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Newsletter of the Norbert Elias Foundation

PEOPLE CONTENTS • The festschrift for Eric Dunning People 1 edited by Dominic Malcolm and Ivan Waddington, which was first published From the Norbert Elias Foundation in 2006 as a special issue of the jour- Marianne Bernard appointed Secretary to the Foundation 2 nal Sport in Society (see Figurations Joining ISA RC20 3 26), has now appeared in book form. It is entitled Matters of Sport: Essays Letters to the Editors 3 in honour of Eric Dunning (London: Elias the Poet Routledge, 2008. 193 pp. Elias the Misattributed ISBN 978-0-7146-8282-2).

Review Essays: Andrew Linklater on Stephen Mennell, The American Civilizing Process 3 Nico Wilterdink on Richard Kilminster, Norbert Elias: Post-philosophical Sociology 6 Helmut Kuzmics on Cas Wouters, Informalization and Manners and Emotions since 1890 8 Pieter Spierenburg on three books on violence 10 Eric Dunning on Mary Fulbrook (ed.) Un-Civilizing Processes 13

Recent Books and Articles 16

Bibliographical Retrospect 19 Close scrutiny of the cover photograph Recent Conferences of the University of Leicester first Civilising and Decivilising Processes: A Figurationsl Approach to eleven in 1958 reveals that Eric – dis- American Studies, Frankfurt 22–24 November 2007 20 creetly semi-concealed in the back row Symposium on Informalisation in Honour of Cas Wouters, – was the only member of the team to Amsterdam, 18 April 2008 21 forget that the photo was being taken, didn’t bring his kit, and so is seen Forthcoming Conferences wearing a borrowed shirt with his long IIS 38th World Congress of Sociology, Budapest, 26–30 June 2008 22 trousers instead of his shorts. Plus ça Self-Regulation or Self-Care, Hamburg, 3–5 July 2008 23 change … ISA Forum on Sociology, Barcelona, 5–8 September 2008 23 Friedrich Nietzsche und Norbert Elias, Berlin, 26–27 September 2008 23 • The University of Amsterdam con- ferred an honorary doctorate on Ran- Obituary dall Collins, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Stanislav Andreski, 1919–2007 24 Professor of Sociology at the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania. Randall, whom When Bram became Emeritus Professor at the end of 2006, the University gave Marianne early retirement too, and she says: ‘I was very pleased to be asked by Johan Goudsblom to work for the Elias Foundation in December 2007. Although I was familiar with the Elias Foundation, many of its activities are completely new to me.’ Marianne was born in 1946 in Amster- dam, where she lives with her second husband. They have three grown-up sons and one grandson. In the 1970s, she studied psychology at Leyden University, where she also worked as a student assistant. Then, before going to work in the University of Amsterdam, she was employed for ten years in the Abram de Swaan and Randall Collins © Bert Nienhuis, 2008 Dutch music-publishing house Done- mus, as Personal Assistant to the artistic we consider an honorary cousin in the • John Goodwin has been appointed manager. figurational family, has recently added Reader in Sociology at the University to his extraordinarily distinguished of Leicester (a hallowed title!), in the Collected Works: series of books Violence: A Micro- Centre for Labour Market Studies. See new UCD Press Website Sociological Theory (Princeton, NJ: reports about John’s work with Henri- Princeton University Press, 2008), and etta O’Connor on Elias’s Young Work- UCD Press, which on behalf of the a volume on macro-sociological theory er’s Project in Figurations 17, 21, and Foundation is publishing the Collected is to follow. The photograph shows 23, and John’s notes on how to use the Works of Norbert Elias in English, has Abram de Swaan delivering his lauda- Elias archives at the DLA Marbach in launched an entirely redesigned and tio at the ceremony on 8 January 2008. Figurations 25. upgraded website. The address remains the same – www.ucdpress.ie – but • José Esteban Castro has been it will now be much easier to order promoted to a personal chair at the books online. A hyperlink on the home Newcastle University (UK), with page takes you directly to the Col- effect from 1 August 2008. Esteban lected Works, which are now offered at has written extensively on the sociol- substantial discount if you order them ogy of Latin America and, in English, direct from the publisher. on environmental questions, especially The publication of two more volumes on water resources, drawing on Elias’s of the Collected Works – The Esta- insights to trace their connection with blished and the Outsiders (vol. 4) and power. See for instance his book Water, Quest for Excitement (vol. 7) is now Power and Citizenship (Basingstoke: imminent. And in the autumn–winter Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). the three volumes of collected essay will be published: Essays on the Socio- FROM THE NORBERT logy of Knowledge and the Sciences ELIAS FOUNDATION (vol. 14); Essays on Civilising Proces- Marianne Bernard appointed Secretary to the Foundation

The Board is delighted to welcome Marianne Bernard as the new Secre- tary of the Norbert Elias Foundation in succession to Saskia Visser. Marianne previously worked for 15 years in the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Amsterdam, the last five years as Personal Assistant to Abram de Swaan. Marianne Bernard

2 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008 ses, State Formation and National Iden- For my analysis of his poetry it would tity (vol. 15); and Essays on Sociology help me a lot to get to know more of and the Humanities (vol. 16). these private notes (in addition to those documents in the archive in Marbach) These follow upon the volumes already and I was wondering, if it would be published: Early Writings (vol. 1) and possible to post a request for letters or The Court Society (vol. 2) in 2006, and other documents concerning the poetry Involvement and Detachment (vol. 8) anyone may have in her or his posses- and An Essay on Time (vol. 9) in 2007. sion in Figurations? If they do, I should be most grateful if they would contact Other UCD Press titles include Elias’s me at the email address given below The Genesis of the Naval Profession, edited by René Moelker and Stephen Tabea Dörfelt Mennell (2007), and Stephen Mennell’s University of Jena Norbert Elias: An Introduction (1998). [email protected] Hurry to join ISA RC20! Elias the Misattributed

The Ad Hoc Group on Figurational I was amused and pleased to read in Sociology that met at the International Figurations 28 Patrick Murphy’s anec- Sociological Association World Con- dote about his copy of Sociology in the Hegemonic powers seem destined to gresses in 1994, 1998 and 2002, though Balance. decline as others acquire the means to not in 2006, has now been incorpo- challenge their dominance and erode rated as a Working Group within ISA Here is another item that you may find their influence and authority. The Research Committee 20, on Compara- worthwhile for Figurations. In the book United States will probably succumb to tive Sociology. We urge all readers who review section of NRC-Handelsblad of the same fate as all earlier great powers, are not already members of the ISA to Friday, 21 December 2007, a reviewer but the character of its civilising proc- join it, and RC20, as soon as possible. referred to ‘what the sociologist Elias ess will have special significance as Subscriptions are modest, and last for called “a sunken element of culture”’. long as it retains the ability to affect four years – so if you join now, it will This demonstrates that in the Nether- the fate of large numbers of the human ensure that you are on board for the lands Norbert has reached the hall of race in at least these three ways – by next World Congress, in Göteborg, fame where other people’s ideas are directly shaping global political and Sweden, in 2010. If you are a member attributed to you – in accordance with economic structures, by attempting to of the ISA but not of RC20, you use the the Matthew principle as formulated by influence internal politics elsewhere, same online form to pay €25 to add Max Weber. and by providing a model of social membership of that research committee and political development which many to your existing membership. The form Unfortunately I don’t know the stand- wish to emulate in their regions of the can be found at www.isa-sociology.org ard English translation for the German world. America’s capacity to shape Note: The more members we recruit to concept of ‘gesunkenes Kulturgut’. ‘long-term processes affecting human- RC20 and our own affiliated Working The term was used extensively by Hans ity as a whole’ may prove to be just as Group, the more sessions we can claim Naumann in Grundzüge der deutschen important during its almost inevitable at Göteborg. Volkskunde (1922), and by many others, period of economic, political and mili- including Nazi folklorists. I am not tary decline. Rejections of authority, sure whether Naumann coined the term the reduction of influence along with LETTERS TO THE EDITORS or took it over from some other writer demands to share power and decision- (maybe Alfred Vierkandt?). making present the strong with the Elias the Poet challenge of adapting to what they are Joop Goudsblom almost certain to regard as unsettling, Maybe you remember that I gave a Amsterdam even disturbing, power reconfigura- paper on the poems of Elias in the tions. How the United States will cope workshop ‘Norbert Elias – Menschen- with this likely transition, and how wissenschaftler’ in Marbach in Sep- REVIEW ESSAYS it will exercise its power during the tember 2007 (see Figurations 28 –ed.). remaining period of its hegemony, When I talked to all the people from the Andrew Linklater reviews make it all the more essential to under- Foundation I recognised, in a way that I Stephen Mennell stand the nature of its civilising process. had not before, that Elias had been talk- ing a lot about his poetry to his friends Stephen Mennell, The American Civi- The purpose of this book is to ascertain and other people. He seems to even lizing Process (Cambridge: Polity Press, what the American civilising process have sent some poems around in letters 2007), pp. xii + 388. ISBN: 978-07456- shares with its European precursor and or talked about writing poems in them. 3208-7 (hb); 978-07456-3209-4 (pb). to explain what sets it apart. As Men-

Issue No.29 June 2008 Figurations 3 nell states, his book is organised along gerated. Increasing levels of intercon- One of the strengths of this work is its roughly the same lines as Elias’s study nectedness in American history have focus on the interplay between ‘internal’ of the process of civilisation. Popular created similar tensions and conflicts and ‘external’ factors in the making of meanings of ‘civilisation’ are consid- to those in Europe. Individuals and the American civilising process, and ered in the opening two chapters. Four groups have displayed familiar patterns its significance for large sections of chapters follow on the development of of resentment as they have been forced humanity. (‘External’ factors include manners, ‘American aristocracies’, atti- to live together but, as elsewhere, the the aspiration to establish regional tudes to violence, and market society. formation of centralised structures and hegemony as expressed in the Monroe State-formation, territorial expansion institutions has proved fundamental in Doctrine, protestations of ‘manifest des- and internal integration are the subject the long run. The compulsions of inter- tiny’, Cold War rivalries and the current of chapters seven to nine. The last three dependence have fuelled logics of social phase of unipolarity). In this context, chapters deal respectively with social conformity. In the case of manners, the two interconnected themes are central inequalities, religiosity and with Ameri- United States has sometimes run ahead, to the remainder of this essay: first, the ca’s place in the world. Considerable and sometimes lagged behind, develop- relationship between civilising processes light is cast throughout the discussion ments in Europe. The long-term trend and international politics and, second, on central themes in Elias’s own writ- has witnessed the overall decline of the importance of normative interna- ings as well as on the distinctive pat- crime rates although levels of ‘expres- tional theory for reflections on the global terns of the civilising process in the sive or impulsive homicide’ are greater responsibilities of hegemonic powers. United States. The volume as a whole in several parts of the United States than is guaranteed to be ‘model setting’ in in most areas of Europe. Readers will recollect Elias’s remarks its own right. All future studies of civi- – advanced in the course of comment- lising processes, which will hopefully Following Elias’s reflections on inter- ing on the peculiar course of German include analyses of such dynamics in connectedness, functional democrati- history – that Sociology had yet to rec- rising powers such as China, India, sation and the widening of the scope ognise that social and political devel- Brazil and so forth in the emerging of emotional identification, Mennell opments within states could not be post-Western international system, can focuses on the high level of social understood without taking account of derive their bearings from this volume. inequality in the United States and on the whole course of their international relatively low levels of sympathy for relations. The clear implication is that It is impossible to summarise a work of the underprivileged. Great emphasis one cannot comprehend a civilising such impressive scope, insight and eru- is placed on the opposite of the trend process as a wholly endogenous phe- dition in this short overview. Specialists towards functional democratisation nomenon, or think in terms of how it are certain to take issue with specific which Elias observed in Europe. The US has affected foreign policy as a domain features of the argument – which is demonstrates a clear tendency towards apart. ‘National’ civilising processes inevitable in a book that ranges so ‘functional de-democratisation and its always bear the imprint of the his- widely. Feminists, in particular, may effects’ which include widespread per- tory of critical relations with the rest ask if more might have been said about ceptions of an undeserving poor, largely of the world. Such remarks stress the gender and about constructions of mas- responsible for its own plight but con- importance of integrating ‘domestic’ culinity specifically. veniently hidden from view. and ‘international’ phenomena in order to understand: a) the distinctive nature Turning to the central argument, a That part of the discussion links of civilising processes within specific crucial theme is the absence of an developments in the United States nation-states; b) the influence of the American equivalent to Europe’s court with certain global trends. The main dominant ‘national’ civilising proc- society that could foster ‘we feeling’ in ‘emancipation struggles’ of the twen- esses for domestic developments within the face of enormous regional contrasts tieth century must be viewed against a other societies; and c) the impact of and economic inequalities. Strong sup- background of power balances that are ‘national’ civilising processes on what port is offered for Spierenburg’s thesis reaching their end in some cases, not there is in the way of a global civilis- that ‘democracy came to America too least with respect to class inequalities. ing process. One has to focus on all early’. State monopoly powers were In a society in which the accumula- three developments for the purpose of first established in much of Europe, and tion of capital has high value, domestic analysing any nation-state, but it is all only later democratised. In the United inequalities have mattered less than in the more necessary to proceed in this States, centralised powers were not many European societies. The result is way when analysing great powers that firmly embedded prior to the logic of not merely social distance between the are ‘model setting’ either because of democratisation. High levels of violent established and outsiders in the United deliberate efforts to export their beliefs harm particularly in the South and West States. Similar disparities of power and practices or simply as a result of are traced to this specific trajectory of and wealth between the US and other patterns of emulation that form part political development. societies have not made it easy for of the weaker powers’ strategies of large sections of the American public to advancement. Mennell argues that the differences understand different cultures or indeed between the European and American to see themselves as distant strangers For such reasons, hegemonic powers civilising processes should not be exag- often see them. are critically placed with respect to

