Abstract
The chapter explains how Elias’s text on the ‘rediscovery’ of the body clarifies his perspective on biological and physical aspects of human beings. Against dualistic concepts of body and mind, a figurational approach shows how learned and unlearned behaviour, and ‘automatic’ and deliberate self-controls are intertwined. Applications of the ‘hinge’ are presented and implications for current research on the sociology of the body are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
See Elias, The Symbol Theory (Dublin: UCD Press, (2011) [Collected Works, vol. 13]).—eds.
References
Algazi G (2008) Norbert Elias’s motion pictures: history, cinema and gestures in the process of civilisation. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 39(3): 444–458.
Atkinson M (2003) Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of a Body Art. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Atkinson M (2007) Playing with fire: Masculinity and exercise supplements. Sociology of Sport Journal 24(2): 165–186.
Atkinson M (2008) Triathlon, suffering and exciting significance. Leisure Studies 27(2): 165–180.
Atkinson M (2012) Norbert Elias and the body. In Turner B (ed) Handbook of the Body. London: Routledge, 49–61.
Binkeley S (2009) The civilising brand: Shifting shame thresholds and the dissemination of consumer lifestyles. European Journal of Cultural Studies 12(1): 21–39.
Bradshaw A and Canniford R (2010). Excremental theory development. Journal of Consumer Behaviour 9(2): 102–112.
Butler J (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Clement M (2010) Teenagers under the knife: A decivilising process. Journal of Youth Studies 13(4): 439–451.
Elias N (1987) On human beings and their emotions: A process-sociological essay. Theory, Culture and Society 4(2): 339–361.
Elias N (1991) The Society of Individuals. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Elias N (2010[1985]) The Loneliness of the Dying and Humana Conditio. Dublin: University College Dublin Press.
Elias N (2011[1989]) The Symbol Theory. Dublin: University College Dublin Press.
Elias N (2012a[1939]) On the Process of Civilisation, Revised Edition. Dublin: University College Dublin Press.
Elias N (2012b[1970]) What is Sociology? Dublin: University College Dublin Press.
Elias N (2013[1989]) Studies on the Germans. Dublin: University College Dublin Press.
Foucault M (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. London: Penguin Books.
Frank A (1991) At the Will of the Body: Reflections on Illness. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Freud S (1930) Das Unbehagen in der Kultur [Civilisation and its Discontents]. Vienna: Internationaler psychoanalytischer Verlag.
Goffman E (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City: Doubleday-Anchor.
Jacobs B and Wright R (2010) Bounded rationality, retaliation, and the spread of urban violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 25(10): 1739–1766.
Latour B (1993) We Have Never Been Modern. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Latour B (2005) Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lyon M and Barbalet J (2003) Society’s body: Emotion and the ‘somatisation’ of social theory. In Csordas T (ed) Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground of Culture and Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 48–66.
Maguire J (1993) Bodies, sport cultures and societies: A critical review of some theories in the sociology of the body. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 28(1): 33–50.
Maté G (2000) Shattered Minds: A New Look at The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder. Toronto: Vintage Canada.
McInerey F (2007) Death and the body beautiful. Health Sociology Review 16(5): 384–396.
Mennell S (1989) Norbert Elias, Civilisation and the Human Self-Image. Oxford: Blackwell.
Mennell S (2007) The American Civilising Process. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Quilley S (2010) Integrative levels and ‘the Great Evolution’: Organicist biology and the sociology of Norbert Elias. Journal of Classical Sociology 10(4): 1–19.
Quilley S and Loyal S (2004) The Sociology of Norbert Elias. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Salumets T (2001) Norbert Elias and Human Interdependencies. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Sanchez R and Malcolm D (2010) Decivilising, civilising or informalizing? The international development of Mixed Martial Arts. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 45(4): 39–58.
Shilling C (1993) The Body and Social Theory. London: Sage.
Thing L and Ottesen L (2010) When leisure becomes work: Are the civilising of the body healthy? Paper presented at the International Sociological Association meetings, Gothenburg, Sweden, July 2010.
Thrift N (2007) Non-Representational Theory. London: Routledge.
Van Krieken R (1998) Norbert Elias. London: Routledge.
Websdale N (2010) Familicidal Hearts: The Emotional Styles of 211 Killers. New York: Oxford University Press.
Whitt H (2010) The Civilising Process and its Discontents. American Journal of Sociology 116(1): 130–186.
Williams S and Bendelow G (1999) The Lived Body. London: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Atkinson, M. (2018). Elias’s Contribution to the Sociology of the Body: The Rediscovery of the Hinge. In: Haut, J., Dolan, P., Reicher, D., Sánchez García, R. (eds) Excitement Processes. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-14912-3_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-14912-3_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden
Print ISBN: 978-3-658-14911-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-658-14912-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)