The book is an authoritative assessment of Norbert Elias (1897–1990). The volume recognizes Elias as one of the major contributors to the development of the sociological tradition in the past century and charts the continuing relevance of his conception of sociology for contemporary society. Only toward the end of his career as an academic did Elias’s work begin to attract the attention of English-speaking sociologists, historians, and scholars of cultural studies. 

It is a broad representation of Elias’s oeuvre and work inspired by it. While Elias is best known for his major study of The Civilizing Process, the reach and subtle depths of Elias’s conception of process sociology has been cemented more recently by the English-language publication of Elias’s collected work of 18 volumes. The baton of process sociology is being passed on to further generations of sociologists. As a learning process, sociologists develop this inheritance in new and stimulating ways by situating the most pressing changes and continuities facing human societies in long-term perspective.

Chapters from leading contributors outline the nature of the sociological practice of Elias and address fundamental questions of historical sociology, democratization, gender, racialization processes, and embodiment. Later chapters highlight the contribution of process sociology for understanding developments in nation, state and global sociology, criminology, art, and education.

Alex Law is Professor of Sociology at Abertay University. Law has written widely on social theory, nationalism, and social change. He is currently working on a book focusing on the civilizing process and the Scottish Enlightenment.

Stephen Mennell is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University College Dublin, and General Editor, The Collected Works of Norbert Elias (18 vols).

Anthem Companions to Sociology

Notes on Contributors; Acknowledgments; Introduction; The Sociological Promise of Norbert Elias; Alex Law and Stephen Mennell; Chapter One - Norbert Elias: Genesis of a Determined Thinker; Adrian Jitschin; Chapter Two - Knowledge, Science and Method: The Sociological Practice of Norbert Elias; Jason Hughes and Stephen Mennell; Chapter Three - Norbert Elias’s Comparative Historical Sociology: Against Process Reduction; Marta Bucholc; Chapter Four - Power and Process: Norbert Elias and the Paradox of Inequalities; Michael Dunning and Jason Hughes; Chapter Five - Norbert Elias and Shifting Gender Relations; Stefanie Ernst; Chapter Six - Travelling with Elias: Figurations and the Racialising Process in South Africa; Liz Stanley; Chapter Seven - Excitement Processes, Embodiment and Power Relations in Sport and Leisure; Katie Liston and Joseph Maguire; Chapter Eight - Warfare, Survival Units, National Habitus and Nationalism: Norbert Elias’s; Contribution to Political Sociology; Lars Bo Kaspersen and Norman Gabriel; Chapter Nine - Elias’s Contribution to International Relations Theory: Towards a Global Sociology; AurélieLacassagne; Chapter Ten - Crime, Government and Civilisation: Rethinking Elias in Criminology; Robert van Krieken; Chapter Eleven; Art and the Civilising Process; Alex Law; Chapter Twelve ; From Social Mobility to Channels of Opportunity: Norbert Elias and Education; Eric Lybeck; Appendix: Published Works of Norbert Elias in English; Index