Law and Civilization: Norbert Elias as a Regulation Theorist

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 267-288
Author(s):  
Robert van Krieken

The German sociologist Norbert Elias developed a wide-ranging sociological analysis of the interconnections between processes of state formation, institutional dynamics, and individual subjectivity, or habitus, and the logic of their processes of transformation over time. His work has had significant impact on social scientific thought in a wide variety of fields, including the historical sociology of the self, violence, crime and punishment, organizations, emotions, sexuality, social control, and sport. His influence in legal scholarship, however, has concentrated in criminology, with only sporadic use of his ideas in relation to other topics in law and social science research. This review highlights the ways in which Elias can be read as a theorist of regulation by outlining ( a) the core elements of Elias's “process-figurational” sociology and his analysis of processes of civilization and decivilization; ( b) Elias's observations on law and state formation; ( c) a selection of the sociolegal research related to his sociological approach, in fields such as crime and punishment, evolving modes of regulation, and international relations; and ( d) the potential future directions in which Elias's process-figurational approach might move in sociolegal research and scholarship. These include the emotional dimensions of family law, human rights and humanitarianism, the intersections of legal evolution and broader processes of social change, legal pluralism and legal culture, tort law, constitutionalism, and the rule of law.

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 349-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Rausch

This review essay speaks to the crisis of Area Studies, offering a view from the field in the form of a review of Tsugaru Gaku (Tsugaru Studies) as a specific Area Studies research case. After presenting an overview of the work of social science researchers working in Japan, both foreign and Japanese, the essay turns to major questions articulated in the literature of Area Studies regarding the purpose, character and future of Area Studies. By reviewing the multi-dimensional and combinative implications in the process and dissemination of his own social science research work together with consideration of the work of Japanese social scientists conducting research in rural Japan and publishing in Japanese, the author positions such ‘domestic,’ place-based sociological and anthropological research as a vital contribution to the future of Area Studies. Capitalizing on social scientific research that can contribute to Area Studies research requires a view of the ‘plasticity of research.’ Further, recognition of the ‘hybridity of the Area Studies researcher,’ both as the trained Area Studies specialist as well as a ‘domestic social science researcher’ capable of theory, methodology and analysis, as well as dissemination of Area Studies research originating in a specific place and in a specific language, is vital to the future of Area Studies research.


2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amos Yong

This article uses the recent work of sociologist Margaret M. Poloma to argue that developments in the sociology of Pentecostalism have the potential to revitalize a classical Pentecostal movement that can be otherwise understood as languishing. In particular, the social scientific study of benevolent service in various segments of the Pentecostal movement provides the springboard for the argument. After locating the interdisciplinary work of Poloma and her colleagues on godly love within the broader context of social science research in the last half century, this paper will explore its implications for the future and renewal of especially the classical Pentecostal movement, for Pentecostal theology and self-understanding, and for scholarship on Pentecostalism.


Koedoe ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A.W. Odendal ◽  
I.M. Krige

The relevance of human scientific research within conservation areas is assessed. Issues of importance to the National Parks Board are mentioned in order to stimulate interest and subsequent discussion. An overview of some of the social scientific projects presently undertaken in national parks (traditional and contractual) are presented. This includes the assessment of real needs and demands of visitors to the national parks. A viability study identified important concepts while the important role played by perception in environmental evaluation is stressed. A multi-disciplinary research approach and active participation by all parties concerned in deciding the future of natural areas is advocated.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 473-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Murakawa

Racial innocence is the practice of securing blamelessness for the death-dealing realities of racial capitalism. This article reviews the legal, social scientific, and reformist mechanisms that maintain the racial innocence of one particular site: the US carceral state. With its routine dehumanization, violence, and stunning levels of racial disparity, the carceral state should be a hard test case for the willful unknowing of obvious devastation. Nonetheless, the law presumes “no racism,” condones racial profiling, and interprets racial disparity in policing and imprisonment as evidence of true racial difference in criminality, not discrimination. Prominent social science research too often mimics these practices, producing research that aids in the collective erasure of racism.


