring we-feelings. referring to some unsolved puzzles in dependence on philosophy and the the discussion of World War I? It is still humanities, the other in research Helmut Kuzmics, ‘Using fiction as unclear why one of the least militarised institutes outside of the university, in sociology: how to analyse emotions great powers in Europe – Austria- which sociology evolved within and with the help of novels’, in H. Flam and Hungary – rushed recklessly into a across more specialised research areas. J. Kleres (eds), Methods of Exploring war that could only lead to defeat. To Distinguishing different dynamics and Emotions (London: Routledge, 2015), obtain an answer, this paper argues, various cycles of change, Heilbron pp. 25–35. both aspects – habitus and situation – portrays the ways in which individuals have to be considered, by joining their and groups manoeuvred within this The approach presented in this essay respective strengths and avoiding their changing structure, competing for transcends the once not so clear-cut weaknesses in detailed combination. opportunities as they arose. French distinction between literature and Sociology depicts the promises and sociology. It aims at a sociological [Note: The book Wo denken wir hin? pitfalls of a discipline, which – analysis of emotions via fiction. The will be listed more fully in Figurations although often poorly understood paper focuses on three examples of 45.] – is one of the most interdisciplinary how emotions and their experience endeavours among the human sciences are part and parcel of sociological Alfredo González-Ruibal, ‘An in France. explanation via fiction: Jane Austen’s archaeology of predation: capitalism Pride and Prejudice, which described and the coloniality of power in Helmut Kuzmics, ‘L’amour du genre how socially inferior women kept Equatorial Guinea (Central Africa)’, humain opposé à l’action patriotique: their pride in the gentry milieu of Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism La Grande Guerre et la monarchie des early nineteenth-century England; Len (Basel: Birkhauser Verlag, 2015), pp. Habsbourg dans L’Aviateur de Rudolf Deighton’s Close-Up (1972) which 421–44.

10 Figurations Issue No.44 February 2016 In this chapter, I explore the long-term and social invisibilities of migrant wider social processes and historical effects of global capitalism in a small workers in this sector. While this continuities in seeking to elucidate region of Central Africa from an creates problems for migrant workers, how these processes shape policies archaeological point of view. The we conclude that it is beneficial and contribute to social and spatial region in question is the Muni Estuary, to supermarkets looking to supply marginalisation. in Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish consumers with the regular supply of colony, where a multidisciplinary cheap food to which they have become research project was carried out accustomed. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL between 2009 and 2012 by the Spanish RETROSPECT National Research Council (CSIC). Ryan Powell and John Lever, Our project documented the history of ‘Europe’s perennial “outsiders”: Matteo Bortolini, L’immunità the area between the beginnings of the A processual approach to Roma necessaria: Talcott Parsons e la sociol Iron Age and the present post-colonial stigmatisation and ghettoisation’, ogia della modernità (Roma: Meltemi, times. One of our main goals was to Current Sociology (July 2015) DOI: 2005). 280 pp. explore through material culture the 10.1177/0011392115594213. consequences of several centuries As the title says, this is a book about of capitalist exploitation in the area. This paper draws on the theoretical Talcott Parsons, but – unusually in The archaeological record shows the work of Norbert Elias and Loïc such literature – it contains extensive development of a regime of coloniality Wacquant in seeking to understand the reference to the views of Norbert Elias throughout the nineteenth century stigmatised and marginalised position too. that impoverished and eventually of the Roma population within Europe. dispossessed the local communities The paper argues that the persistent Tim Newton, ‘Knowledge and – the same communities who had persecution of Roma, reflected in practice: organisation studies within originally enjoyed a prominent position social policy, cannot be understood a historical and figurational context’, in the capitalist system of predation. without reference to long-term social Organization Studies 31: 9–10 (2010), The author makes use of Elias’s processes, which shape the nature pp.1369–1395. theory of civilising processes, and of the asymmetric power relations comments that although Elias saw the between Roma and non-Roma. Elias’s Drawing on the work of Norbert Elias, applicability of his theories to colonial theory of established–outsider relations this paper argues that attention to the contexts, neither he nor later students is applied at the intra-state European historical and ‘figurational’ context of colonialism have tried to develop his level in arguing that Roma constitute of organisation studies is necessary in ideas. a cross-border ‘outsider’ group; with order to understand the impact of its their intense stigmatisation explained scholarship on management practice John Lever and Paul Milbourne, and perpetuated by a common set and public policy. This perspective is ‘The structural invisibility of of collective fantasies which are used to question conventional wisdom outsiders: the role of migrant labour maintained through complex group about the ‘failings’ of the OS field. in the meat-processing industry’, processes of disidentification, and In particular, attention is paid to, (1) Sociology (December 2015) DOI: which result in Roma being seen as questioning the argument that the 10.1177/0038038515616354. of lesser human worth. Wacquant’s impact of organisation studies is limited theoretical concept of the ‘ghetto’ is by its pluralism, (2) related paradigm This article examines the role of then drawn upon to show how the incommensurability debates (3) migrant workers in meat-processing manifestations of stigmatisation for the challenging other supposed limitations factories in the UK. Drawing on stigmatised are at once psychological, of the field, such as a tendency toward materials from mixed methods social and spatial. The paper suggests ‘fads and fashions’. In addition, it research in a number of case study that the synthesis of the two theorists’ is argued that high impact may be towns across Wales, we explore the relational, theoretical concepts allows associated with fields which have low structural and spatial processes that for an approach that can expose the control, and that single overarching position migrant workers as outsiders. way in which power is exercised within strategies may be ineffective in raising While state policy and immigration and through group relations. Such an impact. In presenting such argument, controls are often presented as a way approach emphasises the centrality of emphasis is placed on the significance of protecting migrant workers from the interdependence between Roma of the dominant logics of governance of work-based exploitation and ensuring and non-Roma, and the fluctuating particular historical eras. In so doing, jobs for British workers, our research power balance that characterises that the paper draws attention to the need highlights that the situation ‘on the relationship across time and space. to consider the ethical and political ground’ is more complex. We argue that The paper concludes that, while questions raised by attempts to increase ‘self-exploitation’ among the migrant existing research focused on policy and impact. workforce is linked to the strategies outcomes is useful in understanding of employers and the organisation of the negative contemporary experiences work, and that hyper-flexible work of Roma populations, they need patterns have reinforced the spatial to be understood in the context of

