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Chapter on Norbert Elias in The Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Organization Studies. Classical Foundations (ed. Paul S. Adler)

Posted on by Ad van Iterson

Ad van Iterson (Maastricht University, the Netherlands) has contributed a chapter on Norbert Elias’s impact on organizational sociology to the Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Organization Studies, edited by Paul S. Adler (University of Southern California). The aim of this handbook is to re-assert the importance of classical sociology to the future of the study of organizations. The volume includes chapters on Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, Parsons and some twenty other European and American scholars. The chapter on Elias concentrates on the importance of his theory of the civilizing process.  When brought into the context of contemporary work organizations, Van Iterson argues, Elias’s approach is rich in implications for the behavioral and emotional aspects of trends towards empowerment, teleworking, 24-hour working day, despecialization, and multitasking.