Civilisation, Culture and Power: Reflections on Norbert Elias’s Genealogy of the West

Abstract

Arnason’s long paper is simultaneously a refined reconstruction of the meanings and roles of the concept ‘civilisation’ in classical social theory (especially Durkheim and the Durkheimian strand of social thought including M. Mauss, M. Granet and Lévi-Strauss, as well as Marx’s and Max Weber’s writings); an exploration of their treatment of the plurality of civilisations and civilising processes; a compact interpretation and critique of Elias’s theory; and an attempt to reformulate the marginalised project of a historical sociology, including an outline and road-map for the essential research questions and research work to be taken on under these headings. In this context, Elias has to be read as a pioneering key figure and as a classic and early example of the deconstruction of the traditional discourse on the subject matter of sociology and social theory. Arnason is particularly interested in, and (like McNeill) places emphasis on, the role of cultural images and worldviews (last not least the religious ones) in the diversification, interaction and development of civilisations—as compared with phenomena of power, control or constraint. Last but not least, the terms civilisation and civilisations refer to socio-historical forces which extend, in space and time, beyond the units which are usually termed ‘nation’, ‘state’ or ‘society’. Among other things, in these respects his paper shows that the term ‘civilisation’ and the conflicts or tensions between its synchronic/static and processual/dynamic meanings, as well as between universalistic versus particularistic uses of these terms, or between Zivilisation and Kultur point to the most central problems of social theory and theoretical sociology—and to themes usually relegated to their periphery.