Beyond Epistemological Ambiguities: The Political Relevance of Elias Today

“In einer ganz bestimmten Richtung...” The sociology championed by Norbert Elias refers to a certain conception of social change. Considered in a very long-term perspective, unplanned social processes do not only seem to be structured but also “ordered”. Throughout centuries, these processes are more precisely to be seen as having followed in a definite way (in einer ganz bestimmten Richtung, in Elias 1939 II: 444) the undetermined logics of social interdependencies of different kinds, demographical, military, economic, cultural ones. If one considers for example the Western history, for the five last centuries these dynamics have given the “direction” (or “orientation”) for at least one aspect of the social and political development. Always increasing, growing and more and more complex, the interdependencies have led to always enlarging and more or less inner pacified social and political units (Elias 1939 II: 330-32) (...)