Process Sociology

This article analyzes and evaluates Norbert Elias’s figurational approach to the study of civilization and the civilizing process in the context of other theorists, such as Guizot, Buckle, Burckhardt and Spengler. It delves into the semantics of the term “civilization”, which is notoriously ambiguous and multifarious, by exploring its etymology, history, spread and utility in various linguistic contexts (French, German, English). It also takes into account the politics of civilization and ideological usage in the colonialist enterprise of European imperialism. Elias’s original contribution to civilization studies turns out to be a uniquely figurational (or process-sociological) approach which views civilizations not as static but dynamic and developing. Societies move towards civilization through a civilizing process instigated by psycho- and sociogenesis. These processes gradually change society and how people perceive civility, etiquette and modes of morality. The civilizing process culminates into structured civilized behaviors that are closely related to the organization of Western societies into the form of states. Elias’s theory of civilization has severe deficits, such as its neglect of religion (institutionalized or otherwise) and its limited generalizability due to its mere focus on Western civilization. However, his figurational approach is still highly valuable and may be fruitfully utilized for civilizational investigations.

Keywords: Civilization, Kultur, Norbert Elias, civilizing process, sociogenesis, psychogenesis, figurational sociology

The following article discusses the relationship between materiality and sociality, and more precisely that of an item of clothing–the hoop skirt–and a polite gesture–holding doors for others–applying a historical procedural perspective. After some introductory remarks on holding doors for others as a polite behavior, the history of the hoop skirt is reconstructed as a sequence on the basis of a methodology of processual explanation and is described as a process using Georg Simmel’s fashion theory. Subsequently, a history of politeness is reconstructed as a sequence and explained as a process using Norbert Elias’s theory of civilization. The hypothesis that the gesture emerged due to the exorbitant size of the hoop skirt, which made it necessary to hold doors for women wearing them, will then be plausibilized by a complex reconstruction that parallelizes both sequences in a temporal and social dimension. In addition to the temporal presumption that the gesture appeared in conduct books after the emergence of the hoop skirt, both fashion and politeness present similar reference problems in terms of differentiation in society, inclusion and authenticity. Furthermore, this argument serves as a possible example of a symmetry between materiality and sociality.

This book explores the thought of Pierre Bourdieu, one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th century, proposing a modification and extension of his concept of habitus. Building on Bourdieu’s notion of the translational reproduction of social structure – the idea that while social classes move in the same direction, dominant groups are able to preserve their relative power position, thus maintaining the structure of the gap – the author proposes that as social structures change, habitus change correspondingly and thus become plural. Informed by Norbert Elias’ process sociology, this volume offers examples of habitus pluralisation, arguing that this modification of Bourdieu’s thought renders it more suitable for the study of social changes and represents the development of a path that Bourdieu himself had begun to explore in the later stages of his career. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in historical sociology, process sociology, social structures, and the thought of Bourdieu.

In the present era of heated debates on free expressions involving religious sensibilities, Muslim artists form a sociologically interesting group. Comparing the UK and the U.S., based on specific case studies of Black convert Muslim artists, the author found that Sufi- and Salafi-oriented performers display different dynamics in their career developments characterized by the intent to find congruity between their artistic aspiration and Islamic belief. Drawing from process-oriented sociological perspectives, the phases of formalization, informalization, and intensified formalization are theorized as constituting trajectories by which Muslim performing artists grapple with the relationship between art and religion. They reflect varying ideological orientations and influences regarding the (dis)embedment of Islam in culture.

In short: Using conceptions of Norbert Elias and Cas Wouters, I reflect on statements of Olivier Roy about religio-cultural spheres in society by focusing on a specific field of art related to Muslims in Muslim-minority countries.

In this interview, Stephen Mennell tells the story behind the publication of the Collected Works of Norbert Elias (UCD Press), and reflects on some aspects of Elias’s life and work, such as Marx’s influence on Elias, and Elias’s contribution to Group Analysis. In addition, Mennell shares his memories of Robert Bellah, lists some of his favourite books, and offers some advice to aspiring sociologists. The interview was conducted in Moscow in November 2013, and was subsequently revised and annotated by Professor Mennell.