Issue No.44 February 2016 Figurations 11 RECENT CONFERENCES The conference really began, in into doing the picture research for this, accordance with figurational tradition, without quite knowing what use was Social Character and in Dublin’s official Elias pub, O’Neill’s going to be made of the results!). Historical Processes: A in Pearse Street, the evening before Conference in Honour of the official opening. The conference After lunch, Stephen himself delivered Stephen Mennell itself was held in Newman House, the a plenary lecture outlining his own historic building in which John Henry intellectual development. The title, Newman House, St Stephen’s Green, Newman founded the precursor of ‘Apologia pro vita sociologica sua … Dublin, 7–8 January 2016 University College Dublin in 1854. how and why I became an Eliasian More specifically, the plenary sessions sociologist’, contained an allusion to the title of a famous book by Cardinal Newman, but he began by explaining (on the advice of a classicist colleague) that the Latin apologia does not mean ‘apology’. The text of this talk can be found on Stephen’s website (www.stephenmennell.eu).

At the end of the afternoon session, a wine reception was hosted by UCD Press, and current and past members of the Editorial Committee of the Press joined us to recognise not just the completion of the Elias Collected Works in 18 volumes, under the General Editorship of Stephen Mennell, Newman House’s Physics Theatre in its full glamour but also the founding of the Press by Stephen and Barbara Mennell in 1995. This happy and relaxed conference was were held in the famous Physics the idea of Stephen Mennell’s UCD Lecture Theatre, which features in On Friday, there were two further colleagues Steve Loyal and Tom Inglis, James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a plenary lectures. Joop Goudsblom’s and Barbara Górnicka and Katie Liston Young Man. was entitled ‘The myth of historical also played a large part in organising sociology’, they key point of which was it. Despite Stephen’s initially anxious Colin Scott, Principal [Dean] of the (as Elias himself always argued) that response (‘But who would come?’), UCD College of Social Sciences and ‘’ is not a specific about 60 of his friends turned up, from Law, welcomed participants, Tom type of sociology – any more than is as far away as Australia, the USA and Inglis reminisced mischievously about comparative sociology, as Durkheim Turkey as well as Western Europe. Stephen, and then Robert van Krieken noted – because all adequate sociology delivered the formal Laudatio – which needs to be historical and comparative. was in fact quite informal, and included The conference closed with a plenary a selection of photos illustrating lecture by Andrew Linklater, chaired by Stephen’s career from infants school Stephen himself, on ‘The “standard of onwards. (Stephen had been duped civilization” in world politics’ – a fitting

