Explaining Modern Social Reality

The Basic Concepts in Norbert Elias's Figurational Sociology
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-963-386-661-0
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 250 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 566 g

Reihe: Central European University Press

Few thinkers have shaped our understanding of modern civilization as profoundly as Norbert Elias. This book offers an accessible introduction to his major ideas, presenting his complex concepts in a clear and engaging way. Through a biographical account of Elias’s life (1897–1990), the book situates his thought within the historical and intellectual context that shaped it.

At the center of the discussion is Elias’s landmark work, The Civilizing Process, with particular attention to class structures, changing patterns of behavior, and the development of the modern state. The book also explores figurational sociology, one of Elias’s most influential contributions to social theory.

An innovative and original thinker, Elias challenged established concepts and introduced new analytical tools, including the influential notion of habitus. The chapters examine his theory of knowledge, his reflections on violence and de-civilization, his analyses of nations and nationalism, and his work on emotions and shame. The book further traces Elias’s dialogue with major thinkers such as Edmund Husserl, Karl Mannheim, Max Weber, Sigmund Freud, and Talcott Parsons, showing how he reinterpreted their ideas in distinctive ways. The book concludes with an overview of the most important critiques of Elias’s work and its continuing relevance today.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sharlamanov, Kire

Petreska, Jana

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Geschichte der Soziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PART 1. Norbert Elias: Biography, Characteristics and Influence 1.1. Life Path 1.2. The place of Norbert Elias in sociology 1.3. Theory of Knowledge 1.4.1. The influence of Hegel 1.4.2. The influence of Edmund Husserl 1.4.3. The influence of Karl Mannheim 1.4.4. The influence of Max Weber 1.4.5. The Influence of Karl Marx 1.4.6. The Influence of Émile Durkheim 1.4.7. The influence of Sigmund Freud 1.5. Figurational sociology 1.5.1. Figurational sociology and the relationship to Talcott Parsons 1.5.2. Basic characteristics of figurational sociology 1.5.3. Figurational sociology and interdependence of individuals 1.5.4. Figurations and processes 1.6. Evolutionism 1.7. The process of individualization  1.8. Value neutrality PART 2. Sociogenesis of Society 2.1. Reflections of the book "The Civilization process" 2.1.1. Civilization as a concept 2.1.2. Controversies of the civilization as a concept 2.1.3. Civilization or culture 2.1.4. The process of civilization and social stratification 2.1.4.1. The evolution of class structure in Elias' opus 2.1.5. The process of civilization and the behavior of individuals 2.2. Survival units 2.2.1. Civilization and the state 2.2.2. National states and nations 2.2.3. Nations and nationalism 2.3. The civilizing process and political history of Europe 2.3.1. The civilizing process and the European Union 2.3.2. The evolutionary path of the EU 2.3.3. European identity and Elias 2.4. De-civilization process 2.4.1. Social preconditions for the de-civilization of Germany 2.4.2. National - socialism and de-civilization 2.4.3. De-civilization and the Holocaust 2.5. Violence 2.5.1. The role of the state in regulating violence 2.5.2. The conceptualization of the power of Norbert Elias 2.5.3. Violence and wars 2.5.4. Violence and global interdependences PART 3. Psychogenesis of the Social Behaviour 3.1. The structure of the personality in the work of Norbert Elias 3.1.1. The concept of habitus in the work of Elias 3.2. In and Out Groups 3.3. The concept of involvement, distance and detachme

Über Autor(innen)

Kire Sharlamanov is Professor of Sociology at the International Balkan University in Skopje, North Macedonia, where he teaches courses in political sociology and the analysis of contemporary societies. His research explores ideology, democratic transformations, and the symbolic dimensions of politics through a synthesis of classical sociology and contemporary discursive theory. He is the author of several books and numerous scholarly articles.

Jana Petreska is a psychologist whose work examines emotions, identity, and the social formation of personality through the ideas of Norbert Elias.