It would not be overstating the case to say that the work of Norbert Elias has been under-employed in the study of medieval Europe beyond the areas originally covered in On the Process of Civilisation.  There is a myriad of ways in which such a variegated, if interlinked, theoretical corpus might be applied to the numerous problematics associated with the period.  Naturally, only certain aspects of so broad a corpus can be addressed here, nor will they be employed exclusively at the expense of other theorists.  Temporal and geographical limitations must also be imposed, therefore, three case studies will be utilised, namely Ireland, Scotland and Norway, c.AD400-c.AD1200.  All three, as will be seen, are interlinked, and in different ways.  The first part of the paper will examine the evidence within each case study for various related processes and phenomena inspired by/adapted from Norbert Elias.  These include feudalisation, downward pressure caused by elite over-population, and centrifugal/centripetal political cycles visible in shifts from heterarchy to hegemony via dynastic or inter-polity elimination contests.  No social system exists in isolation, and second part of the paper is concerned with the points in time where these internal processes intersect transculturally, contingencies which often kick-start new processes, cycles and trajectories.  Having done this, the paper will close with suggestions regarding further applications of figurational sociology to problematics within the case-study regions.

This thesis examines the patterns of development found in Japanese society to establish how structural and psychological changes led to the Japanese seeing themselves as ‘more civilised’ than their forebears and neighbouring countries in the nineteenth century that contributed to the breakdown of their civilisation in the twentieth century. While existing scholarship from Eiko Ikegami, Shmuel Eisenstadt, and Johann Arnason sought to explain the development of the Japanese, they focus on a structuralist or culturalist approach. Both approaches have been limited and problematic because they have reached an impasse. To bridge this scholarly impasse, I have employed a novel approach by examining the development of Japanese society in a four-dimensional approach from longitudinal and latitudinal and macro and micro ways. Using Norbert Elias’s theory of civilising processes as the foundation of this thesis, I have traced the long-term developments in Japanese society from the seventh century to the nineteenth century. By drawing from primary and secondary sources in particular, I have illustrated various complex underlying psychological and structural processes similar to those found in Europe by Elias. Although the theory of civilising processes outlined in On the Process of Civilisation by Elias is the most crucial reference point, I have drawn from other parts of his writing to trace how the Japanese cultural arts (e.g., the tea ceremony), the Japanese court society (e.g., imperial and warrior courts), and the Japanese state-formation process (e.g., imperial and warrior state formations) form the civilising process in Japan. Moreover, to compensate for some shortfalls that Elias’s theory presents when examining the civilising process in Japan, I have engaged with writings from other scholars that have built on a partially scholarly consensus on the historical experience of the Japanese to address the different complex questions that have emerged. As such, by examining the Japanese civilising process, this thesis has presented an alternative way to understand the complex development of Japanese society and interceded into an ongoing debate about the applicability of Elias’s theory in a non-Western context by establishing, with minor modifications, a way to address developments beyond Europe.

Are the relations between citizens and politicians in a strictly representative democracy (RD, e.g. Finland) different from those in a democracy which combines representative and well-designed direct democracy (DD, e.g. Switzerland)? In which ways do the two political systems contribute to the formation of the personality structure (habitus) and of the collective ideas and images of the two groups? What influence do RD and DD have on the self-esteem and political competence, as well as on the representations of political competence, of politicians and citizens? On what kind of image of the human being are they based?

From the point of view of comparative political studies of democracy, RD and DD are not different with respect to the quality of the political processes.

From the point of view of Norbert Elias's theory of established-outsiders relations, political reality looks different. The difference between RD and DD appears to be not only a matter of degree, but qualitative. This is the view I wish to present here.

We centrally explore the significance of conceptual imagery, particularly ideas of ‘depth’ and its relationship to ideals of critique, emancipatory action, and conceptions of social structure and action. We consider how depth imagery is invoked in critiques of sociological thinkers understood to employ ‘flat’ social ontologies. We develop a three-way comparison between Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘field,’ Howard Becker’s ‘world,’ and Norbert Elias’s ‘figuration’ to argue that not only is the ‘flatness’ charge unwarranted in the case of Becker’s and Elias’s ontologies, but the axioms upon which it is made are static, substantialist, and reductively mechanistic. Drawing on the work of Elias, we consider the merits of alternative more dynamically oriented conceptual imagery, reflecting upon its implications for how we might revisit the ‘politics’ of figurational sociology and understandings of emancipatory critique more generally.