Stephen Mennell Finally at ease... (C. Wouters, S. Mennell, B. Górnicka and R. Ó Ríagáin)

12 Figurations Issue No.44 February 2016 Session 4: Matt Clement ‘The Early Elias’ Robert van Krieken ‘Rethinking the Court Society: On the linkages between aristocracy, theatre, and celebrity’ Paddy Dolan ‘Self, habitus, figurational complexity, and relative equalization’

Dieter Reicher ‘How to approach homicide-patterns with the civilizing theory?’ Ryan Powell ‘Gypsy-Travellers, Roma and Social Integration in the UK: On the Centrality of Childhood and the “We-I Balance”’ Behrouz Alikhani ‘The relationship between power and self-esteem, using the example of marriages of Bakhtiari tribes in Iran’ Symposium: Figuring Stephen Mennell and Nico Wilterdink Steven Loyal Organisations: People and Processes conclusion in view of the marked recent Daniel Klenbort ‘On Piketty’s Capital trend towards using Elias’s ideas in in the Twenty First Century, on Eliasian Business School, Dublin City understanding global affairs. Approach to a Blind Process: How University, 25 November 2015 Long-term Trends in Inequality Change Due to the popularity of the event, the Way We See the History of the Last The following speakers gave papers at simultaneous conference sessions listed Two Centuries’ this one-day seminar on the relevance below were also held: of Elias to the study of organisations: Giselinde Kuipers ‘Paces of Change: Session 1: Changing Tastes in Human Beauty and Jennifer Smith Maguire (University Florence Delmotte ‘When European the Tempi of Social Processes’ of Leicester), ‘Wine in China: making Studies Meet America: How The Irem Ӧzgӧren Kinli ‘Decivilising sense of a changing market with American Civilizing Process enlightens process theory, shifting balances of figurational sociology’ the European Integration process’ figurational sociology and Le temps du Stephen Vertigans (Robert Gordon John Stone ‘Steve Mennell on the Other loup (2003)’ University) ‘Elias in sub-Saharan Side of the Pond: Tocqueville, Elias and Barbara Górnicka ‘From Darwin to Africa: figurational ways of the Problem of Drink’ Elias: A curious case of blushing’ understanding the failures of CSR in Nico Wilterdink ‘American the oil sector Exceptionalism? The Growth of Income Session 3: John Lever and Stephen Swailes and Wealth Inequality within the USA André Oliveira Costa ‘Body and (University of Huddersfield), ‘People and Elsewhere’ Violence: Ruptures between Individual and process: at the court of talent and Society’ management’ Norman Gabriel ‘Robert Burns – the Helmut Kuzmics ‘Social Habitus, Social Paddy Dolan, (Dublin Institute of bawdy and the political’ Situations and the Role of Emotions: Technology), ‘Organisational dynamics, Christien Brinkgreve & Rineke van Comparing Elias and Collins on pedagogical expertise and care for the Daalen ‘The Diversity of Social Violence’ child in Irish primary education’ Character: Dutch Voices during Gad Yair ‘German Science – Israeli Stephen Mennell (University Wartime’ Science: The Effects of National College Dublin), ‘The constraints of Abram de Swaan ‘Civilization and Habitus on Scientific Work’ organisation’ compartmentalization in present-day Ad van Iterson (Maastricht University), Western society’ Russell Ó Ríagáin ‘Lessons from ‘The effects of liquefying place, Norbert Elias for the study of state time, and organisational boundaries Session 2: formation and colonialism on the on employee behaviour: An Eliasian Steven Loyal ‘Bourdieu’s theory of the Atlantic Arc’ approach state: an Eliasian critique’ Gëzim Visoka ‘Norbert Elias and State- John Connolly (Dublin City University, John Connolly ‘The Problem of building after Violent Conflict’ ‘Power balances and control of Generations: Revisiting Elias and Godfried van Benthem van den Bergh advertising at Guinness: a figurational Mannheim’ ‘On the Idea of a Nation’ approach’

