Discussing Civilisation and Informalisation

Criteriology

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5081892
AutoresC Wouters (0000-0003-4183-7790, Utrecht University), Stephen Mennell (0000-0003-0207-5172, University College Dublin)
Ano2013
Volume50
Fascículo2
Data de publicação2013-09-12
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPolítica y Sociedad (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1130-8001 • E-ISSN: 1988-3129
EditoraUniversidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5209/rev_poso.2013.v50.n2.40025
OpenAlexW2151541791
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas24

Norbert Elias’s theory of civilising processes has been received only marginally in the USA, one of the obstacles being the absence of figurational or process studies of American society. In the first decade of this century this situation was changed by the publication of Stephen Mennell’s The American Civilizing Process (2007) and Cas Wouters’ Sex and Manners (2004) and Informalization (2007). By 2012, Randall Collins had reviewed the first and the third books in two essays (2009, 2011). His claims and criticism of civilising and informalisation theory are discussed in this paper by placing them in the context of the reception history of Elias’s work since the 1960s, when a first round of discussion centred on criteria to be used for determining the direction of civilising processes. A second round was in the 1990s, and in this paper we contribute to a new round by presenting a summary of earlier critical discussions in an attempt to establish a more solid and subtler body of criteria for studying civilising processes. We use this in critically discussing Collins’s contributions, linking them to symbolic interactionism, American National Ideology, and blind spots in American sociology

American studies · Civilization · Context (archaeology · Critical theory · Criticism · Epistemology · Humanities · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Sociology and Norbert Elias