1st Edition
Norbert Elias and the Analysis of History and Sport Systematizing Figurational Sociology
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Contents of this book
Sociology as a relatively autonomous discipline
Understanding Elias
The uncertainty of the social scientist
Science and knowledge
The complexity and simplicity of reductionism
Sport and sportization
Basic levels of integration – natural and physical constraints
Natural constraints
Physical constraints
Evolution
Human biological characteristics
The nervous system
Psychological constraints
Components of the psychological make-up
Innate functions
Innate amoral functions
Learned functions
Learned drive-generating functions
Moral functions
Learned drive-resolution functions
‘Polymorphous’ functions
Memory
Affection
Social constraints
Power and figurations
On power and games
Figurations
Types of human social bonds
Economic bonds
Political bonds
Affective bonds
On the (non)existence of cognitive bonds
Types of social enclaves
The commingling of constraints and the tasks of the sociologist
The variables of the sociologist
On problems with the artificial macro-meso-micro categorization
Defining identities and social units
The direction of social processes
Blind social processes
(un)Intended actions and consequences
On the civilizing directions of history
In The Civilizing Process
Towards a theory of civilizing, decivilizing and informalizing processes
On the extent of civilizing processes
The principles of civilizing processes
The Spare time spectrum and the need for deroutinization
Process sociology and (de)routinization in social enclaves
The process of deroutinization
The investigation of historical processes in sport and leisure
Sportization
The philosopher’s approach
The conventional approach of the sociologist
The creation of an optimal tension balance in sport
Towards a reorientation of the concept of sportization
References
Subject and author index
Biography
Joannes Van Gestel is a research fellow at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Antwerp, Belgium.