Issue No.44 February 2016 Figurations 13 FORTHCOMING Call for papers Environmental problems are social CONFERENCES problems, and therefore a topic You are invited to submit abstracts for sociological reflection. How Changing Power Relations relating to the suggested panels can sociological conceptualisation and the Drag Effects of below. Proposals for new panels contribute to a reality‐congruent kind Habitus: with a theoretical–empirical focus of understanding and explanation Theoretical and Empirical on contemporary issues will also be of the ongoing controversies on Approaches in the Twenty- welcome. environmental issues? How do the First Century people involved as decision makers Methodological and Theoretical as well as ordinary citizens estimate 8–10 September 2016, Institute of Approaches the dangers that could arise from these Sociology at the Westphalian Wilhelms- developments? What are the long‐term University, Münster, Germany. Here the focus of attention will dynamics of these developments? be on theoretical, empirical and Orientation of the conference methodological approaches to the Social Conflicts, Immigration and study of the dynamics, directions Democratisation Sociologists study social processes that and structures of processes of unfold through space and time, but also transformation, and on how the self‐ In this panel, by looking at various through the experience of people who perceptions and self‐experiences of case studies, we will demonstrate how are caught up in those processes. Social the people involved in such processes social conflicts, tensions and wars scientific theories and explanations can be incorporated into sociological arise and develop. The question of must therefore always incorporate the theories. how people thus affected experience dimension of experience; they are, so to these developments, themselves and speak, theories in five dimensions. Work, Unemployment and Lifestyle their perceived opponents plays an important role as well. We also want The concepts of power and habitus In the past few decades, the living to deal with the issues of immigration are pivotal in understanding social and working conditions of people and integration which have increased, processes. Wherever people are have undergone enormous changes in especially in the course of economic interdependent with each other – differently structured societies. Through globalisation and emerging new whenever they have needs that only new waves of economic globalisation, technologies. transactions with others can meet technologisation and individualisation, – there are power balances or ratios, traditional ways of organising life and Global, National and Local Identities which may be stable or fluctuating, work have lost their importance. The relatively equal or unequal. The needs study of the structures and directions of In the course of economic globalisation that people have of each other range these processes, on the one hand, and in recent decades, the topic ‘identity’ from the material, through information the study of self‐experiences of people has attracted major attention in social or means of orientation, to the affected by these rapid transformations, sciences. In this session, we ask what emotional. on the other hand, will be the main kind of reality the term ‘identity’ focus of this panel. symbolically represents and how this As for habitus, people’s ‘second reality can be empirically grasped, nature’ – their cultural dispositions Education, Economy and Social on the basis of case studies from and personality traits – is shaped Inequalities differently structured societies. At the through their life experience, including level of self‐experience of the people their experience of power balances. In recent decades we have also affected, we will look at how the Habitus formation and conscience been able to observe processes of people in different societies experience formation – and transformation – are transformation in the fields of education processes of transformation in their central components of social change, and the economy, generally involving identities: for instance, what does it but they then feed back into the course new patterns of equality and inequality. mean to use concepts like ‘crisis of of the processes that formed them. This panel will deal with dynamics, identity’ or ‘European identity’? People’s habitus, formed gradually in directions and structures of these the past, may prove an impediment to processes, and with the self‐experience The deadline for submission is 25 contemporary social changes, but on the of people affected. Both dimensions March 2016. other hand may adapt well and indeed should also be considered in different facilitate change: there are leads and examples of social inequalities. To upload your short abstract, please lags and drag effects. These questions log in to the website: http://go.wwu. are central to sociological theory and Environment and Health de/53h9q to this conference: our concerns extend More conference registration details from the past to the present to possible A major problem facing all human will follow under: http://ifs.wwu.de/ futures. societies today is environmental elias deterioration and climate change.