In the present era of heated debates on free expressions involving religious sensibilities, Muslim artists form a sociologically interesting group. Comparing the UK and the U.S., based on specific case studies of Black convert Muslim artists, the author found that Sufiand Salafioriented performers display different dynamics in their career developments characterized by the intent to find congruity between their artistic aspiration and Islamic belief. Drawing from process-oriented sociological perspectives, the phases of formalization, informalization, and intensified formalization are theorized as constituting trajectories by which Muslim performing artists grapple with the relationship between art and religion. They reflect varying ideological orientations and influences regarding the (dis)embedment of Islam in culture.

In this chapter, I suggest combining evolutionary and relational approaches as a key to making time central to relational sociology.  Using this combination, I consider processes generally not accounted for in relational sociology, such as: the timing of when we can engage in reflexive and purposeful action; the emergence, constraint, and dissolution of culture; and how social processes emerge, stabilize, and eventually collapse. To illustrate how we can think in terms of evolving relational dynamics, I provide two heuristics: 1) a cycle of social organization that works across various speeds and scales, and 2) evolving spirals that emerge as cycles of organization link one to another over history. These images encourage a type of relational thinking that differs from the frequently used images of networks or webs of relations. For example, from a network perspective, it would seem that the social influence of network connections provides the key for unlocking the relational secrets of social organization. By imagining social organization on distinct levels stripped of culture, history, and varying temporal dynamics, network approaches can miss the dynamics that render connections and influences possible at some moments and not at others. I suggest that attending to cycles and evolving spirals also generates key insights into the relational nature of social organization. In particular, these heuristics of cycles and spirals provide many jumping-off points to make sense of both persistence and change. They provide an alternative to imagining social organization on distinct levels by illustrating social organization as emerging, persisting, and collapsing at different scales and rates. When we picture social organization in this jumbled together way, we see that sometimes slower-moving organization blocks faster-moving organization, and at other times faster-moving organization infiltrates slower-moving organization. Thinking of organization unfolding in cycles and spirals helps us to anticipate such blocking and infiltrating. The heuristic of spiraling evolution also allows us to think in useful ways about identifying the beginning, middle, and end of a social process, in other words, how we case and parse social dynamics for investigation. Finally, cycles and spiraling evolution also illustrate how motivations shift across the cycle of organization, encouraging and undermining different types of relations at different points in time.

Keywords: process sociology, relational sociology, evolution, social change, culture, networks

With regard to the various criticisms which have been leveled at the profession of sports journalism (Rowe, 2007), over the past decade little improvement has been made with regards to the gender disparities that continue to exist within the profession, with fewer women reporting on, and writing about sport, compared to men. In fact, while there are numerous opportunities for women to gain employment as political, business, crime or health reporters, sports journalism continues to be dominated by male journalists (Fraysse and Mennesson, 2016; Strong and Hannis, 2007). This disparity bears a semblance with the lack of coverage that is often afforded to female athletes (Black and Fielding-Lloyd, 2016).

Indeed, while there is a wealth of work exploring how gender is framed within the media, this paper will seek to examine the media careers of six professional women working within the sports journalism industry. Drawing upon interviews conducted with women working for local (Yorkshire, UK) and international (Sky Sports) media organizations, interviewee responses revealed the gender dynamics and power relations that structured working environments as well as the prescribed roles that women performed when working in these environments. This included discussions of the challenges that the women faced as well as apparent improvements which had been made for women in the sports media industry.

From these responses, specific attention is afforded to exploring how each woman responded to questions relating to their career development, career ambitions and the opportunities available to them to progress within the industry. In doing so, Elias and Scotson’s (1994) ‘established-outsider’ relations and Matthews’s (2014) ‘pastiche hegemony’ will be used to examine the power relations that frame working environments as well as the potential opportunities which are available to challenge working environments within the media industry.