4 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008 advances in human interconnected- face of sharp regional diversities and are drawn from studies of ethics and ness. The hegemon integrates large growing economic inequalities. Such foreign policy along with analyses of numbers of people not only within its trajectories have shaped the internal alternative principles of world politi- own national territory but through the contradictions which Elias regarded as cal organisation that have been central array of alliances and relationships that integral to every civilising process. concerns of students of international bring other societies within its sphere of relations. In particular, it is important influence. (One might add that the devel- The American civilising process raises to stress that great powers have an opment of human interconnectedness large issues about how the US has used unmatched ability to use their resources provides a central key to explaining how its global power and should use it in not just to secure their own interests but ‘domestic’ and international’ phenomena future – and not least because, as Men- to ensure that the international system are linked). To stress a theme that has nell maintains, similar developmental is more responsive to the claims of the been discussed at length in the writings tendencies to those that Elias identified ‘have nots’ and also sensitive to the of the International Relations scholar, in Europe are probable at the level of interests of emerging great powers that David Campbell, the conduct of foreign humanity as a whole, assuming that may well develop commitments to chal- policy can have a crucial impact on some unforeseen global catastrophe lenging and changing the current global national identity and collective purposes. does not propel the human race on a political and economic order. Beyond that, the hegemon’s foreign radically different course. Those ten- policy has the greatest ability to shape dencies include the predictable impact One must not lose sight of the ambi- the principles that govern lengthening that increased social interconnectedness guities of the great powers: they alone webs of interconnectedness and to influ- has had on perceptions of the need for have the ability to persuade, cajole, ence the conditions that affect ‘humanity international institutions that may yet bribe or force others to think beyond as a whole’. Of special importance is the exercise greater control over hitherto their immediate interests, and they, in way in which it constructs significant unregulated processes. Although he association with progressive forces in ‘insider–outsider dualisms’. As Elias emphasises that his commitments have global civil society, can provide leader- maintained in the course of comparing less to do with ‘moralising than with ship in widening ‘the scope of emo- Germany and Britain, such dualisms can explaining’, Mennell does not conceal tional identification’. But they may also take many different forms. Some may robust social-democratic views about have little incentive to pursue what the be highly particularistic and antagonistic US society and American military and international relations scholar Hedley towards outsiders, while others are more political power; nor does he concur Bull called ‘purposes beyond them- universalistic in orientation and more with the more optimistic beliefs that selves’ that include the high levels of open to cooperation and compromise. can be found in Elias’s comments in self-restraint and foresight that will be Mennell’s discussion of unique features The Symbol Theory about the ‘late bar- required for managing the next phase of America’s rise to power addresses barians’. of ‘human integration’. The central those concerns. Unlike the European The greater pessimism of Mennell’s moral issue is what it would mean for states, the US did not run up against argument follows from the discussion the US to be a ‘good international citi- similarly powerful states in the initial of ‘functional de-democratisation’ in zen’ or a ‘great responsible’ in the face phases of its expansion, but enjoyed American society, from the extent to of the global dangers (military–political, unusual opportunities for ‘frontier which US power is unbalanced glo- economic and environmental) that are decivilising processes’. Once national bally and from a lack of ‘detachment’ by-products of unprecedented levels of territory had been consolidated, a from immediate concerns that per- global interconnectedness. One must broadly similar trajectory shaped the vades American (but clearly not only also ask whether Mennell’s discontent US experience of the wider world. American) society. There are sound – or exasperation – with US power is Citing Stiglitz on ‘market fundamental- ‘figurational’ reasons for leaving mat- symptomatic of a new phase in the civi- ism’, Mennell stresses that asymmetries ters there. Elias advocated non-partisan lising process in which there are higher of power have been linked with ram- sociological inquiry rather than the expectations than ever before of hegem- pant lack of interest in the ‘wider ethi- forms of engaged scholarship associ- onic powers, specifically in the area of cal considerations regarding the conse- ated with for example members of foreign policy. Those expectations may quences of … actions’, whether their the Frankfurt School. But Mennell’s yet exert influence on the future course authors are individuals, governments social-democratic tendencies, just like of international relations, but they can or business corporations. This is per- Elias’s humanism, raise large ethical just as easily lead to widespread dissat- haps most evident in successive policy questions about how hegemonic powers isfaction with the gulf between norma- stances on global environmental degra- should exercise their influence, given tive possibilities and political realities. dation that have displayed little concern their unusual – but limited – ability to How will the hegemon use its power and for ‘externalities’. A relatively weak influence the political structures that influence in future to influence the next sense of the ‘public interest’ can explain respond to the challenges of increasing phase of human integration? That is not the unusual influence of sectional eco- global interconnectedness. the least of the reasons for understanding nomic interests on foreign policy, and the American civilising process. yet this is combined with the symbols Pursuing those normative issues may be of patriotism that secure ‘we feeling’ a task for a ‘critical’ branch of process Andrew Linklater and ‘collective self-satisfaction’ in the sociology that incorporates ideas that Aberystwyth University

Issue No.29 June 2008 Figurations 5 Nico Wilterdink reviews of Elias’s thinking, Kilminster makes a wider social transformations, notably Richard Kilminster fruitful use of recent studies of parts of the political turmoil of the time and the Elias’s biography – including his partic- wave of informalisation that Elias later Richard Kilminster, Norbert Elias: ipation in the Zionist youth movement observed for this period. Post-philosophical Sociology (London: – and of the cultural and political life Routledge, 2007). 209 pp. ISBN: in the Weimar Republic in general. As The more direct influence came from 978-0-415-43706-6. (Also published as a student in philosophy, Elias absorbed Karl Mannheim, the sociologist with an e-book: 978-0-203-93930-7). what was then the dominant mode of whom Elias had a long relationship of theorising in the German university personal friendship and whose assistant Richard Kilminster’s Norbert Elias establishment: neo-Kantianism, with its he was in Frankfurt in 1930–1933. In is the third book in English, after the focus on epistemological questions of a separate, extensive chapter on their introductions by Stephen Mennell truth and validity and basic categories relationship, Kilminster shows the (1989; new edn 1998) and Robert van of knowledge and thought. This was the many similarities between Mannhe- Krieken (1998) that not only deals with philosophy Elias came to oppose, and im’s writings from the 1920s to 1940s the whole range of Elias’s work but also which he continued to attack during the and Elias’s later work. While Elias has the same, sober and simple main rest of his life. In his opposition he was made the transition from philosophy title. What makes this new book distinct not alone. Neo-Kantianism itself moved to sociology independently from Man- from the other two? in the direction of a more historical and nheim, the latter helped him to articu- ‘relational’ approach, particularly in the late ideas that supported this move. The shortest answer can be found in its work of Ernst Cassirer. Besides, there Mannheim’s sociology of knowledge, subtitle, post-philosophical sociology, was a sharp revolt against neo-Kan- with its insistence on the Seinsgebun- which summarises the book’s central tianism among younger philosophers denheit or social embeddedness of all proposition. Elias’s sociology is post- such as Edmund Husserl and Martin knowledge, fell with Elias on fertile philosophical, argues Kilminster, in Heidegger, who substituted ontology ground. It represented a definite break that it deals with problems commonly for epistemology and pointed out that with traditional epistemology, which defined as philosophical and is at the the world of lived experience was very Elias carried further in his later work. same time a radically new way of different from the Kantian categories Kilminster notes that, apart from an approaching these problems by break- of the mind. Kilminster speculates that enthusiastic commentary in 1929, Elias ing with philosophy itself. ‘For Elias, these philosophers must have made a never acknowledged his indebtedness philosophy was part of the problem, not strong impression on the young Elias, to Mannheim. On the contrary, in his part of the solution’ (p. 13, italics in the helping him to develop a more infor- autobiographical Reflections on a Life original). The solution was sought in mal and less abstract style of writing (1994) he ‘distances himself errone- ‘the abandonment of philosophy alto- and reasoning. From a very different ously from what he sees as Mannheim’s gether’ (ibid.) and its replacement by perspective, Marxists also gave priority total relativism’ (p. 49). One may add empirical sociology. the ‘real world’, and they too brought that Elias had already implicitly done Elias nearer to sociology. This broad so in his essay ‘Sociology of Knowl- By accentuating Elias’s anti-philosophi- intellectual movement in the Weimar edge: New Perspectives’ (1971) where cal stance as the basis and core of his years, Kilminster argues, was related to he attacked ‘philosophical absolutism’ work, Kilminster gives a new twist to and ‘sociological relativism’ as the two the thesis he advanced in his earlier polar and equally biased approaches book The Sociological Revolution that dominated the study of knowledge. (1998): there he argued that sociol- Kilminster is undoubtedly right in ogy in general, beginning with Comte, pointing out that Mannheim should not Marx and Spencer and continuing with be simply put in the camp of ‘socio- Weber and Durkheim, signified a break logical relativism’. Yet I also think that with philosophy. This thesis implies there are many formulations in Man- that Elias did not initiate this ‘revolu- nheim’s work that come close to this tion’, but continued and perhaps radi- ‘caricature’ (p. 46), and that Elias in calised a tradition that had been formed his sociology of knowledge came to a in the nineteenth century. very different position by focusing on the question how to explain progress However, as Kilminster shows in this of human knowledge as part of a long- new book, the transition from philoso- term social trend. phy to sociology was for Elias also a personal conquest, a deeply felt, hard- Another important influence on Elias won conviction, which in turn can be in the 1930s is of course that of Freud, understood in the context of intellectual as becomes apparent in The Civilis- and social transformations in Germany ing Process, where Elias ‘profoundly after the First World War. In illuminat- sociologises Freud’ (p. 90). In discuss- ing what may be called the sociogenesis ing the wider human, moral, perhaps

6 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008 even philosophical significance of The Here Kilminster stresses again how ism’s advocacy of ‘anything goes’ and Civilising Process, Kilminster sees in Elias develops a radically post-philo- its relativistic interpretation of scientific this work a ‘retrieval’ of our forgot- sophical sociology, taking distance knowledge as just a narrative among ten past that corresponds to the hidden not only from the philosophy of phi- others deserve our warm support? part of our individual selves; the his- losophers but also from philosophical Anyone inspired by Elias’s sociology torical past is within each of us. The elements in the work of sociologists will deny this. book’s implicit message is therefore like Weber. Yet we may wonder if a rejection of hodiecentric feelings of Elias solved all the problems posed by Elias’s emphasis on a high degree of superiority: ‘In Elias’s deeply historical Weber and other methodologists. As detachment as essential to any mature conception of human society there is a Kilminster points out, the involvement– science, and his observation that the profound sense that people in the past detachment continuum is not one clear social sciences are lagging far behind (for example, medieval warrior knights) dimension in which more detachment the natural sciences because they are can be salvaged from present ideologi- and better science always go hand in still in a stage of high involvement, cal devaluations and condemnations of hand. Science requires ‘involvement’ of may indeed be seen as somewhat time- their existence and behaviour, informed a specific kind, which Elias came to call bound. But rather than connecting his by present standards of conduct’ (p. ‘secondary involvement’ and Kilmin- view to an earlier stage in the civilising 98). I agree. Yet it is noteworthy that ster terms ‘involved detachment’. What process (Elias’s intellectual style is, the criticism that The Civilising Proc- exactly makes this kind of involved after all, informal rather than formalis- ess has evoked since the 1980s among detachment different from the ‘involved tic, and bears the stamp of informalisa- social scientists and particularly anthro- involvement’ of, for example, magi- tion processes that took shape from the pologists (from Anton Blok to Jack cians or religious believers? And what 1920s onwards, as Kilminster suggested Goody and Hans-Peter Duerr) goes in a is the place of moral evaluations within in an earlier chapter), a simpler and very different, even opposite direction: the sciences if these are not ‘value- more plausible interpretation is, I think, namely that the theory reveals a naïve, free’? Are such evaluations by defini- to connect it to the dramatic events unwarranted belief in progress and an tion ‘heteronomous’? More generally, and changes in Germany in the period ethnocentric bias in favour of our own, are the boundaries between ‘autono- of and between the two world wars, present-day Western society. Kilminster mous’ and ‘heteronomous’ evaluations when most social scientists were driven does not even hint to this kind of criti- not always contestable, contested, and into partisanship. The subsequent Cold cism, which could have given his own changing over time? War and the opposition movements of interpretation more sharpness. the 1960s probably confirmed Elias’s Kilminster suggests such a change in idea that the social sciences still had to In the next chapter Kilminster returns arguing that Elias’s strong emphasis on emancipate from political and ideologi- to fundamental problems of knowl- detachment as a precondition for scien- cal group alignments. This lesson is edge formation in his discussion of tific progress reflects a stage in the civi- still relevant today, but younger genera- Elias’s conceptual pair ‘involvement lising process in which a strong super- tions have indeed different experiences. and detachment’. With these twin con- ego suppresses forbidden emotions. In As political and ideological contrasts cepts Elias purported to overcome the a later stage, the control of emotions diminished, the pull of party alliance philosophical, Kantian dichotomies of becomes more ego-dominated; emo- and emotional engagement became subject versus object and facts versus tions are recognised rather than for- weaker. For many social scientists values, and to revise Weber’s prescrip- bidden or denied, and allowed to be today the more pressing problem is tion of scientific value-freedom based expressed in controlled and socially perhaps to find emotionally satisfying on these dichotomies. Elias replaces acceptable ways. This informalisation, meaning and engagement in their pro- them by a dynamic sociological view Kilminster suggests, is reflected in fessional work. The recurring dilemmas in which groups of people vary in the today’s social sciences, which tend to for social scientists to which the con- degree to which their perception of the be methodologically less rigid, more cepts of involvement and detachment world is ‘involved’ (emotion-laden, flexible, more tolerant toward ‘lay’ refer take different forms in different subject-centred) or ‘detached’ (emo- knowledge such as ‘literary knowledge, times. tionally controlled, object-centred). folk knowledge, … gay, lesbian and The long-term trend from involve- ethnic knowledges, concern with moral- Kilminster devotes the last chapter ment to detachment, as can be seen ity and so on …’ (p. 128). before the conclusion to Elias’s last in particular in people’s perception of theoretical essay, The Symbol Theory, ‘nature’, is part of and conditioned by This interesting thesis raises a number which the author completed in its first wider civilising processes. Elias views of questions. The first question is, of draft when he was ninety-one years the emergence of relatively autono- course, whether such an overall trend old. Richard Kilminster was the editor mous scientific fields as a late stage in in the social sciences really can be of the book, which was published a this development. Within these fields observed – which Kilminster himself year after Elias’s death in 1990. The ‘autonomous’ evaluations (rather than seems to doubt. A second question is Symbol Theory is presented here as a non-evaluative or value-neutral obser- whether this development – if and to grand finale in which different motives vations) increasingly take the place of the extent that it takes place – is desir- come together, now placed in the broad ‘heteronomous’ ones. able. Did, for example, postmodern- framework of evolutionary theory.

