Norbert Elias and Figurational Sociology: Interview with Stephen Mennell

Abstract

This is an interview with Stephen Mennell and a set of texts related to Norbert Elias's figurational sociology that make up the current volume of Sociologia & Antropologia. Mennell provides readers with a review of figurational sociology, as well as its reception and diffusion. More specifically, he reflects upon Elias's legacies for sociology and his movement away from philosophy; the publication of the collected works of Norbert Elias; authors who influenced Elias; the importance of the sociology of knowledge and the sciences in the body of Elias's work; the understanding of the concepts of civilising and decivilising processes, and functional democratisation and de-democratisation; resemblances and differentiations between Elias and Bourdieu; concluding with some reflections on the book The American Civilizing Process, published by Mennell in 2007, and on the use of figurational sociology for the study of current political issues. ; The text states that Stephen Mennell taught at Harvard, but at the time Prof Mennell was only a Frank Knox Memorial Fellow there – in effect just a graduate student – 1966–67 (S.M. 2022)