Evolution as a Key to Process Sociology

Recent discussions of the epistemological and political implications of the situatedness of knowledge in International Relations (IR) have raised important questions regarding the future development of the discipline. They pose the challenge of understanding under what conditions human beings develop more or less reality-congruent knowledge about world politics and what are the implications of such knowledge for emancipatory political activity. This article argues that process sociology should be understood as a relevant complement to these discussions. Assuming a fundamentally ‘realist’ orientation, process sociology provides a sociologically informed analysis of the material, ideational and emotional forces shaping the development of knowledge. As such, it can help those concerned with the implications of the situatedness of knowledge in IR reinforce their capacity to both understand the social conditions under which it is possible to develop more detached and reality-congruent knowledge about the world and better identify and explain the historically emergent values that should orientate the emancipatory transformation of world politics.

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From Philosophy to Process Sociology

Belvedere Meridionale ◽

10.14232/belv.2019.4.7 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 72-83

Author(s):

Máté Gergely Walsh

Keyword(s):

Common Ground ◽

Scientific Schools ◽

Norbert Elias ◽

Philosophical Movement ◽

Long Life ◽

Major Figure ◽

Social Scientific ◽

The Relationship ◽

Process Sociology ◽

Early Influences

This paper traces the early influences that shaped Norbert Elias’s thought during his formative years in Breslau. Norbert Elias, a major figure of twentieth-century European sociology, built a unique research tradition known today as process sociology after rejecting philosophy at the beginning of his career and polemicized with the dominant social scientific schools of his time throughout his long life. This paper, examining Elias’s less known early writings and particularly his doctoral thesis in philosophy disputed by his supervisor, Richard Hönigswald, argues that to better understand, value and utilize Norbert Elias’s unique processual approach to sociology one must better understand the relationship between the neo-Kantian movement, a today neglected, but once a highly influential continental philosophical movement of the second half of the long nineteenth century, and the thinking of Elias’s rebel generation in interwar Germany. This paper also intends to search for a common ground between the philosophical and the sociological traditions.

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Rewolucja konsumpcyjna i kształtowanie się podmiotu emocjonalnego w perspektywie Norberta Eliasa

Kultura i Spoleczenstwo ◽

10.35757/kis.2015.59.1.7 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 59 (1) ◽

pp. 115-136

Author(s):

Joanna Zalewska

Keyword(s):

Global Market ◽

Second World War ◽

Integration Process ◽

World War ◽

The West ◽

Civilizing Process ◽

Consumption Culture ◽

The Individual ◽

Second World ◽

Process Sociology

The aim of this article is to analyze the interdependence between the processes of forming mass markets and the processes of rationalizing emotion and the shaping of modern hedonism. The author uses the perspective of Norbert Elias’s process sociology, in which the monopolization of resources results in the growth of dependence between all the inhabitants of the territory encompassed by the monopoly, and this is accompanied by a civilizing process, or the rationalization of the behaviours of individuals. The author presents the idea that the integration process at the level of humanity, as survival unit on the platform of the global market and consumption culture, is ongoing. As an example, the author analyzes the ﬁrst stage in the consumer revolution in Poland after the Second World War, where fashion was shaped on one side by the socialist ideology of progress, and on the other by the romantic ethic present in communications from the West. Individual emotion as a factor guiding behaviour corresponds to the logic of the market, and fashion is the process of mediating between the market and the individual.

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Corporate Citizen in Political Discourse Amidst the Pandemic

Journal of Political Research ◽

10.12737/2587-6295-2021-5-4-46-58 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 46-58

Author(s):

L. Sharahina

Keyword(s):

Corporate Citizenship ◽

Corporate Sustainability ◽

Industrial Society ◽

Communicative Rationality ◽

Strategic Communications ◽

Political Communications ◽

Basic Features ◽

Corporate Social ◽

Process Sociology

The wisdom of reviewing corporations, which execute strategic programs of corporate sustainability, as an important actor of political communications in postindustrial society is justified in the article. The basic features of corporate sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and corporate citizenship concepts, the role of strategic communications under international ESG-discourse are outlined. The comparative analyses of Russian companies, participating Global Compact Network, social investments during COVID-19 pandemic is based on case studies, transparent nonfinancial reporting, and expert interviews. Social projects and programs of X5 Retail Group, Severstal’, Norilsk Nikel, United Metallurgic Company were studied. These companies’ basic business activities were established in industrial society. As the result of the research, based on process sociology (N. Elias), mediatization (A. Hepp), and communicative rationality (Ju. Habermas) approaches, the role of corporate citizens in communicative figurations of the network society formation and their subjectivity in political communications acquiring. The focus is made on COVID-19 pandemic influence on communication infrastructures with the studied companies’ stakeholders transformation.