Author(s):  
Anna Sun

This chapter discusses the long-standing problem of identifying Confucians in China (and East Asia in general) through social science research methods—a problem deeply rooted in the nineteenth-century conceptualization of Confucianism and the overall classification of Chinese religions. It investigates different types of empirical data—national censuses and surveys—from Mainland China, as well as from Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, in order to answer two questions. First is about whether “Confucianism” is a category in religious classifications in these East Asian countries and regions; the second asks about how many people are counted as “Confucians” in China.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-145
Author(s):  
Jack Martin

This paper offers a defense of Robin Barrow’s main arguments in Giving Teaching Back to Teachers, including additional material concerning the inability of the aggregate data and statistical methods employed in research in education (and research on teaching) to speak to individual teachers and students or to particular classrooms. This defense and extension of Barrow’s position is applied in a critique ofa proposal made by Lorraine Foreman-Peck in her 2004 debate with Barrow, entitled What Use is Educational Research?, published in 2005 by the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. A central confusion that attends and limits much empirical research in education and social science concerns conflation of two different senses of the concept general, as “common to all” or “on average.” The havoc this confusion plays ought not be ignored or minimized by educational researchers and their advocates who tend to exaggerate the empirical regularity in social scientific data and therefore the generalizability of social science research in education and elsewhere.


Author(s):  
Mark Bevir ◽  
Jason Blakely

Readers are introduced to the major philosophical paradigms shaping social science research today, including hermeneutics and naturalism. The pervasive influence of naturalism on social scientific research is explained and the interpretive alternative is sketched. As part of this, readers are offered an account of the philosophical origins of today’s social science disciplines with a special focus on the case of political science. At the beginning of the twentieth century a modern, ahistorical, and formal paradigm for the study of politics was formed as scholars increasingly rejected the developmental historical narratives and Hegelianism of the nineteenth century. The chapter concludes with a brief overview of the argument of the book.


Author(s):  
Thomas Faist

Given the high political relevance of the transnationalized social question, it is important to ask how social scientists might intervene in public debates on inequalities. Academic and public debates on social inequalities and social protection often raise the question whether and in what ways social scientific research may form a basis for rational political decisions. The main thesis in the spirit of public sociology here is that, while social science research indeed has implications for public policies, such a question is ultimately misleading. While social scientists as experts, advocates, or public intellectuals offer crucial information for describing and understanding social inequalities and social protection, the most important function of social scientists is to offer concepts and interpretations which can guide political debates in the public sphere.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 381-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa L. Miller

This article reviews classic and contemporary case study research in law and social science. Taking as its starting point that legal scholars engaged in case studies generally have a set of questions distinct from those using other research approaches, the essay offers a detailed discussion of three primary contributions of case studies in legal scholarship: theory building, concept formation, and processes/mechanisms. The essay describes the role of case studies in social scientific work and their express value to legal scholars, and offers specific descriptions from classic and contemporary works.


Author(s):  
William Wells ◽  
Bradley Campbell ◽  
Yudu Li ◽  
Stryker Swindle

Purpose Social scientific research is having a substantial impact on eyewitness identification procedural reforms. Police agencies in the USA have changed their eyewitness practices based on the results of social scientific research. The purpose of this paper is to contribute new knowledge by using a unique set of data to describe detailed aspects of eyewitness identification procedures conducted as part of robbery investigations in Houston, TX. Design/methodology/approach Robbery investigators completed surveys following identification procedures conducted during a six-month period of time. The sample includes 975 identification procedures. The analysis describes important features of identification procedures and places results in the context of existing research. Findings Results show that photo spreads were the most frequently used lineup procedure and selection outcomes were similar to recent field studies conducted in the USA. Results also show that the type of procedure, presence of a weapon, cross-race identifications, and viewing opportunity were significantly correlated with selection outcomes. Originality/value Police are reforming their eyewitness identification procedures based on findings from social science research. The study measures and describe the characteristics of a large sample eyewitness procedures conducted by investigators in the field.


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