Episode 3. Communicative Figurations

In this episode, Giselinde Kuipers, Robert van Krieken and Andreas Hepp depart somewhat from the work of Elias himself, and instead ask questions that may strike the listener as considerably more contemporary than the forks and etiquette books that most people think of when Elias is mentioned. This episode asks: How can Eliasian sociology help us to understand celebrity society, and the increasing mediatization of contemporary society?

There are a number of aspects of Elias’s approach to state-formation and the process of civilization that have important implications for the study of international relations and the impact of a developing politics of human rights, and in this episode Robert van Krieken, Andre Saramgo, and Aurelie Lacassagne talk about how his ideas can contribute to research and theory in this field. 

In this episode, Stephen Mennell and Helmut Kuzmics discuss what in shorthand can be called the ‘political’ side of Elias’s work. Their conversation begins from the concept of ‘survival unit’, which Elias introduced in his last writings. What is the meaning of the concept? What are the effects of the long-term increasing size of survival units? In what circumstances can they contract instead of growing? The focus then turns to Elias’s theory of state-formation processes. Why is the monopolisation of violence central to state-formation processes, while they also involve a tangle of other processes: the growth of trade, towns, taxation, money, administration and military apparatuses? Next, what is the difference between state formation and ‘nation-building’ (the latter being the concept most frequently encountered in American sociology)? Or between national identity and nationalism? Or national habitus and national we-feelings? Both Stephen Mennell and Helmut Kuzmics have written extensively in this area over many years.

In this episode, Jason Hughes and Nina Baur discuss what constituted Norbert Elias's method, how such a method could look like nowadays, and in what ways a sociologist's positionality and her method relate. 

In this episode, Jason Hughes and Marta Bucholc discuss the intricacies of thinking relationally, and how Eliasian, 'figurational' sociology can help us to do so. 

What does it mean to think with Norbert Elias? What does Eliasian, ‘figurational’ or ‘process’ sociology allow us to see that we wouldn’t have been able to notice otherwise? What new questions does it suggest? In this episode, Giselinde Kuipers, Robert van Krieken and Jason Hughes reflect on their understanding of core theoretical texts, as well as personal experience of doing research equipped with an Eliasian perspective. The episode comes with the list of recommended readings assigned by the podcast production team that is published on the website of the European Center for the Study of Culture and Inequality (EUCCI). Listeners can turn to the readings to develop their understanding of Eliasian sociology further.  Financial support for the podcast has been provided by the European Center for the Study of Culture and Inequality (EUCCI) and Norbert Elias Foundation (NEF).