14 Figurations Issue No.44 February 2016 Organising Committee Smith and Peter Marsden) and/or international journals. For that Prof. Dr. Stefanie Ernst, Dr. Behrouz Please check the Conference Website purpose, it expects the support of all the Alikhani, Prof. Dr. Christoph Weischer, for a full list of sessions and session colleagues in identifying journals that Dr. Damir Softic, all of the Institute of descriptions. might be interested in those dossiers. Sociology. Conference Website The will be a conference registration http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/ fee of USD 100. Participant are urged sociology/research/rc33-conference/ to seek fundinmg for their air travel Comparative, Longitudinal rc33-conference from their own institutions in their and Historical Research respective countries. Sessions at the 9th Please find further information on ISA International Conference RC33 (Research Committee on Logic For further information, email: on Social Science & Methodology of the International [email protected]. Methodology (RC33) Sociology Association) on http://www. rc33.org/ 11–16 September 2016, University of Leicester The deadline for abstract submission United Kingdom extended to 21 February 2016.

Session Topics 16TH SIPCS - International The conference will host the following Symposium on Civilising sessions on comparative, longitudinal Processes and historical research: 1. Auto/Biographical Methods 22–25 November 2016, Universidade (Goodwin and O’Connor) Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES), 2. Methodologies of sociological Vitória, Brazil discourse research (Reiner Keller) 3. Analysing qualitative longitudinal UFES is located in the coastal town couple data. A comparative perspective. of Vitória, in Espírito Santo state, in (Marie Evertsson and Daniela Grunow) the south eastern region of Brazil. 4. Researching Social Processes (Jason At the University, the Organising Hughes) Commission will benefit from the 5. Process-Oriented Micro-Macro- support of the Postgraduate Program Analysis: Mixing Methods in in Education, of the ProRectory for Longitudinal Analysis and Historical Student and Citizenship Affairs and of Sociology (Nina Baur, Eric the International Relations Secretariat. Lettkemann, Jannis Hergesell and Maria Norkus) The conference is expected to attract up 6. Social Studies of Reproduction: to 200 researchers from various fields, techniques, methods and reflexive and will include up to 40 hours of moments (Nicky Hudson et al) academic activities: plenaries, panels, 7. Effect of respondents’ age on oral communications and workshops. interviews (Susanne Vogl) 8. Contemplative methods meets For those making travel arrangements, sociological imagination. An enactive please note that the conference will perspective for sociological inquiry and begin in the evening of Tuesday 22 wise social transformation (Vincenzo November. On the subsequent three Giorgino and Krzysztof Konecki) days, main activities will start at 14.00. 9. Spatial Analysis (Nina Baur, Linda Hering, Jona Schwerer and Cornelia Book Launch: We will organise a Thierbach) multiple book launch, in which all 10. Analyzing space and spatial authors are invited to take part. externalities (Alexandra Wicht et al) 11. Monitoring Data Collection in We also highlight our interest in International Settings (Ellen Marks) mobilising joint book publications 12. Cultural response styles (Martin between national and foreign Weichbold et al) researchers to be presented at the event. 13. Maximising Equivalence in Cross- Furthermore, the coordination of the Nation/Cultural Surveys Using the event will also take measures to prepare Total Survey Error Paradigm (Tom dossiers for submission to national

