Newsletter of the Norbert Elias Foundation
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37 Newsletter of the Norbert Elias Foundation FIGURATIONS UNDER CONTENTS NEW MANAGEMENT Figurations under new management 1 Barbara Górnicka has been appointed Managing Editor of Figurations, and Human Figurations 1 the newsletter also has a brand-new email address: People 2 ¿JXUDWLRQV#QRUEHUWHOLDVIRXQGDWLRQQO From the Norbert Elias Foundation Brett Bowden wins Norbert Elias Prize 2011 3 All contributions to, and correspondence about, Figurations At last! – Elias’s Masterpiece out in the Collected Works 3 should henceforth be sent to the above DGGUHVV In the media 4 Stephen Mennell will continue as Elias’s study of shame – Tom SchefF 6 overall Editor of the newsletter, with Katie Liston as Associate Elias on the Isle of Man 7 Editor (although Katie now has Kilminster: the pronoun model 7 principal responsibility for the new online journal Human Figurations – Obituary: Willfried Spohn 1944–2012 8 KXPDQ¿JXUDWLRQV#PHFRP %DUEDUD will, however, now manage the Review essay: ‘Unconscious memories’: a case study of psychoanalytic QHZVOHWWHU concept formation – Hans-Peter Waldhoff 9 Barbara is a postgraduate student at Recent books and articles 11 University College Dublin, where (as participants in the recent conference in Bibliographical retrospect 15 Copenhagen will know), she is writing a thesis on nudism and the problem of Books received 16 QDNHGQHVV Recent conferences 17 Norbert Elias and Figurational Sociology: Prospects for the Future, The newsletter will henceforth be Copenhagen, April 2012 published in January and July each New issues in Process Sociology, Berlin, December 2011 year (instead of December and June as KLWKHUWR Forthcoming conferences 19 XIV Civilising Processes International Symposium – Brazil, November 2012 Habitus, War and Civilisation, Graz, April 2012 Issue No.37 July 2012 Figurations 1 HUMAN FIGURATIONS Issue 2 – July 2012 a long discussion of ‘Where is Norbert Elias and the Human Condition Scotland going?’ By the time you are reading this issue Godfried van Benthem van den Bergh Andrew Stebbins, who wrote RIWKHQHZVOHWWHUWKH¿UVWWZRLVVXHV The Taming of Economic Aristocracies a notable PhD thesis on ‘The of the new online journal Human Reinhard Blomert Chinese Civilising Process: FigurationsZLOOKDYHDSSHDUHG :H Politics in a World of Civilizations: Eliasian thought as an effective are resigned to the confusion that Long-Term Perspectives on Relations analytical tool for the Chinese will arise between Figurations, the Between Peoples Brett Bowden cultural context’ (see Figurations newsletter, and Human Figurations, Viewing the Development of Human 32) at Murdoch University, Perth WKHMRXUQDO 7KHMRXUQDOLVSXEOLVKHG Society from Asia Shogo Suzuki WA, has been appointed to a by MPublishing at the University Cultures of Anarchy as Figurations: post at Mount Vernon Nazarene of Minnesota, and sponsored by the 5HÀHFWLRQVRQ:HQGW(OLDVDQGWKH University in Ohio, and will be 1RUEHUW(OLDV)RXQGDWLRQ<RXFDQ¿QG English School Aurélie Lacassagne moving back from Australia to his the (and submit articles online) journal Figurational Sociology and the QDWLYH$PHULFDLQ-XO\ at: Democratic Peace: Holy Allies and On three Saturday mornings from Liberal Threats Bernd Bucher January to May, Bernard Lacroix KWWSTXRGOLEXPLFKHGXKKXP¿J About Post-National Integration in and Arnaud Skornicki (Nanterre) Norbert Elias’s Work: Towards a Socio- ran open seminars in the Marais 7KH¿UVWLVVXHSXEOLVKHGLQ-DQXDU\ Historical Approach Florence Delmotte area of Paris at under the title 2012, contains articles by distinguished 5HFRQ¿JXULQJ(OLDV+LVWRULFDO µ1RUEHUW(OLDVDXWUDYDLO¶ contributors from many disciplines, and Sociology, the English School and the Georgi Derluguian (Northwestern is by way of a manifesto for the study Challenge of International Relations University) has been hugely RIORQJWHUPSURFHVVHV7KHVHFRQG John Hobson enjoying a spell teaching in Abu issue is on the theme of Sociology and Realism and Reality Congruence: 'KDELDW1HZ<RUN8QLYHUVLW\¶V International Relations, and contains Sociology and International Relations VDWHOOLWHFDPSXVWKHUH revised versions of many of the papers Stephen Mennell Gordon Fyfe reports a University presented at the conference in Dublin of Leicester Library scheme LQ VHH)LJXUDWLRQV 7KH under which, for a small donation third issue, to appear in January 2013 PEOPLE to library funds, a chair can be LVWKH¿UVWµRSHQLVVXH¶DQGUHDGHUV Giselinde Kuipers has been GHGLFDWHGWRDQDPHGSHUVRQ of the newsletter are urged to submit appointed to a full Professorship Gordon and Chris Hughes have contributions DWWKH8QLYHUVLW\RI$PVWHUGDP,Q dedicated chairs to the memory of consequence she will be vacating Norbert Elias (see photograph) and 7KHFRQWHQWVRIWKH¿UVWWZRLVVXHVDUH the part-time Norbert