Issue No.29 June 2008 Figurations 7 In this essay, Elias again attacks the unique and exclusive is Elias’s sociol- Anyone who is seriously interested in conception of reality in static dichoto- ogy? And how should it be used – in Elias’s sociology should read this book. mies, such as body/mind, matter/spirit, an exclusivist or a more eclectic way? nature/culture. ‘Mind’, ‘spirit’, ‘cul- Kilminster goes far in the direction Nico Wilterdink ture’ refer to emergent properties that of exclusivism. Following Elias, he University of Amsterdam gradually evolved in the process of remarks at the end of the book, means hominisation, the evolution from apes that we have to ‘unlearn much of our to humans, which included the emer- sociological education. … We have to Helmut Kuzmics reviews gence of the uniquely human capacity move beyond conventional sociological Cas Wouters for creating, learning, using and under- dualisms; abandon philosophy, Marx- standing symbols. The symbols, while ism, the leading concept of “moder- Cas Wouters, Informalization, Man- at the core of a new level of reality nity”, critical theory and the fashion- ners and Emotions since 1890 (London: (the human sociocultural world), are able “social theory”.’ (p. 152). ‘Whole Sage, 2007). xii + 274 pp. ISBN 978 1 not simply ‘immaterial’: they are ‘also disciplines are to abandoned, or at least 4129 3575 3 (hb); 978 1 4129 4718 (pb). tangible sound patterns of human com- placed at arm’s length. Political and munication’ (p. 140). In this way, Elias moral values are to be suspended in For a long time – indeed since the late moves ‘beyond the traditional alterna- favour of a significant transfer (through 1970s – the concept of ‘informalisation’ tives of idealism or materialism (even secondary involvement) of a person’s has been inseparably linked to the name though his work possesses an affinity affective motivation and life meaning and person of Cas Wouters. From an with materialism generally)’. He ‘over- into the mission of developing, against appendix to this volume (a twin to Sex comes the traditional nature/culture enormous odds, highly detached socio- and Manners: Female Emancipation in and structure/culture dualisms … by logical knowledge of the social dynam- the West 1890–2000 published in 2004), dipping them into the stream of conti- ics that thwart people’s plans like forces we learn in more detail how this label nuity from the evolution of the human of nature’ (p. 153). came to be formed. It emerged from the species through to the development of interaction between Norbert Elias and human societies as a level of integration This sounds quite heroic, and accords Cas Wouters, with the former conced- sui generis’ (p. 141). Kilminster points well with Elias’s own life and work. ing only reluctantly that the loosening out that Elias’s argument is similar to But in making use of Elias’s insights, of affective controls, all too visible in and draws upon the ‘modern synthe- we cannot, need not, and should not the post-war Euro-American world, sis’ in evolutionary theory represented become like Elias. My position differs could be more than a short backlash by Julian Huxley, among others. He somewhat from Kilminster’s exclusiv- in the civilising process. But while it could have added a reference to George ism. I regard the Eliasian, figurational, seems that Elias was convinced that this Herbert Mead, who in Mind, Self and or processual perspective as sociology development also meant a real – though Society also stressed the importance at its potential best: a perspective which possibly short-lived – decrease in self- of symbol use (‘vocal gestures’) for contains basic sociological insights that control or self-restraint, Wouters recounts humans and placed its emergence in an have been formulated in different ways here (p. 10) that as early as 1976 he evolutionary framework. by different authors, and are open to thought the opposite was correct: ‘Less correction and refinement. The figura- formally regulated manners placing In the concluding chapter Kilminster tional perspective has, above all, a criti- greater demands on self-regulation.’ remarks that ‘Norbert Elias may be cal function in my view; it may indeed seen to have delivered the fourth blow ‘act as the conscience of the discipline’, to human narcissism, beyond Coperni- as Kilminster puts it in the last sentence. cus, Darwin and Freud – the sociologi- This does not mean that one should cal blow’ (p. 154; italics in the origi- reject or abandon ‘whole disciplines’, nal), which consists in the basic insight not even philosophy. Rather than isolat- that human individuals are part of and ing itself from other disciplines or other dependent on social figurations that sociological perspectives, figurational none of them can control. Kilminster’s sociology should stay in an open relation formulation expresses some hesitation to them, criticising and correcting mis- (‘may be seen to have delivered …’), conceived ideas, selectively incorporat- which is understandable. The ‘fourth ing useful insights. blow’ can be and has been attributed to Despite my reservations, I think Rich- sociology in general, just like the break ard Kilmister has written an excellent with philosophy. Elias shares his basic book. It is well written and well argued, insight with many others before or after and based on impressive scholarship. him, though we could perhaps say that While being relatively silent on, in he is more explicit, radical and consist- particular, the empirical side of Elias’s ent in his critique of the illusions of work and several specific topics, it individual autonomy than anyone else. uncovers layers in his work that were This leads to a final question: How hidden and unexplored until now.

8 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008 With this book, therefore, we face the seen as a mere extension of ‘repres- simplifying appearance. But the book’s controversial core of the theory of the sive’ affective controls (my choice of language is much more subtle, and civilising process, namely its applica- the term, not Cas Wouters’s), but also with its solid base in huge masses of tion to the ‘modernity’ of the twenti- its plausible continuation if seen as the empirical evidence, the often very dif- eth century, developed by one of its indispensable ‘de-controlling of emo- ferent shape of national developments most authentic authors. It is the result tional controls’ that demands greater is given its due weight. English privacy of decades of empirical research and flexibility and power to take decisions and reserve, German militarism, love theoretical reflexion. The evidence col- in more evenly balanced and open situ- for ständische titles and prerogatives, lected here consists of numerous books ations. The focus is largely on situa- but also the German praise of ‘friend- on manners and advice-literature in tions of face-to-face interaction, as this ship’, constitute quite different forms four Western state-societies (all speak- is the world manners-books are written of habitus, particularly at the beginning ing variants of a Western Germanic for. And although many forms of affec- of the period under scrutiny, when the language – Dutch, German, English tive expression become less regulated Netherlands were also quite far away and US-American), written and read and thus more permissive, there is one from the liberal and relaxed standards between 1890 and 2000. The focus marked exception: everywhere, feelings we have learnt to see as their true is on the most significant changes in of superiority have to be suppressed essence. Indeed, the Dutch bounda- standards of behaviour and self-regula- and are tabooed. ries of class were marked surprisingly tion as they are caused by the shifts clearly and language about them used of power-balance and authority-struc- Cas Wouters develops his argument in to be rather unrestrained, much in con- tures between the classes and as they several steps. He starts with some gen- trast to England and the USA, where are refracted in different variants of eral considerations about the explana- the tabooisation of differences between national habitus. It is less on the rela- tory role of manners for societies that classes was developed quite early: in tionship between the sexes, since this are guided by ‘etiquette’ rather than by England as part of a more generalised was already the topic of this volume’s ‘courtesy’, and where the bourgeoisie gentlemen’s code, which stressed ritual predecessor. has come to replace a courtly aristoc- modesty, and in the USA as a result of a racy. ‘Social mixing’ creates deep- remarkable degree of status insecurity, The central message of the book is: seated social anxieties. Everywhere, caused by massive social competition, (1) The surprising homogeneity of social distance between the classes lack of a centralised ‘good society’ and ‘functional democratisation’, a develop- diminishes and inhibits the expression superficial imitation of English models. mental path that reigns over the whole of superiority. Simultaneously, there At the beginning of the twentieth century and tends to harmonise the is a rise in ‘constraints to be uncon- century, no-one would have guessed conditions in the four – at the start very strained, at ease and natural’. A whole that a century later, the world would diverse – societies under scrutiny to an chapter, though, is dedicated to the dif- become ‘Americanised’ on the massive astonishing degree; ferences of national structures of strati- scale with which we all are familiar. (2) The overall direction of this process fication and forms of ‘habitus’, par- Although the path towards informali- consisting in ‘informalisation’ and a ticularly as they show in introductions, sation has been followed in all four habitus of ‘third nature’ (following sim- definitions of ‘friendship’, and ways countries, with standardising effect, ilar thoughts formulated by Hans-Peter of addressing superiors and inferiors. many examples – some of them funny Waldhoff in 1997) that means a shift Then, Wouters turns to the ‘Spiral Proc- – also show its peculiarities: English from a more authoritarian, ‘second- ess of Informalisation’, the ‘Expressive privacy has been subjected to efforts to nature’ type of automatised, super-ego Revolution’ of the 1960s and the refor- overcome it by the strange method of directed forms of affective controls to malisation of the 1980s and 1990s. The gate-crashing (seeking the hole in the a more ego-directed, reflexive way of book closes with the linkage between fence that guarded closed festivities); self-monitoring; social and psychic processes and with Germans developed a frenzy for camp- (3) This process, furthermore, appears the question: ‘Towards a controlled ing and nudism; the Americans were in the form of two major informalis- decontrolling of superiority and infe- the first to call their superiors by their ing thrusts, the 1920s and the 1960s, riority feelings?’, answering it with a Christian names; and the Dutch showed but it is also interrupted – or given a cautious ‘yes’, in spite of the massive creativity in their transition from a special shape – by processes of refor- strengthening of tendencies to social highly moralising, patrician and mer- malisation, in the 1930s (here with a closure, an aggressive market ideol- cantile bourgeois society to a particu- greater variance of national swings of ogy and accompanying fears, insecu- larly relaxed and negotiated informal the pendulum) and in the 1980s and rity and the rebirth of more one-sided approach towards authority. 1990s. And this process – which seems dependencies, making many people in to become global and extends also to these four societies more powerless: the Wouters is also aware of the limited the uneven relationship between the equalising tendencies shift to the global character of the integration of ‘stran- hegemonial and more backward parts society as a whole, since on this level, gers’ and oppressed racial/ethnic ‘out- of the globe – means that (4) There the process of growing integration and siders’, since it is particularly through is simultaneously a break with the reciprocal dependency is kept alive. the medium of manners books that direction of the Eliasian notion of the As I give this sketch of Cas Wouters’s we can see in the neglect of rules for occidental civilising process if it is overall argument, I become aware of its addressing and introducing members of

