The unease with civilization

Norbert Elias and the violence of the civilizing process

Bibliographic Data

ID4872829
AuthorsNicole Pepperell (0000-0003-1290-8019, RMIT University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume137
Issue1
Pages3-21
Publication date2016-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThesis Eleven (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0725513616638480
OpenAlexW2328919049
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited42

Norbert Elias's concept of the civilizing process is perhaps the most controversial aspect of his work, attracting frequent criticism for its perceived Eurocentrism, as well as impassioned defences that critics have misunderstood the concept. In this piece, I explore how The Civilizing Process channels unacknowledged Eurocentric stereotypes in ways that infuse the theory at a depth level. I then examine the downstream ramifications of these stereotypes by contrasting Elias's analysis of the Holocaust, as presented in The Germans, with his analysis of colonialism as presented in The Civilizing Process. I argue that Elias's failure to integrate forms of state violence directed at the colonial periphery undermines his ability to analyse state violence in the core. A more adequate approach would theorize 'civilization' as an ambivalent and contradictory process whose violent character is often - though not always - more exposed and visible on the periphery

Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Civilization · Colonialism · Criticism · Epistemology · Eurocentrism · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · The Holocaust · Anthropology · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Sociology and Norbert Elias