Norbert Elias - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Biography

Elias was born in Germany in Breslau, city now Polish. It is resulting from a family of Jewish tradesmen easy particularly interested by the psychoanalysis.

Mobilized during the First World War, it makes a nervous breakdown quickly and is considered to be inapt then exempted.

He undertakes, as of 1918, of the studies of philosophy and medicine (universities of Breslau, Heidelberg, where it is formed with German sociology, and Freiburg). The psychoanalysis freudienne is then in full rise. Disciple, in 1930 he becomes the assistant of Karl Mannheim with the Institut für Sozialforschung of Frankfurt.

Fleeing the Nazi Germany, it is exiled in 1933 in Switzerland, then in Paris, where it in vain tries to find a station. Friend of Alexandre Koyré, the large specialist in the history of the ideas. He ends up being established in London in 1935 when he devotes himself to the drafting of the Procès of civilization .

He then begins a long career of teacher in England where he remains - except a stay to the Ghana (1962-1964) - until his retirement. From 1945 to 1954, it will start by off giving private lessons to the London School Economics . It obtains in 1954 a post of teacher at the university of Leicester and becomes in 1956, at 59 years, professor of sociology.

Its thesis on the company of court, written in 1933 (but never constant), just like its first work on the “ process of civilization ”, appeared in German, with Basle, the day before the war, diffuse themselves only starting from 1969 with their republication in Germany. Very tardily translated into English ( On the process of civilization was it only in 1978 and 1982), his works were it in French only more tardily still. They relate to many thèmes :

history of the self-checking of violence and the interiorization of the émotions ;
the sport ;
the musique ;
the report/ratio with the mort ;
the report/ratio at time.

A citation :

“death does not conceal any mystery. It does not open any door. It is the end of a being humain. ”

Ideas

Known in France for its work on the “ process of civilization ” in Occident, this sociologist pioneer of the vision constructivist sought in his work to exceed the traditional opposition between individual and company. The interdependent individuals form the company which is thus not external with eux : the company is not the simple aggregate of the individual units (methodological individualism) nor a unit independent of the individual actions (holism).

The concept of interdependence is in the middle same theory of Élias. He explains it ainsi :

“ As with the set of failures, any action achieved in a relative independence represents a blow on the social chess-board, which infallibly starts a consequence of another individual (on the social chess-board, it is actually about many by-effects carried out per many individuals) limiting the liberty of action of the first joueur ” in the Company of court, p. 152-153.

Norbert Elias names the specific forms of interdependence between individuals “ configuration ” ; these configurations can be of variable size of the smallest form of relation to that of the size of the international relations. The complexity and the length of the chains of relations make it possible to differentiate these interdependences. The concept of interdependence is in addition connected to that of pouvoir : it considers the capacity like an imbalance in the interdependences: if I am depend on the other than the other is it of me, it then has a capacity on me. The interdependence of the individuals also exploits their personality in their imposing of the networks preexistent with him which will leave their print in the habitus of the individual.

Norbert Elias warns to us against the definitions a priori concepts of microphone and macro-social : they are relative concepts: a national relation will be micro compared to an international relation but macro compared to a set of 4… It in addition rejects the evolutionary vision of the history: the evolutionists see the history like one-way and unidimensional; for him the history is the sum of the projects without project and the finalities without finality which the individuals brought to the wire time.

Lastly, the process (or lawsuit) of civilization consists of a mediation of the impulses, in their drain by normative devices which prohibit the expression of in particular violent emotions. (This thesis is close to the ideas that Freud expresses in the Malaise in civilization .) This process is included/understood by Norbert Elias like an effect of the " curialisation" , i.e. of the extension of the practices of the court to the whole of the company: the court, in particular Versailles of Louis XIV, who was the model of the courses European at the time traditional, indeed imposed on his members a pacification of manners (of which the prohibition of the duel is the symbol), a self-control extreme, in particular on the aggressive impulses, this self-control leading to a intellectual distance compared to the conduits (nothing to let appear, to affect the indifference) and on the new importance given to the word and with a language " noble" , " raffiné" , " distingué" (whose Préciosité is a caricatural form). The " company of cour" thus the reflection supported on oneself, in particular on the impulses and the emotions forced and driven back, psychological reflection of analysis whose writers like Rochefoucauld or Saint-Simon are exemplary representatives. To the XIXe century, the process of civilization will extend to the middle-class then with the popular classes.

See too

Bibliography in French language

One finds in French:

the Company of court , Flammarion, 1985, out of pocket collection Fields
two parts of On the process of civilization , translated and published separately:

the Civilization of manners , 1974, out of pocket Pocket
the Dynamics of the Occident , 1975, out of pocket Pocket

What sociology? , 1970
the Company of the individuals , Beech, 1991
Sport and civilization (with Eric Dunning), Beech, 1994

It also published:

Engagement and distance - Contribution to the sociology of knowledge (1983).
Mozart - Sociology of a genius (1991, unfinished).