Issue No.29 June 2008 Figurations 9 these groups their low degree of ‘real’ the whole ambitious project even more or the civilising process at all, and integration. aspirational and possibly doomed to one of them – John Carter Wood – is fail. We should rather be glad that we largely sympathetic. Thus, the burden This book has many merits. It is writ- now have an empirically based analy- of the attack rests on the shoulders of ten in a clear, unequivocal language, sis by the one and original author who Carroll himself and Michel Nassiet. abounds with detail and replaces many contributed, through three decades, One of their major points concerns the highly normative statements about more than any other to the description persistence of feuding in France until the alienating state of contemporary, and explanation of ‘informalisation’. the eve of Louis XIV’s reign. That is, a capitalist, mass-consumption-oriented Its strange and enigmatic character has number of aristocratic conflicts can be bureaucracy – in the tradition of the been partly unveiled here. What else observed, sometimes involving revenge Frankfurt school, examples being the can we justifiably expect? and at other times leading to a duel. approaches of Lasch and Hochschild Carroll and Nassiet have not attempted – through balanced accounts that avoid Helmut Kuzmics to quantify these conflicts, but they bipolar predicates of ‘authentic’ and University of Graz seem to have been numerous, espe- ‘alienated’. He has succeeded in giving cially in the unsettled times of the wars a nuanced, subtle and theoretically of religion and in some unruly regions informed analysis of the sometimes Pieter Spierenburg reviews up to the years of the Fronde. Need- quite chaotic civilising processes of the three books on violence less to say, nothing of this would have last century. I have but few suggestions surprised Elias. France around 1600, for further discussion. The first refers to Stuart Carroll (ed.), Cultures of Vio- moreover, was no longer like the feud- the explanatory character of manners: lence: Interpersonal Violence in Histor- ridden Middle Ages and Claude Gau- How central are they not as indicators ical Perspective (Basingstoke: Palgrave vard, hardly an admirer of Elias, posits of the shift between the power-balances Macmillan, 2007). a relative decline of feuding in France between classes and other groups, but from as early as the late fourteenth cen- as causal agents for the modelling of Helmut Thome and Chris- tury onwards. affective households themselves? The toph Birkel, Sozialer Wandel und case is clear for court societies, but Gewaltkriminalität : Deutschland, Eng- Carroll’s other criticisms of the theory what is the answer for a social world land und Schweden in Vergleich, 1950 of civilisation remain vague and regulated by money, occupation and bis 2000. (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für unconvincing, based on the usual mis- commodities? Cas Wouters is aware of Sozialwissenschaften, 2007). understandings and dubious claims. the discontinuist position (he refers to He states, for example, that the work Elias’s formulation of it). I think that Katherine D.Watson (ed.), Assaulting of Elias and the scholars inspired by the case is not yet closed. the Past: Violence and Civilization in him is characterised by ‘simplistic Historical Context. Newcastle: Cam- approaches to the relationship between Another point is the range of affective bridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. agency and structure’ (p. 16). Most and emotional experience that goes readers of Figurations will probably hand in hand with informalisation, Among historians as well as sociolo- share my conviction that there is no use which his material-based interpretation gists, violence is a booming subject. In at all for this pair of concepts in the first is forced to omit. I think that the huge 2005 there were two historical confer- place. For the rest, readers of Carroll’s interest that met Elias’s The Civilising ences in England alone, resulting in the introduction can judge for themselves. Process in the 1970s also had much two collective volumes under review. To be sure, the Watson volume also to do with the dangerous, persuasive Although their titles lack a geographic contains a few contributions by authors wish to learn about the price we pay for indication, both deal in large part with whose comments on the theory of civi- being civilised. Of course, there is no England; the Carroll volume has France lisation make little sense to at least this simple ‘we’, and here I would like to as a secondary focus of attention. With reviewer. Thus, David Nash identifies follow Cas Wouters’s scepticism. But respect to Elias’s theory, the respec- an ‘anti-civilising process’ and Steve the interest remains, and is it not also tive editors take opposite sides. Stuart Hall a ‘pseudo-pacification process.’ possible to see forms of depression, Carroll is largely hostile and Katherine On the whole, in both volumes, there diseases like bulimia or anorexia and so Watson mostly sympathetic to Elias. is no correlation between the intensity forth as problems of self-regulation, of Watson, moreover, has consistently of an author’s engagement with Elias’s affect-regulation in a changing world? turned her volume into an engagement theory and the quality of his or her con- Maybe this is material for another book with the theory of civilising processes, tribution. – or many other books. A real strength as the word ‘civilisation’ in the title indi- of the analysis developed by Cas cates. Each contributor discusses Elias’s One of the most interesting contribu- Wouters is its wealth of detail. There- work at some point, although the extent tions to the Watson volume, the closing fore, I would not argue that he should of the discussion varies considerably. one by the editor herself, does provide complement it by giving more weight The Carroll volume, on the other hand, a creative elaboration of the theory to the macro-processes and historical is not consistently anti-Elias. In fact, of civilisation. She discusses serial contingencies of state-development and if we may rely on the index, only two murder, asking whether its apparently economic growth. This would make authors besides the editor refer to Elias growing prevalence since the 1960s is

10 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008 due to its being a feature of an increas- period of history. Thome, professor of the mid-1990s. But there are at least ingly interdependent society or, con- sociology at the University of Halle, three reasons why it would be unwise versely, it is an example of a decivilis- has been studying criminality, contem- to trivialise the problem. First of all, ing spurt. She broadens the discussion porary and historical, for a long time. the rise meant a 50 per cent and hence by including serial poisoners, who were Theoretically, he is interested in the significant increase. Second, while especially active in the late eighteenth work of Elias as well as some of the this 50 per cent is an average of many and nineteenth centuries, although some classical sociologists, in particular Dur- countries, an increase occurred almost have been identified as early as the sev- kheim. Thome strongly prefers quanti- everywhere west of the (former) Iron enteenth. This is a promising perspec- tative methods, as in this book written Curtain. Thus, it is a structural phenom- tive, even though I would tend to draw together with a colleague from Halle. enon. Finally, the level of non-lethal a sharper line between the poisoners, as It is essentially an analysis of statistics, violence, as measured by rates of reg- multiple murderers, and the ‘lust-kill- not only of crime but of numerous other istered crime, also underwent a sharp ing’ emerging after the mid-nineteenth subjects. upward trend from the 1960s. It looks century, for which I would reserve the as though contemporary society is char- term serial murder. One of the most A quantitative dataset indeed lies at acterised by a heightened level of vio- interesting contributions to the Carroll the basis of our knowledge about the lence. This is essentially what Thome volume, by Steven Hughes, does not long-term development of violence, in has been arguing in earlier publications. refer to Elias at all. Nevertheless he particular murder. Historians and social According to him, increased levels of presents a fascinating story about the scientists measure the incidence of violence constitute a structural property representation of daggers and swords murder with the help of the homicide of modern society and they will likely in liberal and fascist Italy. Around 1900 rate – i.e. the annual average of killings be here to stay for at least a while. swords constituted a positive image in a certain area, usually a town, region for the Italian elites, who were prone or country – per hundred thousand In their recent book, Thome and Birkel to duelling. They viewed the knife as inhabitants of that area. This measure compare figures for homicide, physical a negative symbol, marking Italy’s enables us to make geographical and injury, robbery and rape in England, bad reputation in the eyes of Northern diachronic comparisons. The ‘annual- Sweden and Germany from 1953 to Europeans. The fascists inverted these average’ component is important for 1998 (beginning and end determined values, but they integrated the new earlier periods of history, because if we by peculiarities of the sources). As image of the knife into their ideology of only have a one-year count, we cannot scholars well versed in quantitative national unity. tell whether or not it is exceptional research, they amply discuss all pos- for its century. Now that record keep- sible problems with their statistics. The two, largely complementary, essays ing has become much more complete, They rely primarily on aggregated rates by Caroline Dodds on human sacrifice for recent times one-year counts are of crimes reported to the police. For in the Aztec Empire deserve special meaningful as well. When the FBI homicide this is an acceptable measure, mention as well. One of her themes publishes a new issue of its Uniform because over the last few decades, the concerns the apparent contradiction, Crime Reports, for example, crimi- police have kept fairly reliable records for us as well as for the Spanish con- nologists immediately get to work at of cases of apparent murder. For earlier querors, between the bloody sacrifices their computers. For over two decades periods medical data are usually better: and the orderly society around the it has been known that the level of causes-of-death statistics, which the metropolis that was Tenochtitlan. The murder underwent a massive decline in authors use supplementarily, or, for the Aztec Empire was at least as pacified, Europe from about 1300 until the mid- distant past, body inspection reports. centralised and controlled as contempo- twentieth century. This conclusion is The choice of relying on police reports rary Spain or France. So did the ritual based on reliable figures, which, over for the other three crimes investigated, killing of women and men constitute such a long period, are not available although defended at length, still seems an anomaly? It is always hazardous to for non-lethal forms of violence. The a bit questionable to me. The authors juxtapose and compare elements from match between the long-term decline dismiss the obvious alternative, a com- widely diverging societies, but my of murder and Elias’s theory has been parison of victimisation surveys. One suggestion nevertheless would be to widely recognised. Since about 1970, reason for this choice appears undeni- compare Aztec religious sacrifice with however, homicide has been on the rise, able: the available series of victimisa- public executions in sixteenth-century reversing the age-long trend. For every tion surveys cover only a part, and Europe, which by then had assumed scholar, regardless of his theoretical especially for Germany a tiny part, of a decidedly religious character. This inclinations, this constitutes an intrigu- the period under scrutiny. In addition, politico-religious ceremony served to ing problem. however, the authors express doubts underpin the still unstable monopolies about the validity of victimisation of violence in monarchies and repub- The problem might be dismissed as surveys. Yet they base their analysis lics. Human sacrifice had similar func- trivial. After all, homicide rates of of the Anzeigequoten (the proportion tions for the Aztecs. several dozens were common in the of real/total crime that is reported to Middle Ages, whereas the recent rise the police) on these very victimisation The book by Helmut Thome and Chris- was roughly from a level of one in the surveys. Subsequently, they assume that toph Birkel deals with a more recent 1950s and 1960s to one and a half by there was no systematic increase in this

Issue No.29 June 2008 Figurations 11 proportion for the three crimes of non- partial decline in the level of pacifica- lethal violence and that, consequently, tion offered by state institutions. The The authors view their theoretical the trends in police figures are indica- authors discuss the theme of self-con- framework as a heuristic scheme, sug- tive of trends in real behaviour. trol too, but they find it too narrow a gesting to them which empirical ques- definition of self-control if it is equated tions they should pose in order to arrive These trends consist of a rise, in with ‘Elias’s concept of affect control’. at an explanans. The answers to these most instances considered, in each Instead, they wish to define self-control questions make up the third and larg- of the three countries between 1953 (or Selbststeuerung) in terms of three est part of their study. This part deals and 1998. As mentioned earlier, we ‘dimensions of competence’ (p. 46). with aspects of the economy, the state, already knew this in outline. Thome (For my own views about the relation- large organisations and cultural and and Birkel concede that in case of ship between contemporary violence social life in the countries studied, in sexual assault, where they assume the and Elias’s theory, see my article in so far as statistics are available. In fact, Anzeigequote to be lowest, the data Crime, History & Societies, 2001–2 and there seems to be almost no quantifi- have to be interpreted with caution. In my book A History of Murder, forth- able element within English, Swedish the case of physical injury and robbery, coming from Polity Press). and German societies that is missing on the other hand, they assume a real from the discussion. The reader is increase. Yet, several other scholars are Durkheim is a more important source bedazzled by a tsunami of graphs and more sceptical about such claims. They for the theoretical framework that the tables, deriving from governmental note that the definition of robbery has authors construe, although they make sources, surveys of private organisa- become inflated in several European free use of his work, rejecting some tions or complex indexes constructed countries. In the Netherlands, for exam- elements and highlighting others. These by fellow researchers. Especially in ple, grabbing someone’s handbag in exercises result in a complex network the latter case, Thome and Birkel’s the street, formerly classified as simple of theoretical arguments and proposi- investigation assumes the character of theft, became classified in the 1980s tions, supported, at the outline stage a meta-analysis. The figures discussed as theft with violence. Thus, what was already, by bits of empirical evidence. include church attendance, membership formerly only a property offence was At the risk of simplifying their expo- of trade unions, tax returns, income now considered as a violation of both sition, this seems the essence to me: inequality, trust in government, the property and the body. The defini- according to Durkheim, the increasing judicial system, the police and in fellow tion of the seriousness of assault was division of tasks and the accompany- humans, fear of crime, clearance rates, equally subject to inflation. A study by ing trends of individualism and the persons active in different sectors of Margarethe Egelkamp (2002), dealing weakening of communal bonds all led the economy, internal migration, unem- with the Netherlands and Germany but to a decline of personal aggression. ployment and much more. not referred to by Thome and Birkel, But there were counter-tendencies, for compares court cases in 1986 and 1996. example when change occurred too The conclusions to be drawn from all She found that in the latter year simi- fast. Thome and Birkel connect Dur- this are multi-faceted and complex – lar cases had moved up one level on kheim’s well-known notion of anomie throughout the chapters concerned and the legal scale of seriousness: severe with the lesser-known concept of ego- again when summed up in the authors’ injury automatically led to a charge istic or disintegrative individualism. resumé. Important keywords include of attempted manslaughter; what had These counter-tendencies, they assert, globalisation, increasing economic been simple assault became aggravated have become even stronger since the competition, reduction in the scope of assault; and incidents not considered time when Durkheim lived. Partly, this the welfare state, a decreasing belief in worth prosecuting before streamed in has to do with a new preponderance of equality coupled with a rise in actual at the bottom. Thus, there is reason to the market over the state. The state is inequalities resulting in a ‘winner- assume that at least a part of the rise in instrumental in drawing individualism takes-all society.’ Calling for further registered non-lethal violence reflects into the direction of its positive side, research on certain themes, Thome and increasing sensitivities rather than which consists of individualism’s prin- Birkel freely admit their remaining actual behaviour. This does not mean cipled celebration as a value coupled problems. In particular, some of their that I totally disagree with Thome and with a readiness for cooperation. By crucial indicators, such as the erosion Birkel. Some part of the rise probably contrast, the market induces individual- of the state’s monopoly of violence in reflects a real increase in violence. ism to assume the form of selfishness. the wake of globalisation, do not show This argument takes the authors back a significant rise until about 1980, Before discussing their explanandum to Elias by a detour. For Thome and hence much after the beginning of the of crime rates, Thome and Birkel out- Birkel, the degree of effectiveness and increase in registered violent crime. In line their theoretical framework. They legitimacy of the state’s monopoly of order to circumvent this problem, the draw part of their inspiration from violence remains an important factor. authors argue that an initial condition Elias, but Durkheim’s influence is more Incidentally, their theory makes the of anomie in the 1950s and 1960s was prominent. They briefly mention what two-sidedness of robbery less of a subsequently reinforced and intensified the possible explanation in Eliasian problem, as a selfish individualist will to become a structural trend of disin- terms would be, centring on decivilis- respect neither another’s property nor tegrative individualism. Again, this is ing tendencies related in their turn to a his or her body. the essence of their argument as I see it,