Issue No.44 February 2016 Figurations 15 OBITUARY synthesise it’. Richard Kilminster CONTRIBUTIONS TO recalls that ‘Hermínio taught me in FIGURATIONS Hermínio Gomes Martins, my second and third years at Essex 1934–2015. 1968–70. He was very widely read and The next issue of Figurations will an inspiring teacher. It was Herminio be mailed in July 2016. News and who alerted me to the sociology notes should be sent by 1 June of knowledge and science and the 2016 to the Editors at figurations@ continental philosophical tradition. norberteliasfoundation.nl. I kept in touch with him thereafter and invited him to speak at Leeds Editor: Stephen Mennell a couple of times. Such a dedicated Editorial Address: School of Sociology, scholar.’ Later on, Hermínio hosted my University College Dublin, Belfield, sabbatical at St Antony’s when I was Dublin 4, Ireland. writing All Manners of Food, and on Tel. +353-1-295 0276; Fax: +353-1-716 The name of Hermínio Martins will be two subsequent occasions. Also at St 1125. familiar to many readers of Figurations Antony’s, Hermínio supervised Esteban mainly as the co-editor with Norbert Castro’s DPhil thesis (for which Joop Associate Editor: Dr Katie Liston, Elias and Richard Whitley of the Goudsblom was external examiner). School of Sports Studies, University of book Scientific Establishments and Ulster, Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Hierarchies, in which Elias’s important I remember having dinner one evening Northern Ireland BT37 0QB. Phone: essay on scientific establishments in Oxford with Elias, Hermínio, +44 28 90368539; appeared in 1982. But he was much and his wife Margaret. Still daunted Fax: +44 28 9036 6028. more than that: he was sometimes by Hermínio’s erudition, I asked referred to as the ‘hidden genius of rhetorically how he managed to read Managing Editor (Dublin): Dr Barbara. British sociology’ – ‘hidden’ because, so much. Margaret responded, ‘Well, Górnicka (UCD). Email: figurations@ like his friend Elias, he did not publish Stephen, if you started reading when norberteliasfoundation.nl prolifically when he was younger, before you got out of bed in the morning, and publishing a great deal, both in English continued reading until you went to bed Honorary Assistant Editors: Florence and in his native Portuguese, towards the at night, you would read as much as Delmotte, Brussels (French); Heike end of his life. Hermínio does’. Hammer, Stuttgart, and Tabea Dörfelt- In her excellent and more detailed Mathey, Jena (German); Tatiana Savoia Hermínio was born in Lourenço obituary in The Independent, 23 Landini, São Paulo (Spanish and Marques (now Maputo) in Mozambique. November 2015, Bridget Fowler Portuguese, Latin America). His radical political leanings made (Professor of Sociology, University of him unwilling to enrol in a South Glasgow) commented on Hermínio’s Contributions should preferably be African university, and he made his ‘extraordinary erudition and the e-mailed to the Editor in the form of way to Britain and the London School subtlety of his irony’ and noted that he MS Word (.doc or .docx), Rich Text of . He was deprived of his had a ‘marvellously sardonic eye for (.rtf), plain text (.txt) or Open Office Portuguse citizenship and was a stateless fashionable intellectual excesses, yet Text (.odt) files. Do not use embedded person until after the revolution of 1974. accompanying this was a deeply held footnotes. Hard copy is accepted After gaining his PhD, he taught at the set of secular values, stemming from reluctantly. Photographs should be universities of Leeds and Essex, before the Enlightenment’. One of my own submitted in JPEG format. moving in 1971 to the Latin American favourite examples of his sardonic wit Studies Centre at St Antony’s College, was his description of Tony Giddens, © 2016, Norbert Elias Stichting, J.J. Oxford. sometime in the 1980s, as ‘the Viottastraat 13, 1071 JM Amsterdam, He also held visiting appointments at ventriloquist of the Zeitgeist’. Netherlands. Harvard (1966–7) and the University In recent years, Hermínio’s penetrating of Pennsylvania (1967–8). It was at eye and mordant wit focused notably Graphic Design and Desktop Harvard that I met him. I attended on the ruination of our universities. Publishing: Annette van de Sluis. his seminar on ‘The nature of theory, See, for example, his essay ‘The Printed by MultiCopy, prediction and explanation in the social Marketisation of universities and some Weesperstraat 65, Amsterdam, sciences’, and we became good friends. cultural contradictions of academic Netherlands. I remember that, however friendly and knowledge-capitalism’, in Metacritica informal he was, we students found (http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index. Figurations is distributed free of charge him formidable, because he seemed php/metacritica/article/view/2747). In on request to researchers, institutes or to have read everything in at least recent years, too, he received many libraries. To be added to the mailing three languages. One of the first-year honours in the Lusophone world, list, please write to the Secretary, American PhD students commented but – needless to say – none in the Norbert Elias Stichting, J. J. Viottastraat that ‘Hermínio’s waiting for all the Anglophone world. 13, 1071 JM Amsterdam, Netherlands sociology to come in, so that he can Stephen Mennell (email: [email protected])

16 Figurations Issue No.44 February 2016