Lawsuit of civilization

This book published in 1939, will appear in its French translation in two volumes: the civilization of manners (1973), and the the dynamics of the occident (1977), it presents Western civilization like the result of a slow process of domestication of the impulses, and shows the key role played by the company of court at the various stages of this evolution.

Chronological bibliography in German language

1939 : Über den Prozeß der Zivilisation. Soziogenetische und psychogenetische Untersuchungen. Erster Band. Wandlungen of Verhaltens in den weltlichen Oberschichten of Abendlandes and Zweiter Band. Wandlungen der Gesellschaft. Entwurf einer Theory der Zivilisation . Basel: Verlag Haus zum Falken. (Published in English ace The Civilizing Process, Vol.I. The History off Manners , Oxford: Blackwell, 1969, and The Civilizing Process, Vol.II. State Formation and Civilization , Oxford: Blackwell, 1982).
1965 (with John L. Scotson): The Established and the Outsiders. In Sociological Enquiry into Community Problems , London: Frank Case & Co. (Originally published in English.)
1969: Die höfische Gesellschaft. Untersuchungen zur Soziologie of Königtums und DER höfischen Aristokratie (based one the 1933 enabling). Neuwied/Berlin: Luchterhand. (Published in English ace The Short Society , Oxford: Blackwell, 1983).
1970 : Was STI Soziologie? . München: Juventa. (Published in English ace What is Sociology? , London: Hutchinson, 1978).
1982 : Über die Einsamkeit der Sterbenden in unseren Tagen , Frankfurt amndt Hand: Suhrkamp. (Published in English ace The Loneliness off the Dying , Oxford: Blackwell, 1985).
1982 (edited with Herminio Martins and Richard Whitley): Scientific Establishments and Hierarchy. Sociology off the Sciences Yearbook 1982 , Dordrecht: Reidel.
1983 : Engagement und Distanzierung. Arbeiten zur Wissenssoziologie I , edited by Michael Schröter, Frankfurt amndt Hand: Suhrkamp. (Published in English ace Involvement and Detachment. Contributions to the Sociology off Knowledge , Oxford: Blackwell, 1987.)
1984 : Über die Zeit. Arbeiten zur Wissenssoziologie II , edited by Michael Schröter, Frankfurt amndt Hand: Suhrkamp. (Published in English ace Time. Year Essay , Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).
1985 : Humana conditio. Betrachtungen zur Entwicklung der Menschheit amndt 40. Jahrestag eines Kriegsendes (8. May 1985) , Frankfurt amndt Hand: Suhrkamp. (Not available in English).
1986 (with Eric Dunning): Quest for Excitement. Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process . Oxford: Blackwell.
1987 : Die Gesellschaft der Individuen , edited by Michael Schröter, Frankfurt amndt Hand: Suhrkamp. (Original 1939, published in English ace The Society off Individuals , Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).
1987 : Los der Menschen. Gedichte, Nachdichtungen , Frankfurt amndt Hand: Suhrkamp. (Poetry, not available in English).
1989 : Studien über die Deutschen. Machtkämpfe und Habitusentwicklung im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert , edited by Michael Schröter, Frankfurt amndt Hand: Suhrkamp. (Published in English ace The Germans. Power struggles and the development off habitus in the 19th and 20th centuries , Cambridge: Polity Close 1996.)
1990 : Über sich selbst , Frankfurt amndt Hand: Suhrkamp. (Published in English ace Reflections one has life , Cambridge: Polity Near, 1994).
1991 : Mozart. Zur Soziologie eines Geniuses , edited by Michael Schröter, Frankfurt amndt Hand: Suhrkamp. (Published in English ace Mozart. Portrait off has Genius , Cambridge: Polity Near, 1993).
1991 : The Symbol Theory . London: Wise. (Originally published in English.)
1996: Die Ballade vom armen Jakob , Frankfurt amndt Hand: Insel Verlag (Drama, not available in English).
1998 : Watteaus Pilgerfahrt zur Insel der Liebe , Weitra (Austria): Bibliothek der Provinz (Not available in English).
1998 : The Norbert Elias Reader: In Biographical Selection , edited by Johan Goudsblom and Stephen Mennell, Oxford: Blackwell.
1999 : Zeugen of Jahrhunderts. Norbert Elias im Gespräch put Hans Christian Huf , edited by Wolfgang Homering, Berlin: Ullstein. (Interview, not available in English).
2002 : Frühschriften . Frankfurt amndt Hand: Suhrkamp. (Early writings, not available in English.)
2004: Gedichte und Sprüche . Frankfurt amndt Hand: Suhrkamp. (Translations off poems in English and French).

Aricle related

historical Sociology

Random links:

200 | Destination universe | One will obstruct oneself | SHOUTcast | Common unit of dispensation