12 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008 although they might view it as an over- things had slowly started to change. Swales, ‘Civilisation, un-civilisation, simplification. This is not a particularly difficult transgression: on Goethe’s Faust’, (4) nightmare to analyse. Elias had had the Susanne Kord, ‘The pre-colonial imagi- The argument’s principal weakness, in conviction since a young age that he nation: race and revolution in literature my view, lies in the limits of the quanti- had important things to say. However, a of the Napoleonic period’; (5) Mark tative method itself. The whole exercise combination of external events such as Hewitson, ‘Violence and civilisation: remains a rather formal analysis. The the Second World War, his migration to transgression and modern wars’; (6) question why violence has increased England and his internment in camps at Ernest Schonfield, ‘Civilisation in the over the last 50 years or so cannot be Huyton and on the Isle of Man, together dining room: table manners in Thomas answered without taking a look at what with his difficulty in allowing his Mann’s Buddenbrooks’; (7) Maiken kind of violence this involves. That manuscripts to be taken from him for Umbach, ‘The civilising process and applies first of all to homicide – the publication – Ilse Seglow used to say the construction of the bourgeois self: crime for which it is most certain that they were his children and that he was music chambers in Wilhelmine Ger- the increase in its registered incidence a very possessive father – meant that he many’; (8) Stephanie Bird, ‘Norbert represents a real increase. Our knowl- had been unable to convey these impor- Elias, the confusions of Toerless and edge of its long-term decline since the tant things to a wider public. During the the ethics of shamelessness’; (9) Mere- Middle Ages would be barren if we had late 1960s and the 1970s, however, his rid Puw Davies, ‘Bodily issues: the no information about feuds, duels, knife work had begun to attract wide reader- West German anti-authoritarian move- fights or crimes passionnels. Likewise, ships, particularly in the Netherlands, ment and the semiotics of dirt’; and we would love to know how much the Germany and France. Subsequently, (10) Mary Fulbrook, ‘Changing states, modest rise in homicide in recent times of course, especially after his death in changing selves: generations in the owes to the expansion of organised 1990, he became a sociologist of world Third Reich and the GDR’. crime or the drug business. Or have renown, one of the discipline’s most young men perhaps again become more important twentieth-century figures. The table of contents is practically all prone to serious fighting? Such ques- However, he only had thirteen fur- we are given by way of information tions can be answered with good quali- ther years in which to enjoy his fame. on the contributors. The book does not tative sample research. During that period, to my knowledge, have an author or subject index, which he never referred to this nightmare makes it more difficult to read than it Pieter Spierenburg again. But I think he should have. Let should be. Nor are we given the univer- Erasmus University Rotterdam me explain why. sity affiliations or the subject special- isms of the contributors. All that one Readers of this review may, by now, be can say is that six of them seem to be Eric Dunning reviews an asking what this opening discussion has British, three of them German and one edited book on to do with a review of Mary Fulbrook’s of them possibly Irish. What they write ‘Un-Civilising Processes’ edited book? That is simple. The con- suggests that they work in Arts facul- tributors to this book are principally ties, that most of them have probably Mary Fulbrook (ed), Un-Civilising students and teachers of arts subjects been influenced by cultural studies, and Processes? Excess and Transgression and cultural studies, and, although one perhaps especially by the metaphys- in German Society and Culture: Per- or two of them have interesting, insight- ics of Foucault. If these inferences are spectives Debating with Norbert Elias. ful and relevant things to say, most of correct, then it goes some way towards Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007. 296 pp, them have hardly begun to understand explaining why, in most cases, the ISBN: 978-90-420-2151-8 precisely what Elias said and wrote. authors crudely manufacture and argue They construe him as a crude teleologi- against a picture of Norbert Elias and In the acceptance speech that he gave cal progress theorist – which he most his work as some kind of twentieth-cen- in Aachen in 1977 when he was pre- decidedly was not. Before I develop a tury resurrection of the crudest types of sented with the Festschrift marking his fuller and more systematic critique, let Eurocentric nineteenth-century theories eightieth birthday (Human Figurations: me describe the contents of Un-Civilis- of Western superiority and inevitable Essays for Norbert Elias [Amsterdams ing Processes? progress. With one or two exceptions, Sociologisch Tijdschrift, 1977]), Nor- they would surely lead – were Elias bert Elias started by recalling a recur- The book consists of ten chapters and still alive – to the return of a modified rent nightmare which he claimed had an Introduction by the editor entitled, version of his 1950s–1960s nightmare: interfered with his sleep during the ‘Introduction: the character and limits he would still be shouting into a tel- 1950s and 1960s but which, he said, of the civilising process’. The chapter ephone, only this time, he would be had started to become less frequent in titles and their authors are: (1) Sebas- saying: ‘You can obviously hear me the 1970s. This dream involved him in tian Coxon, ‘Laughter and the process now but do you understand me? Have repeatedly shouting into a telephone, of civilisation in Wolfram von Eshen- you actually carefully read what I have ‘Are you there? Can you hear me?’ bach’s Parzival’; (2) Geraldine Horan, written? Or at least read the accounts of Until the 1970s, he said, he had typi- ‘(Un-)Civilised language: the regula- my work by people close to me such as cally received no answer to these dream tion of cursing and swearing in German Johan Goudsblom, Richard Kilminster, questions, but, during that decade, through the Middle Ages’, (3) Martin Stephen Mennell and Cas Wouters? Or

Issue No.29 June 2008 Figurations 13 have you criticised my work mainly on as an island, Britain depended more on some parts of Smith’s ludicrous mis- the basis of reading inaccurate second- a navy than a land army. It is perhaps comprehensions that Mary Fulbrook ary sources?’ If they were honest, Mary because he regarded every society’s seizes. She writes (p.7): Fulbrook and her contributors would (and every person’s) development as have to answer this last question in the in some ways a unique variation on a ‘Smith suggests that lower classes affirmative. Let me briefly suggest why. shared pattern that Elias did not refer had long had a history of “disci- to Germany’s Sonderweg [special plined practices” (p. 63) but that Mary Fulbrook repeatedly uses the path], although (perhaps misleadingly) there is a lack [of] appropriate terms ‘civilisation’ and ‘modernity/ Stephen Mennell and I did so in our records on the basis of which to modernisation’ in tandem. She is – per- Preface to our translation of The Ger- write this history. And in contrast to haps understandably since she didn’t mans. One of Elias’s central points was Elias, Smith sees the aristocracy as know Elias personally and was not that in an historical context where anti- “almost the last major group within taught by him – unaware of the fact Semitism was generally widespread medieval and early modern society that Elias was strongly critical of the and where France in the late nineteenth to be confronted with the challenge concepts of ‘modernity’ and ‘mod- century displayed the highest incidence of being tied down to a particular ernisation’ when they crept into use of anti-Jewish feeling – as manifested, place and being forced to do what and started to become popular in the for example, in the Dreyfus case – Ger- they were told by an overlord. They 1960s, starting if my memory serves many’s late unification contributed in a were latecomers to the modern me correctly with a book on the sub- myriad of complex ways to its becom- game” (p. 164). Once the aristoc- ject by Wilbert Moore (Social Change ing the country where, retrospective racy were forced into self-restraint, [Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, analysis suggests, a Nazi takeover was in Smith’s view, it acquired a degree 1963]). Elias’s objections largely took most likely. The strengthening there of of prestige.’ the form of his being critical of them as military models was particularly impor- terms with a time reference only, and tant in this regard. This was, however, What this fails to take into account is lacking any connotation of structure in a ‘blind’ or unplanned and unintended legion. Firstly, although he did make the way that concepts such as indus- process, making it nonsense to suggest, some generalisations beyond his basic trialisation, urbanisation, democratisa- as Mary Fulbrook does, that Elias’s framework and his data, Elias clearly tion and civilisation manifestly do. study of the ‘breakdown of civilisation’ delimited his major concern by call- Modernity/modernisation were also, in Weimar Germany is an example of ing Part 1 of his book ‘Changes in Elias pointed out, terms that implicitly what she calls ‘long-term structural the Behaviour of the Secular Upper resurrected the notions of social devel- teleology’. Classes in the West’. In a word, what opment as unilinear, inevitable and he wrote was not intended as a total or irreversible progress which are found To be fair to Mary Fulbrook, she does totally complete study but, rather, as a in the work of Comte and Marx (but, refer to Elias’s The Civilising Process contribution to the understanding of a nota bene, NOT, pace Giddens, in the as a ‘path-breaking’ and ‘searching’ delimited fragment. What he principally work of Herbert Spencer). By contrast, study. However, it is perhaps not sur- sought to show in this connection was although in The Civilising Process prising that someone who can make what he called die Verhöflichung der Elias concentrated mainly on the case simple errors of biographical fact, such Krieger (the courtisation of the war- of France, he included a chapter on the as referring to Elias having worked riors) – that is, the taming of leading differential developmental trajecto- ‘in the Frankfurt Institute for Social members of the warrior ruling class, the ries of England, France and Germany Research under Max Horkheimer’, dukes and counts etc., by bringing them – which should have alerted any careful should develop a false understanding into the royal court together with mem- reader to the fact that he saw devel- of Elias’s oeuvre. He worked in the bers of the emergent bourgeoisie where opment as complex, multilinear and University of Frankfurt’s Sociology they were constrained over time to give reversible. Briefly, what he attempted Department under Karl Mannheim, in up their former love of violence and to show was that what in the course of rooms in the so-called Marxgebäude, abandoned living. Added to this, Elias time became England and France were which the University rented from the suggested that the factual sequence of unified earlier than Germany, largely privately financed ‘Frankfurt School’. ruling classes in Western Europe since because of their smaller territories and the Middle Ages has been: knights, populations and the greater uniformity In my view, however, Mary Fulbrook’s courtiers and bourgeois. Smith’s cri- of their languages and cultures. This worst error consists in her taking seri- tique, swallowed hook, line and sinker gave them an advantage in the colonis- ously the work on Elias by Dennis by Fulbrook, seems to be in part an ing of the rest of the world, and helped Smith. Whilst Smith’s discussion of attempt to curry the favour of left-wing them to become successful imperialists, Elias in The Rise of Historical Sociol- students and other readers, but what he whilst the disunited Germans lagged ogy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991) is says has little or no relevance to what behind. However, despite these shared tolerably accurate on the whole, parts Elias wrote. Smith weakens his case properties, France and England differed of his Norbert Elias and Modern Social even further by seemingly using the in numerous ways, such as France’s Theory (London: Sage, 2001) border Christian Bible’s Book of Genesis and higher degrees of bureaucratisation and on and sometimes actually reach the the story of Adam and Eve as a source state centralisation, and the fact that, absurd. Unfortunately, it is precisely on of factual evidence! Let me bring this

14 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008 review to a close by commenting on anti-authoritarian movement. What she relying on secondary texts has nowa- some of the other contributions to this bases it on is an act undertaken in 1968 days become foolhardy and dangerous anthology. by 24-year-old Karl-Heinz Pawla in a in the extreme. Sebastian Coxon describes laughter as a West Berlin courtroom as a gesture of ‘blind spot’ in Elias’s theory and main- contempt directed at the then-existing Eric Dunning tains this to be the case even though he status quo. He was on trial for distribut- Universities of Leicester and Chester goes on to show himself familiar with ing literature which had displeased the and to discuss Michael Schroeter’s authorities and what he did was to turn ‘Wer lacht kann nicht beissen’, an essay his back on the judge, pull his trousers reconstructed from fragments in the down and defecate on the courtroom Elias archives in Marbach, and which floor, finally using the court files as Elias told me had formed the basis of a toilet paper. I think this is indicative talk that he gave to the Haldane Society of a difference between the German at University College Leicester in 1956. and the English psyches and civilis- It was based on ideas that had long ing processes. As an Englishman, I felt been central to the basic underpinnings constrained to use indirect language in of Elias’s synthesis and I have vivid order to describe this act and, on read- memories of his discussing them in the ing Davies’s account, I was reminded psychology lectures that he gave when of an experience I had in Bavaria in the I was an undergraduate. Sociologists 1960s. This in its turn reminded me of and psychologists, he insisted, should Elias’s essay on Mozart – which sur- have a basic grounding in biology and prisingly is not mentioned by any of the human evolution. One of his central arts and cultural studies contributors to points in this connection concerned the this book. great mobility of the human facial mus- culature compared with that of chim- With two friends, I was the guest of panzees and other apes, a point which a well-off Bavarian businessman, his he used to illustrate, among other ways, wife and their three daughters. We using a book of photographs of the were given good food and excellent French comic actor, Fernandel. What wine, and after the meal the middle Elias was trying to illustrate, of course, daughter, who was 27 or 28 at the time, is the fact that Homo sapiens evolved entertained us by dancing and singing. biologically as a social species. The song had a repeated chorus and Geraldine Horan’s essay on uncivilised when she sang it, she placed her clothed language is another which makes some bottom provocatively in our faces. The interesting and valuable points but chorus was ‘leckt mich am Arsch’ (Lick mars these with a by-now conventional my arse). We, two of us English and misinterpretation of Elias. She writes one Scots, were shocked. I also remem- (p. 39): bered this experience when I first read Norbert Elias’s book on Mozart and ‘Language use cannot merely be learned for the first time of what one regarded as a teleological process, might call Mozart’s and his father’s which moves from an ‘uncivilised’ ‘anal fixation’ in their letters to one to a ‘civilised’ state. The ‘civilising another. This suggests one further (and process’ in its linguistic manifesta- last) point. As I hinted above, Mary tion can be better understood as a Fulbrook and her contributors make continual, ever-shifting process of little or no reference to Elias’s work mutual (re-) negotiation of the limits on art and artists. That is a pity. As it of acceptable forms of expression.’ is, whilst it is not by any means totally void of interesting and valid points, Geraldine Horan is seemingly una- Un-Civilising Processes? suggests that, ware of the fact that Elias completely if they wish to make meaningful con- rejected teleology and that what she tributions to sociology, to understand wrote in the second of these two sen- the work of scholars such as Elias, and tences is far closer to his meaning than to build constructively on their founda- the first. tions – as many cultural studies special- I hope that I shall be forgiven if I ists nowadays seemingly wish to do end this review with just one more – they will have to take far greater care comment. It relates to Mererid Puw over the reading of their texts than most Davies’s essay on the West German of them have done here. Above all,