Elias Chair, WR,O\D1HXVWDGW7KHUHLVQRUHDVRQ Issue 1 – January 2012 which she held at the Erasmus why multiple chairs cannot be University Rotterdam, and a new dedicated to the same person, so if Editor’s Introduction: Long-term appointment to that will be made in anyone else would like to dedicate perspectives on the human condition GXHFRXUVH a chair, they should contact the Katie Liston Stefanie Ernst has been appointed library: OLEUDU\#OHLFHVWHUDFXN Norbert Elias and the social history of Professor at the University knowledge Peter Burke of Münster, under the rubric Elias and/or Adorno – a short personal µ6RFLRORJ\:RUNDQG.QRZOHGJH¶ UHÀHFWLRQDQGSHUVSHFWLYHIURPD After a spell working as a freelance musicologist Olle Edström research consultant, John Lever Long-Term Patterns of Change in has been appointed to a post Human Interconnectedness: A View back on his old department at the from International Relations Andrew 8QLYHUVLW\RI&DUGLII Linklater On 16 May 2012, Alex Laws European body cultures and the making gave his inaugural lecture as of the modern world: zones of prestige Professor of Sociology, University and established–outsider relations of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland, Joseph Maguire on ‘The end of civilisation as we Elias in the Footsteps of Hobbes? Gary know it? Symbolic violence and Wickham and Barbara Evers WKHGHFLYLOLVLQJSURFHVV¶$OH[ Energy and Civilisation Johan reports that ‘there was a good Goudsblom turnout, … followed by a convivial Civilising Earth Peter Westbroek reception with much talk about this Book Reviews (OLDVJX\6RPHFRQWURYHUV\FRXOG have been anticipated, because Alex’s lecture concluded with 2 Figurations Issue No.37 July 2012 FROM THE NORBERT because, according to Bowden, it is The prize will be presented to Brett by ELIAS FOUNDATION in itself ‘performative’, in the sense Robert van Krieken on behalf of the of being historically ‘implicated’ in Norbert Elias Foundation at a gathering Brett Bowden wins Norbert Western triumphalism, imperialism and LQ6\GQH\ODWHULQ Elias Prize 2011 FRORQLDOLVP)RU%RZGHQDFLYLOLVLQJ process points less to long-term set [Editor’s Note: The continuing use The Norbert Elias Prize is awarded of largely blind processes involving, of the term ‘civilisation’ in the sense HYHU\WZR\HDUVIRUWKHEHVW¿UVWERRN simultaneously, interrelated process analysed in Brett Bowden’s book is by an author in sociology or closely of state formation and shifting shown in the continuing publication of FRJQDWH¿HOGV)RUWKHSUL]HIRU standards of behaviour, and more to the books with titles like Niall Ferguson’s a book published in 2009–10, the jury, ‘evolution of an idea’ that has in itself Civilization: The West and the Rest consisting of Jason Hughes, Elizabeth HQJHQGHUHGVRFLDOFKDQJH7RWKLVHQG (London: Allen Lane, 2011), Roger Bernstein and Wilbert van Vree, chose we found the book overly rationalistic Osborne’s Civilization: a New History Brett Bowden’s book The Empire in terms of its overall arguments, but of the Western World (London: Cape, of Civilization: The Evolution of an nonetheless often rich in terms of its 2006), and Jeffrey Sachs’s The Price Imperial Idea (Chicago: University of analysis – particularly in its illustration of Civilization 1HZ<RUN5DQGRP &KLFDJR3UHVV of how standards become enshrined in +RXVH 7KHPLVXQGHUVWDQGLQJ VSHFL¿FZDWFKZRUGV that arise when we try to use the word The jury’s judgment reads as follows: in the more technical sense developed Thematically pertinent and theoretically This socio-historical research into by Elias are not likely to disappear in ambitious, Brett Bowden’s The Empire the meaning and use of the concept WKHIRUHVHHDEOHIXWXUH@ of Civilization is a sweeping history of ‘civilisation’ (and related words such the present that interrogates the role of as ‘modernisation’, ‘development’, civilisational discourses in the making ‘progress’, ‘democracy’) demonstrates AT LAST! – ELIAS’S RIPRGHUQLPSHULDOVHQVLELOLWLHV that this family of words represents MASTERPIECE OUT IN THE Broad in scope and reach, the book superiority feelings of Western societies COLLECTED WORKS HQJDJHVZLWKWKH¿HOGVRI,QWHUQDWLRQDO with regard to non-western societies Relations, intellectual history, and VLQFHHDUO\PRGHUQWLPHVXQWLOWRGD\ Norbert Elias, On the Process of social and political theory to produce an Civilisation: Sociogenetic and account that is highly relevant both to This is a wide-ranging, ambitious, Psychogenetic Investigations, translated the historical and to the contemporary ZHOOZULWWHQDQGLQVLJKWIXOERRN by Edmund Jephcott; edited by SROLWLFDO¿HOG+LVGLVFXVVLRQVRI However, Bowden could have made Stephen Mennell, Eric Dunning, Johan ‘revived imperialisms’, including better use of the sociological concept Goudsblom and Richard Kilminster the post-9/11 wars on terror and new of civilisation developed