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The testosterone barrier in sport

Sociología del Deporte ◽

10.46661/socioldeporte.6267 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Raúl Sánchez García

Keyword(s):

Women Athletes ◽

Normal Condition ◽

Sexual Development ◽

Power Relations ◽

Fair Play ◽

High Level ◽

Process Sociology

World Athletics (formerly known as IAAF) has recently published the eligibility regulations for female classification that apply to running events from 400 meters up to the mile. The regulations have prevented some elite women athletes with DSD (Difference of Sexual Development) to compete or have made some of them to change their preferred running event in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. According to World Athletics, female hyperandrogenism (a biological anomaly that naturally produces a high level of testosterone) must be in some way “compensated” to respect the fair play of the competition. Nonetheless, such argument rests upon a problematic assumption: hyperandrogenic women are not “natural” women —at least when it comes to compete in sports— so their “not-normal” condition must be fixed to meet the standards. Norbert Elias’s process-sociology helps to place the case of hyperandrogenic sportswomen within a broader context of power relations. In this fashion, we see that the case becomes problematic because these women athletes are perceived as a threat/disruption of one of the vertebral categories of sport: sex/gender. The testosterone barrier is to sex/gender what the colour barrier was to race in sports: a disciplinary strategy to maintain what is considered the “natural” sports categories of a certain era.

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Artification as Process

Cultural Sociology ◽

10.1177/1749975519854955 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 265-275 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Roberta Shapiro

Keyword(s):

Historical Perspective ◽

Social Processes ◽

Simple Idea ◽

Process Sociology

The term ‘artification’ springs from a simple idea: art is not a given and cannot be defined once and for all as the consecrated body of works of established institutions and disciplines. Rather, it is a construct and the result of social processes that are located in time and place. Although this last statement is so fundamental to the sociological outlook as to border on truism, it entails adopting a socio-historical perspective that is less common than one would expect. This introduction recalls some of the empirical findings on culture on which the concept is based, while placing the theory of artification within the framework of process sociology. The apparent simplicity of the idea of artification is deceptive; it leads to a materialistic and socio-genetic perspective the implications of which have yet to be fully discovered.

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Olympism and Consumption: An Analysis of Advertising in the British Media Coverage of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games

Sociology of Sport Journal ◽

10.1123/ssj.25.2.167 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 167-186 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Joseph Maguire ◽

Katie Butler ◽

Sarah Barnard ◽

Peter Golding

Keyword(s):

Political Economy ◽

Content Analysis ◽

Consumer Culture ◽

Media Coverage ◽

Olympic Games ◽

Humanity Program ◽

British Press ◽

Process Sociology

Drawing on work located within critical political economy and process sociology, this article uses content analysis to examine the types, frequency, and content of Olympic related advertising in the British press and television during the 2004 Athens Olympics. We assessed the degree to which The Olympic Partner (TOP) sponsors incorporated themes derived from Olympism and the Celebrate Humanity program, as well as from consumer culture more broadly. Our findings suggest that relatively few advertisers incorporated themes relating to Olympism, and that those that did focused on “excellence,” which is arguably more indicative of the achievement sports ethic and consumerism than of Olympic ideals.

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REINSTATING FUNCTIONALISM IN THE FIGURATIONAL APPROACH TO ORGANIZATIONS

SOCIETY INTEGRATION EDUCATION Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference ◽

10.17770/sie2021vol6.6337 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. 517-528

Author(s):

Aleksejs Šņitņikovs

Keyword(s):

Organization Theory ◽

Contingency Theory ◽

Organizational Life ◽

Central Concept ◽

Relational Approach ◽

The Past ◽

Civilizing Process ◽

Norbert Elias ◽

New Directions ◽

Process Sociology

Over the past two decades, there have been attempts to apply ideas from figurational sociology founded by Norbert Elias in research of different aspects of organizational life. The central contributions are derived from his theory of the civilizing process and the principles of process sociology. While this research mostly is relevant for contemporary organization theory, many contributions tend to emphasize Elias’s relational approach to the neglect of his functionalism, which underlies the whole corpus of Elias’s works. Rediscovery of Elias’s functionalism opens up the way for a fruitful reinterpretation of the central concept of his sociology, figuration, and enables to find new ways of combining figurational sociology with more familiar approaches to organization theory, in particular, with contingency theory. This helps to identify the factor of technology in the theory of the civilizing process and place it in the context of the concepts of figurational sociology such as interdependence, power and subjectivity, which enhances the analytical strength of figurational approach to organizations. The paper discusses some applications of figurational sociology to date and points to new directions in the study of organizations with the use of the conceptual tools of figurational approach.

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