Issue No.29 June 2008 Figurations 15 RECENT BOOKS AND ARTICLES

Helmut Kuzmics, ‘Zivilisationsproz- the perceived brutality of war and the tral emotion could be boredom. Neither ess und Emotionen der Feindseligkeit coarseness or refinement of the circum- a simple linear path of development auf dem Schlachtfeld am Beispiel der stances surrounding organised fight- nor the assumption of an essentially Habsburgischer Armee vom 18. bis ing, dynastic war provided two very unchanging nature of war seem to be zum frühen 20. Jahrhundert’ [Civilising different sets of opportunities: one for adequate models for the multiplicity process and emotions of hostility on the the aristocratic warrior caste, the other of structural conditions and structured battlefield: the example of the Habsburg for the common soldier. Much of what emotions occurring in war. army from the eighteenth to the early Van Creveld sees as the unchanging, twentieth century]. In: Paul Ertl and fundamental character warfare has for Jodok Troy (eds), Der Feind – Darstel- men is actually based on the complex, George Cavalletto, Crossing the lung und Transformation eines Kultur- time-bound canon of chivalry, courage Psycho-Social Divide: Freud, Weber, begriffs, vol. 2, Ausgewählte Bereiche and honour, of death as the ultimate Adorno and Elias. Aldershot: Ashgate, der Feindkonzeption (Vienna: Jänner, proof for them, necessitating a life-long 2007. 284 pp. 2008), pp. 59–118. preparation in order to be able to accept ISBN 978-0-7546-4772-0 (hb) death in consent and dignity In Norbert Elias’s The Civilising Proc- By way of response to a commentary ess, the reality and experience of war For the Habsburg army, like other by Thomas Scheff on the ideal balance are situated and structured historically. armies, the ‘Great War’ brought an end between the concrete and abstract in In one of the most surprising and origi- to aristocratic ideals of chivalry and research and teaching, on 26 May 2007 nal recent interpretations of war, Martin to the proud tradition of its cavalry. George Cavalletto wrote to the Elias van Creveld (On Future War, 1991) Modern, industrialised war replaced mailing list as follows: ‘Shame serves has stressed its basically unchanging the feudal attacking spirit with more as one bridge (or “channel” as Elias’s character, including the motives and modest emotions – apart from the many text calls it) between broader macro causes for war. For him, the male fasci- who did not have to ‘fight’ in the nar- figurations of these (power) contests nation for war is deeply rooted in needs rower sense of the term, as an element and the psychological functions of indi- that can be summarised vaguely as the of a huge apparatus based on division vidual agents who exist within these appeal of danger, the wish to prove of labour, responsible for supply, tech- contests’. Indeed, in the acknowledge- manliness, by all means not guided by nical support, logistics, information. ments to his latest book, Crossing the rational interest or profit-seeking. Who But even those who stood in the front- Psycho-Social Divide: Freud, Weber, is right? line ready for attack or defence very Adorno and Elias, Cavalletto admits This paper draws on examples of the seldom if ever experienced a ‘pleasure to being long ‘fascinated with those Habsburg army, using diaries, fiction, of attacking’; spontaneous emotions spheres of experience in which human regimental histories and autobiographi- were rather the result of vindictive- relations interconnect in a significant cal material as its main sources. It ness and revenge (when no prisoners way with inner psychic life’ (p. xv). covers the time-span from dynastic, were taken). More often, the main His analysis of these two interrelated ‘Trinitarian War’ (Van Creveld) of the property of a good soldier was his generations of German speaking intel- eighteenth century to the industrialised ability to endure – under exhausting lectuals seeks to reinvigorate what he war between nation-states and empires external conditions and heavy artillery sees as a decaying field of study, that 1914–18. or machine-gun fire, when fear turned of psychic and social realities and the In terms of the manly ‘pleasure of into sheer horror. The experience of the related methods of analysing their inter- attacking’, the experience of fear and front was rather heterogeneous, though, relationship. As part of this, Cavalletto its overcoming by courage or boldness, and over long periods of time, the cen- subjects to close and contextualised

16 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008 reading a series of texts written by Timothy Phillips and Philip Smith, Elias’s studies (Chapter 5: ‘L’analyse Freud, Weber, Adorno, and – of particu- ‘Rethinking Urban Incivility Research: socio-historique du sport selon Nor- lar interest to us – Elias. Using these Strangers, Bodies and Circulations’. bert Elias’, pp. 343–83). Callède first methodological techniques, Cavalletto Urban Studies, 43: 5–6 (2006), pp. notes that social scientists’ opinions are claims, amongst other things, to have 879–901. strongly divided about the validity of uncovered evidence of a ‘psychological an Eliasian analysis of sport in the con- Weber’, ‘whose analytic practices ... Summary: Research on urban incivil- temporary social context. Callède fully display nonetheless a recognition of the ity has made progress but has limited enters into this debate. He neverthe- dynamic mechanisms of the psyche’ (p. scope thanks to stereotyped and policy- less adopts a highly nuanced approach. 6), not least in the The Protestant Ethic relevant focus on problem neighbour- He proposes a critical study of Elias’s which, for the author, demonstrates the hoods and urban renewal. It also lacks contribution to the development of the ways in which irrational responses to benchmark comparative data, has scientific knowledge about sport. In that religious dogma shape people’s actions, almost nothing to say about interper- perspective, from the very beginning, often in an opposing direction. sonal incivility and is experiencing Callède invites the reader to distin- diminishing returns to effort. A new guish between two categories of texts. In the context of Elias’s work, which agenda is proposed that explores every- On the one hand, he considers what is synthesises historical, social and day life incivility as this is experienced properly due to Elias’s work. On the psychological processes, Cavalletto over the broader population in the other hand, he identifies what in Elias’s claims that Elias grants sociogenesis course of daily routine. The Everyday work proceeds from evident but not primacy over psychogenesis – that Life Incivility in Australia Survey is explicitly mentioned different sources is, the latter is shaped by the former. introduced. This was a random national of inspiration and criticism (Huizinga, Thus, Elias’s conception of human sample survey collecting systematic Spencer, Groos, etc.). On this basis, reality is characterised by an histori- narrative information on interpersonal Callède examines the originality of the cal or developmental orientation and encounters involving a rude stranger. sociological and historical approach socio-historical processes form the Findings from the study are reported adopted by Elias in his important stud- social conditions in which psychic here, documenting the range of low- ies on games and sports. He particularly developments originate. As is the case level incivilities experienced in daily investigates the way Norbert Elias and with other psychoanalysts’ use of life and outlining some of their prop- Eric Dunning study the historical devel- Elias’s work, Cavalletto too suggests erties. The results challenge received opment and the evolution of sports in that Elias offers an advancement of wisdom about the corrosive effects of the frame of the development of the Freudian notions of drives and emo- urban incivility on society. state structures of political power in tions because of their socio-historical Western societies from the eighteenth location. Because of this, readers will century, more precisely in England. be particularly interested in the author’s Jean-Paul Callède, La sociologie aspiration to re-establish the presence française et la pratique sportive, 1875– Callède then stresses the impact of the and effects of psychic qualities in social 2005 (Pessac: Maison des Sciences de underlying development of civilising reality and, allied to this, to elucidate l’Homme d’Aquitaine, 2007). 607 pp. process in the fields of power and sport. methods for rendering these psycho- ISBN: 978-2-85892-345-8. He stresses that Elias firmly contends logical qualities more open to enquiry that the history of modern sport’s devel- and understanding. His conclusions are This book is a sequel to Jean-Paul opment and its specific characteristics also provocative for not only does he Callède’s Les politiques sportives en give some reliable indicators about the demonstrate some interrelated themes France: éléments de sociologie his- way the civilising process has shaped in the work of these four writers, but torique (Paris: Economica, 2000), and is still shaping our societies. There- he also sets out a paradigm for future which was devoted to French sports fore Callède takes up Elias’s major idea work by offering the following ideas policies. In this second opus, he clas- that sport and balance of power should for further consideration by contempo- sifies historical and sociological texts be explored following the same meth- rary practitioners using contemporary according to the modèle culturel of odological global approach. He then conceptual and theoretical tools: some sports practice, offering a general over- shows how two very distinct fields at sociological questions require psycho- view of what has been published since first glance should be able to s’éclairer logical answers; the psyche dynami- games and sports emerged as an object réciproquement. In this way, Callède cally alters that which society imposes of study for French sociology up to the carefully elucidates the famous notions upon it; the psyche mediates the human present day. Particularly conscious of of ‘figurations’, ‘self-constraints’, interactions that constitute the social the importance of Elias’s work, Cal- etc. It allows him to explain again the world; and a reciprocal alignment of lède carefully lists the texts that Elias ‘organising process’ of sport that Elias sociological and psychological analyses dedicated to sport from the 1960s and Dunning evoke. The aim here is requires that they occur at similar levels onwards. One can note that these texts the progressive shift from disinterested of abstraction (pp. 260–6). are integrated into the whole framework playful games towards sport as organ- of Callède’s book. In the second part, ised into a hierarchy and assuming the Katie Liston dealing with the perspectives complé- function of regulating power relation- University of Chester mentaires, a full chapter is devoted to ships between opposed groups. But

Issue No.29 June 2008 Figurations 17 Callède does not only examine care- functioned as a rite de passage toward de historische sociologie naar toe? (pp. fully Elias and Dunning’s propositions greater equality and intimacy. 492–501). on these topics. He also introduces Julia Adams, Elisabeth S. Clemens and the reader to the Eliasian historical Ann Shola Orloff, ‘Not drowning but approach, demonstrating its major John Lever, ‘Governance, Partner- waving …’: Remaking Modernity and principles. Then he returns to the way ships and the Mainstreaming of Com- its Dutch Critics (pp. 502–10). Elias seeks to overcome the famous munity Safety’, Unpublished PhD dichotomy of ‘individual’ versus ‘soci- thesis, University of the West of Eng- The last issue of the Dutch journal ety’ by focusing upon the various types land, 2008. Sociologie of 2007 features a debate on of chains of interdependence. Callède Remaking Modernity: Politics, History, then comes back to the game models Using the figurational sociology of and Sociology (Durham, NC: Duke (modèles de jeux) that Elias developed Norbert Elias, the thesis compares University Press, 2005), edited by in Was ist Soziologie? to explain and partnership working in urban govern- Julia Adams (Yale University), Elisa- illustrate the different kinds of inter- ance with royal courts in the Middle beth Clemens (University of Chicago) penetrating social phenomena. The Ages, regimes where new identities and Ann Shola Orloff (Northwestern French author ends his critical analysis are worked out and new relationships University). The discussion is opened of Elias’s work by pointing to some of between established and outsider by Marjolein ’t Hart, economic and its ‘blind spots’. He finally enters into groups are negotiated. Lever examines social historian at the University of a very interesting discussion centred on the emergence, use and future poten- Amsterdam, explaining why this book the present uses and current pertinence tial of community-based partnership deserves attention of Dutch histori- of the notion of figuration. Last but not working in urban regeneration. Based cal sociologists. Under the heading ‘A least, Callède makes some interesting on a case study of partnership working revolution in historical sociology?’ she reflections about how to develop fur- in the Bristol in southwest England, points out to the far-reaching claims of ther what appears to him to be the most it examines the ongoing process of the so-called ‘third wave’ in US histori- convincing and stimulating work in the institutional change through which cal sociology. The editors of Remaking field of sociology of sport. partnership working and community Modernity state that since the 1990s safety have become central features or so, US historical sociology has Sophie Piot UK public policy. Placing partnership undergone a significant shift as to the Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis, working in a long-term socio-historical sort of questions and methods used. In Bruxelles. perspective the paper draws attention the 1970s, the field had experienced a to an approach to community safety major boost by the success of studies that prioritises short-term reductions by (among others) Barrington Moore, Cas Wouters, On friendship and equal- in crime and disorder at the expense of Charles Tilly and Theda Skocpol. For ity in England and Germany: intro- long-term community concerns. This at least two decades, large-scale com- ducing versus duzen. Sociologie 3: 3 approach is seen to be problematical parisons became the norm, and students (2007), pp. 350–72 [in Dutch]. for a number of reasons and it is argued in historical sociology focused on that partnerships will only be successful subjects like classes, state formation, Abstract: This article starts from the if they encourage pro-social behaviour and revolutions. Many of these ‘second observation that English manners books from within rather than through the wave’ scholars were inspired by Marx from the nineteenth century until the imposition of formal rules and regula- (the ‘first wave’ being the historical 1980s are preoccupied with introduc- tions. Building on the work of Elias sociology prior to this upsurge in the tions, a topic that hardly receives and prominent figurational scholars, the field). Yet by the 1990s, other methods attention in German manners books. paper concludes that although partner- came into fashion, like the new insti- The German books, on the other hand, ships like Safer Bristol are playing a tutionalism and rational choice theory. are preoccupied with ‘friendship’ and similar coordinating role to that played The cultural turn brought Weber back Duzen (using the personal pronoun). by royal courts during earlier periods of in, and criticism from feminist scholars The attempt at explaining these striking European history, they are not currently and post-colonial studies revealed the national differences, part of research having the same civilising impact, layered identities within the ontological findings from a larger comparative despite their obvious potential. categories of the second wave research study of changes in American, Dutch, agenda, like nation and class. The English and German etiquette or man- strong eurocentrism of both the first and ners books from 1890 to 2000, aims ‘Debat over historische sociologie’ second wave was criticised too. By the at presenting their sociogenesis, by Sociologie 3: 4 (2007), pp. 479–510, first decade of the twenty-first century, placing them in the context of a wider consisting of: the third wave historical sociologists framework of changes in national Marjolein ’t Hart, Een revolutie in de have found sufficient grounds to feel habitus, national class structure, and historische sociologie? Een debat over their approach being established. Their national integration. This attempt departs Remaking Modernity (pp. 479–84). research agenda focuses often upon from the observation that introductions Johan Goudsblom, Wat is historische agents, processes, gender and ethnic dif- and the proposal to duz, whether or not sociologie? (pp. 495–91). ferences, as can be seen from the sepa- followed by Bruderschaft trinken, both Nico Wilterdink, Waar moet het met rate contributions to the volume.

