FIGURATIVE THEORY BY N.ELIAS IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

This paper presents the figurative theory under German sociologist N.Elias - one of the first synthetic sociological theories. With the concept of "figuration" of N.Elias there was performed synthesis of micro and macro approaches in sociology, which is distinctive for present sociological discourse. The purpose of this article is to show the impact of sociology of N.Elias on modern sociological theories, to detect complex connection with other synthetic theories. The comparison of key theoretical concepts of figurative sociology and structuration theory ("figuration" and "structuration", "affects" and "unconscious", "habit" and " routinization ") supports system-influenced by the work of Elias on the formation of the initial theoretical premise by A.Giddens. However comparison of figurative and dramatic sociology shows more parallelism of theoretical constructs by N.Elias and I.Hoffmann. Both authors are working on stories of etiquette rules, rituals and ceremonies, but use different perspectives (diachronic or synchronic), the different interpretations of continuous changes (as the interaction inside and between figurations or as a chain effect or a trace of the events), focusing on the analysis of the influence changes at different levels (social structures or structures of individual experience). These comparisons make it possible to estimate theoretical potential of the basic concepts of sociology figurative, the possibility of their use of context proposed by Elias, particularly in synchronic perspective but for the social structures. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-2-3