18 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008 Joop Goudsblom (Professor Emeritus In their rejoinder (in English) ‘Not BIBLIOGRAPHICAL of Sociology, University of Amster- drowning but waving…’, the editors RETROSPECT dam) is the first to start. He criticises Adams, Clemens and Orloff welcome the editors for not being clear about the contributions to the debate on These articles were overlooked when what historical sociology actually their book. They do recognise that the published: means. This presupposes that there is volume is strongly US-centric, from also a sociology that is not historical. their being raised and trained within Susanne Brandtstädter ‘With Elias in This is a misconception (alas held by the family of the dominant tradition of China: civilising process, local restora- numerous sociologists as well), as soci- the second wave themselves. Also, the tions and power in contemporary rural ology always deals with a reality that new research agenda is by no means as China’, Anthropological Theory 3: 1 has obvious historical roots. The gaze coherent and consistent as was that of (2003), pp. 87–105. of the third wave seems blinded by the the 1970s and 1980s. Yet this is partly Abstract: This article argues for the second wave, which they criticise, but due to the fact that unlike the situa- relevance of Norbert Elias’s theory of their historical understanding is at least tion in several European countries, civilising process and social figurations as limited, and might even be labelled US sociology is less structured along of power for a political anthropology of ‘parochial’, as it remains focused on intellectual hierarchical lines. The map- institutional emergence. The empirical US sociology only. Although the criti- ping of existing scholarship shows the case discussed here is the emergence cism of modernisation theory can be possibilities and fruitfulness of new of seemingly traditional institutions in understood to a certain degree, nowhere approaches and most contributions to the more ‘developed’ regions of rural in the book is there any reference to the volume yield a fine awareness of Southern China – temples and lineages long-term developmental processes. the current state of the new trends in – after the economic reforms. I show While embracing the criticism of historical sociology. The editors notice how Elias’ theory of social figurations eurocentrism, Goudsblom pleads for a several diverging aspects in scientific of these institutions out of local interde- return to the gaze of the sociologists at culture across the ocean: whereas some pendencies and competition, their relat- the beginning of the twentieth century Dutch colleagues might find themselves edness with both the state and ‘civil’ with their obvious interest in large- beleaguered by ‘rational choice theory’, society, the past and the present, and scale, world historical processes. US historical sociologist tend to see their ability to combine competition rationalities as historically formed, and and inequality with the production of a thus important in the analysis of par- ‘moral community’. Using Elias allows Nico Wilterdink (Professor of Cultural ticular epochs. Another interesting dif- integration of these apparent contrasts Sociology, University of Amsterdam) is ference is the virtual absence of conver- because in his theory social institu- at least as critical as Goudsblom. First, sations between Dutch sociologists and tions and the direction of social change the conception of the three ‘waves’ in historians: in the US, more co-operation are not the result of human intentions the book is too much focused on US exists, among other ways through sev- or values, but of social figurations of sociology, and the treatment of theories eral cross-disciplinary periodicals and power that, in turn, shape self-interested is even further narrowed by what the conferences. They acknowledge that strategies and collective moralities. ‘second wave’ historical sociologists the study of developments in the very thought important. Furthermore, in the long term deserves more attention: this Sue Dopson, The diffusion of medical 1970s European sociology experienced is still a lacuna within the established innovations: Can figurational sociology a different development, strongly influ- US historical sociology. Finally, they contribute? Organization Studies 26: 8 enced by Norbert Elias and the Annales sympathise strongly with Goudsblom’s (2005), pp. 1125–44. School. For around two decades, his- tenet that all sociology should be histor- Abstract: This article seeks to present tory and sociology seemed not so far ical sociology. Although it is unlikely to and explore the relevance of a apart. Yet from the 1990s onwards, his- be accepted by mainstream US sociol- figurational, or process sociological torical sociology was became margin- ogy, they should do well to keep that approach, as developed by Norbert alised, with the result that no European maximum programme as a vision and Elias, to the investigation of innova- ‘third wave’ can be discerned. How- inspiration. tion and change. It is argued that ever, Wilterdink states that the Ameri- Elias’s work offers a theoretically can third wave is quite inconsistent too Marjolein ’t Hart robust framework for exploring such and combines trends that stand opposite University of Amsterdam issues. Applications of the principles to each other. Furthermore, part of the of his work, in particular the emphasis criticism of the third wavers has been on an understanding of longer-term voiced before, among others by world unplanned processes, are a potential historians in the 1970s like William S. help to those charged with planning and McNeill or Immanuel Wallerstein. Wil- managing complex change, such as the terdink ends with the plea that US his- introduction of innovation. The exam- torical sociologists might significantly ple of health policy-makers’ attempts enrich their research agenda by looking to use the principles of evidence-based at developments in the very long term. medicine (EBM) to change clinical practice is used to explore these claims.

Issue No.29 June 2008 Figurations 19 RECENT CONFERENCES The first section, ‘The Formation of the resemblance to Elias’s concept of the State and of Individuals’, was devoted gradual shift from external constraints Civilising and Decivilising to the correlation between the processes to self-restraints. Processes: A Figurational of state-formation and national habitus Approach to American formation. In his talk ‘The American Cas Wouters’s (Amsterdam) socio- Studies Civilising Process and its Decivilis- logical research on etiquette books has Frankfurt, ing Underbelly’, the renowned Elias focused on the central question whether 22–24 November, 2007 scholar Stephen Mennell (Dublin) the civilising process as conceptualised presented central theses of his recent by Elias has taken a different direc- Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität book The American Civilizing Proc- tion in the twentieth century. Wouters’s Frankfurt am Main, Zentrum für Nord- ess (Polity, 2007; see the review essay latest book, Informalisation: Manners amerikaforschung, 22–24 November by Andrew Linklater in this issue of & Emotions since 1890 (Sage, 2007; 2007, organised by Prof. Dr. Christa Figurations). In offering a brief over- see the review essay by Helmut Kuz- Buschendorf, Prof. Dr. Astrid Franke view of his pioneering study – the first mics in this issue of Figurations), is a (Tübingen), and Dr. Katja Sarkowsky. comprehensive attempt to apply Elias’s comparative study on the increasing model to American social development processes of informalisation in Ger- The aim of the Frankfurt conference – Mennell on the one hand emphasised many, England, the Netherlands, and on civilising (and decivilising) proc- the continuity of the transatlantic civi- the USA. Wouters demonstrates that the esses in the US was to initiate in the lising processes in Europe and the US, discernible tendencies of informalisa- field of American Studies an interna- for example with regard to attitudes tion are compatible with Elias’s notion tional and interdisciplinary discussion towards violence, and on the other hand (albeit a modified version) of civilis- on the figurational or process method stressed ‘American exceptionalism’ ing processes, and he tries to explain developed by Norbert Elias. It was by pointing out such differences as the different developments in the four also meant to broaden Elias’s method the effect of the key institution of the countries by the various degrees of to include the sociological concepts market on shaping the American habi- social (im-)permeability. In his talk, of Pierre Bourdieu – thereby neces- tus. Mennell’s book covers the broad ‘Status Competition and the Develop- sarily emphasising the affinities rather spectrum of the characteristics of the ment of an American Habitus’, Wouters than the differences between the two American civilising process and thus concentrated on the specifically Ameri- sociologists. Like Elias, Bourdieu chal- has opened up a promising field of fur- can pattern of development towards lenged the sociological community by ther specialised research. several competing centres of power and disrespecting disciplinary borders; and the resulting characteristics of Ameri- like Elias, Bourdieu sought to combine In her response to Mennell’s theses, the can regimes of emotions and manners. agency and structure, which in his case historian Mary Furner (Santa Barbara, is expressed in his interrelated concepts California) posed a number of pertinent The second section of the conference, of habitus and field. questions. For example, she criticised ‘Challenges to the Civilising Process’, Elias’s trust in a basically benevolent was supposed to focus on special devel- In his keynote address ‘Decivilising character of the state monopoly of opments of the American society, such the Penal State’, the French sociologist violence. Moreover, as a representa- as the power differential between estab- Loïc Wacquant (Berkeley and Paris) tive of intellectual history, she missed lished and outsiders (e.g. Native Ameri- presented the major results of his exten- the deliberation of the role of human cans and African Americans) and its con- sive field research on the black ghetto reason in the American process of sequences. In his methodical reflection, (as published for example in his latest civilisation, especially with regard to the historian of law, Anthony V. Baker book Urban Outcasts: A Comparative the writing of the American Consti- (Buies Creek, North Carolina), ‘... viola- Sociology of Advanced Marginality, tution, which allowed the Founding tion of law ... contempt of justice’: Figu- Cambridge: Polity, 2008). Wacquant Fathers to draw from various ancient ration and the Nat Turner Rebellion’, insisted on an integrative method: by and modern European theories, on the maintained that the figurational approach analogy to Bourdieu’s concepts of the basis of which they created an ‘ideal’ to this uprising could be instrumental in relative autonomy of the various fields constitution emphasising ‘checks and leading the research on Nat Turner out of of society and the unequal distribution balances’. the impasse of mere moral judgements. of forms of capital and power-chances, It would allow scholars to pose innova- he considered all relevant factors of the The contribution by the Americanist tive questions. Thus the enquiry into labour market, ethnic division, and state Dietmar Schloss (Heidelberg), ‘Norbert Turner’s habitus, undoubtedly shaped by policy and, in addition, historicised Elias and the United States: the Public the master–slave figuration, might lead them by making use of Elias’s theory Discussion about the Shape of the to new insights into the motivations of of civilising processes. The most pro- Republic in the Early National Period’, the rebel. vocative hypothesis of his most recent also focused on the Founding Fathers research is the claim that it is above all whose recourse on Scottish moral The third section, ‘Civilising Projects? the structural violence exerted by the philosophy provided them with an Education and the Arts’, was dedicated state that is responsible for the decivili- understanding of the civilising process to special conditions influencing the sation of the American ‘hyperghetto’. that according to Schloss bears great American intellectual fields. In his talk

20 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008 with the title ‘Emerson and the Field furt. As the organisers had hoped, the essay by Helmut Kuzmics in this issue of Transcendentalist Intellectuals’, the dialogue between experts of the method of Figurations). Americanist Günter Leypoldt (Mainz) of figurational sociology and scholars A symposium was organised for the explored Bourdieu’s concepts of field who explored the possibilities of the occasion. As the process of informalisa- and forms of capital in his attempt to approach in the field of American Studies tion involves increasing behavioural situate the eminent public intellectual proved to be very productive. Moreover, and emotional alternatives, the leading Ralph Waldo Emerson in the overlap- the participants agreed upon the great idea of the symposium was to invite ping fields of nineteenth-century theol- potential the approach offers for the dis- scholars from several disciplines within ogy and literature. Biljana Oklopčić, a cipline of American Studies. It appears social science and have them discuss literary scholar from Osijek, Croatia, that the conceptual tools of Elias and the relevance and significance of infor- gave a talk on ‘Women’s Education Bourdieu provide innovative perspec- malisation theory and informalisation in the US South as Civilising Project: tives on American exceptionalism, when processes for their discipline. The soci- Its Literary (De)Construction in Wil- it is seen as the result of a distinctively ologist who did so was Paul Schnabel, liam Faulkner’s Snopes Trilogy’. As American direction of civilising and director of the Netherlands Institute for Oklopčić demonstrated, Faulkner’s decivilising processes. The publication Social Research (SCP). His eloquent history of a Southern family presents of the conference proceedings will hope- paper provided many witty examples of the ideology of the patriarchal South, fully encourage further American Studies changes in the direction of informalisa- according to which women – equated research projects on the basis of figura- tion and subsequent reformalisation. with nature – have to undergo a civilis- tional or process sociology. Several examples of an unbalanced ing process that, in the trilogy, shows ‘emancipation of emotions’ showed the immense power differential between Christa Buschendorf rough edges of informalisation proc- the sexes. The great American edu- Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität esses – people who would have felt cational project of the late nineteenth Frankfurt shame before, feel angry today while century, the boarding schools devoted presenting their anger as a sign of to the ‘civilising’ of Native Americans, being right – and functioned to open a was the topic of the talk ‘“Making Symposium on Informali- window on how and why these proc- Us Be Like Wasichus:’ Civilising and sation in Honour of Cas esses will continue. Decivilising Processes in Nineteenth- Wouters Century Indian Boarding Schools’ by Amsterdam, 18 April 2008 From his study in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, the Romanian Americanist Ruxandra India), political scientist and cultural Radulescu (Bucharest), which she On April 18, Cas Wouters’ book anthropologist Ward Berenschot pre- discussed by presenting photographic Informaliserin: Manieren en emoties sented a paper relating a century of documents of the period. sinds 1890 (Amsterdam, Bert Bakker changes in manners in the direction 2008)was launched in Amsterdam. The of informalisation to changes in the In conclusion, the Americanist and cul- Dutch translation of Informalization: structures and functions of the state, tural theorist Winfried Fluck (FU, Berlin) Manners and Emotions since 1890 castes and classes. As social dividing juxtaposed the postmodern theories of (London: Sage, 2007 – see review lines of castes eroded, status competi- subject formation that attempt to elimi- nate the notion of a coherent ‘identity’ with figurational concepts of identity formation which, as he maintained, allow for more adequate explanations of the new habitus that has evolved under the conditions of globalisation. Fluck described it as an enhanced flex- ibility that develops in reaction to the challenges both of the multiple tasks of today’s working place and the increas- ing variety of consumer goods. In his response to Fluck’s methodological con- siderations, Pieter Spierenburg (historian and criminologist, Rotterdam) referred for example to Fluck’s remarks on Foucault’s concept of power, emphasis- ing the desideratum of further research on Foucault’s and Elias’s theories of power.

The following results have emerged From left to right: Ward Berenschot, Cas Wouters, Paul Schnabel, Joop Goudsblom, and Arend-Jan from the talks and discussions in Frank- Heerma van Voss

Issue No.29 June 2008 Figurations 21 tion continued along lines of class, and FORTHCOMING Stephen Mennell (University College Berenschot drew special attention to the CONFERENCES Dublin, Ireland) The American Empire: Sanskritisation process in India: how Functional De-democratisation and new upper and middle classes tried to International Institute of Diminishing Foresight adopt many of the manners and distinc- Sociology (IIS) 38th World tions of the previous ruling castes. The Congress of Sociology, Cas Wouters (University of Utrecht) latter was described as an attempt at Budapest, Status Competition and the Develop- (re)formalisation. 26–30 June 2008 ment of an American Habitus

Wouter Gomperts, psychoanalyst and There will be three ‘figurational’ ses- Matt Clement (Open University, UK) psychologist, presented a paper on sions, organised by Stephen Mennell Civilising and Ghettoising: Social Fig- the emancipation of emotions in psy- and Robert van Krieken, on the overall urations and Urban Development chotherapy with immigrants, focus- theme of ‘Civilising and Decivilising ing on ethnic feelings of superiority Processes: Key Trends of the Twenty- José Esteban Castro (University of and inferiority. Thus he addressed the First Century’. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK) ‘Social emancipation of emotions that are the struggles, common goods, and the long- most difficult to subject to ‘controlled Session A: Paths to the Present term development of citizenship: local decontrolling of emotional controls’, water conflicts in global perspective’ if only because displays of superiority Chair and Discussant: Nico Wilterdink and inferiority became increasingly (University of Amsterdam) Michael Drake (University of Hull) Out tabooed, and correspondingly, the of the barracks and running amok? An feelings of superiority and inferiority Andrew Stebbins (Murdoch University, Eliasian perspective on trends in the became (and remained) more strongly Perth, Australia) Elias and China organisation of violence in the twenty- repressed and denied than other emo- first century tions. Gomperts provided many moving Fernando Ampudia de Haro (Uni- examples of the difficulties in attempt- versidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal) Stephen Vertigans (Robert Gordon Uni- ing to address these feelings of infe- Spanish ‘decivilisation’ and ‘dyscivili- versity, Aberdeen, UK) De-Civilising in riority and superiority, showing at the sation’: The case of Second Republic, the Name of Civilisation: Understand- same time the importance of ‘working Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship ing the Consensus through’ these feelings in the micro- cosm of therapeutic sessions. And cer- Irem Ozgoren Kinli (Izmir Economics Andrew Hammel (University of Düs- tainly not only there. University, Turkey) Gendering the civi- seldorf, Germany, and Harvard Univer- lising process of the Ottoman Empire sity, USA) The Civilising Process, the In the last paper, Bernard Kruithof, Politics of ‘Civilisation’, and the Death historian and pedagogue, addressed the Helmut Kuzmics (Universität Graz, Penalty in Europe and the United question whether the concept of infor- Austria) Emotions of Commanders and States of America malisation could be a useful tool for Officers and their Control in War and historians. Considering the rather strong Peace: The Example of the Habsburg Session C: Civilising and Decivilising allergic reaction of Dutch historians to Army from 1800 to 1918. Processes Today sociological theory and certainly to such a theory dealing with the most recent Rafael Marques (Universidade Técnica Chair and Discussant: Richard Kilmin- past, he did not expect many historians de Lisboa, Portugal) Von Braunmühl’s ster (University of Leeds) to use the concept. Yet he predicted that Conjecture: The Civilisational Dimen- the concept would catch on and become sion of Duelling Tatiana Savoia Landini (Universidade a household word among people who Federal de São Paulo, Brazil) Sexual never heard of Cas Wouters. Sam Nelson (Yale University, USA) violence against children: a decivilising Religious Revival and Discourses of process? Civilisation in the Early Eighteenth Century Stefan Bargheer (University of Chi- cago, USA) Toward a Leisure Theory of Dieter Reicher (Karl-Franzens-Uni- Value: The Game of Bird watching and versität Graz, Austria) Widening the the Concern for Conservation in Great Civilising Theory to Aspects of Inter- Britain state Conflicts Norman Gabriel (University of Ply- Session B: Civilising and Decivilising mouth, UK) Affective bonding or Process, Power and Conflict attachments? An exploration of the relation between Bowlby and Elias’s Chair and Discussant: Steve Loyal approach to human interdependence (University College Dublin)

22 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008 Sam Binkley (Emerson College, Enquiries can be addressed to the con- Zur Genealogie des Zivili- Boston, USA) The Civilising Brand: ference organisers: sationsprozesses: Friedrich Shifting Shame Thresholds and the Dis- Stefanie Ernst: Nietzsche und Norbert semination of Consumer Lifestyles [email protected] Elias Andrea D. Bührmann: Berlin,Humboldt University, Yi-Tung Chang (National Pingtung Andrea. [email protected] 26–27 September, 2008. University of Education, Taiwan) Civi- muenchen .de lising or De-Civilising the Children in This conference is being planned the Global Age by Friederike Günther (Technische International Sociological Universität Berlin), Angela Holzer Sarah Egan (Yale University, USA) A Association First Forum on (Princeton University), and Enrico Good Sport? Hunting and civilisation Sociology Müller (Berlin). Those interested in the Twenty-first Century Barcelona, should contact Angela Holzer at 5–8 September 2008 [email protected].

Self-Regulation or Self- Research Committee 20, Comparative Care – The Sociology of Sociology: Working Group on Civilis- the Subject in the Twenty- ing and Decivilising Processes first Century Chair: Stephen Mennell, University University of Hamburg, College Dublin 3–5 July, 2008 Hörsaal H, ESA (Edmund Speakers: Siemers-Allee), Hauptgeb. Johan Goudsblom, University of Amsterdam: ‘Toward a developmental Provisional Programme theory of violence: Combining Elias and Collins’ Only the main speakers are given for reasons of space; including the parallel Fernando Ampudia de Haro, Uni- sessions, 34 speakers are listed in the versidade Nova de Lisboa: ‘Discuss- full programme – see www.wiso.uni- ing decivilisation: some theoretical hamburg.de/srsc remarks’

3 July 2008 Diego Mauricio Barragán Díaz, Uni- 11.00–13.30 Registration versidad Militar Nueva Granada, 13.30 - 14.00 Welcome and Introduction Colombia: ‘The notables family and Topic 1: The Nature of the Individual/ the social order, in eighteenth and nine- Subject teenth-century Colombia’ Eva Illiouz, Jerusalem Armin Nassehi, Munich John Lever, University of the West of Annette Treibel, Karlsruhe England, UK: ‘Regeneration, partner- ships and the civilising process’ 4 July 2008 Topic 2: Self Regulating and Self Vera Weiler, Universidad Nacional de Caring Techniques Colombia, Colombia: Understanding Thomas Schäfer processual thinking – on Elias’s theory Stephen Mennell, Dublin of knowledge Helga Pelizaeus-Hoffmeister, Munich Afternoon: Topic 3 – Current Research: Andrew Stebbins (Murdoch University, Parallel Sessions on Work, Body, Perth, Australia): Elias and China Desire, Time and Space

5 July 2008 Topic 4: Perspectives of transdicipli- nary research about the individual Andrea D. Bührmann, Muenster and Berlin, Stefanie Ernst, Hamburg. Discussion Forum: M. Pieper, J. Goudsblom, H. Korte, J. Stagl, C. Wouters 13.30 Close of Conference

Issue No.29 June 2008 Figurations 23 OBITUARY FROM THE NORBERT CONTRIBUTIONS TO Stanislav Andreski, ELIAS FOUNDATION FIGURATIONS 1919–2007 Figurations online The next issue of Figurations will be mailed in November 2008. News and Past issues of Figurations are no notes should be sent to the Editors longer on Robert van Krieken’s by 1 October 2008. pages on the University of Sydney. Robert has moved them to a differ- Editor: Stephen Mennell ent server. They can now be found Editorial Address: Department at: of Sociology, University College http://elias-i.nsfhost.com/elias/figs.htm Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. Tel. +353-1-716 8504; There you can read them all the way Fax: +353-1-716 1125. back tot the first issue in 1994. E-mail: [email protected]

Associate Editor: Dr Katie Liston, The great Polish–British sociologist Department of Sport and Exercise Stanislav Andreski, Professor Emeri- Sciences, University of Chester, tus at the University of Reading, died Parkgate Road, Chester CH1 4BJ, on 26 September 2007. His books United Kingdom. included Military Organization and Tel. + 44-1244 513430; Society (1954, rev. edn 1968, which Fax: +44-1244 392889 first advanced the key concept of ‘mili- E-mail: [email protected] tary participation ratio’), Elements of Comparative Sociology (1964), Social Honorary Assistant Editors: Florence Sciences as Sorcery (1974) and War, Delmotte, Brussels (French); Sofia Revolutions and Dictatorships (1982). Gaspar, Madrid (Spanish and Por- tuguese); Heike Hammer, Stuttgart Andreski was a long-term friend of (German); Tatiana Savoia Landini, Norbert Elias’s. My best memory of São Paulo (Spanish and Portuguese, him was when he turned up at the con- Latin America). ference on Elias’s work that Eric Dun- ning and I organised at Balliol College, Contributions should preferably be Oxford, at the New Year, 1980. The title e-mailed to the Editor in the form of of Andreski’s paper was ‘Protestantism, MS Word (.doc), Rich Text (.rtf) or Capitalism and Syphilis’. I’ve always and plain text (.txt) files. Do not use wished that I had thought of that. embedded footnotes. Hard copy is accepted reluctantly. There’s a wonderful legend about Stas Andreski and Norbert Elias swimming © 2008, Norbert Elias Stichting, together in Lake Geneva, on the occa- J.J. Viottastraat 13, sion of the ISA World Congress of 1071 JM Amsterdam, Netherlands. Sociology in Evian in 1966, talking ani- matedly about sociology (what else?). A Graphic Design and large wave came along and sank Elias Desktop Publishing: completely. For some moments Elias Annette van de Sluis. remained submerged, and then popped Printed by MultiCopy, up again, still talking sociology. Weesperstraat 65, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Stas also had a colourful military his- tory in the Second World War. Enter- Figurations is distributed free of taining details can be found in excel- charge on request to researchers, lent obituaries by Christie Davies in institutes or libraries. To be added to the Independent, 10 October, and by the mailing list, please write to the Kazimierz Sowa in the Guardian, 20 Secretary, Norbert Elias Stichting, November 2007. J.J. Viottastraat 13, 1071 JM Amsterdam, Netherlands. SJM

24 Figurations Issue No.29 June 2008