Gallery

Richard Kilminster (* 1943) is a British sociologist who worked for a long time at the University of Leeds. He had been friends with Norbert Elias since the 1970s, studied his works and published extensively on them. In addition to his exceptionally meritorious participation in the creation of the Collected Works, his book "Norbert Elias: Post-Philosophical Sociology" (2007) is a significant reinterpretation of Norbert Elias' work.

In the interview, we talk about his career, his experiences with Norbert Elias, and how he contributed to making Elias's works better known. In the end we talk about the classification of Elias' work in other theoretical approaches and the role of Elisian sociology in the present.

"As Sociologists, we spend far too much time talking about other people doing Sociology."
In this lecture, which John gave in a workshop that took place at the University of Leicester in summer 2019, he talks about practical sociology. He explains the tools with the help of which sociologists go into the research field. He advocates understanding sociology as a "creative practice".

10:32 on George Orwell
14:04 on CW Mills
14:37 on Pearl Jeffcott
15:12 on Alan Bryman
21:02 on the method of Norbert Elias
23:56 on the method of CW Mills
37:05 on the method of Pearl Jeffcott
Q&A starts at 48:01

The actual lecture begins at 03:10. It was held at the 2018 Elias Conference "Global Interdependencies" in Brussels.
Content: ↓
Current global problems and challenges that are intertwined with lengthening and deepening social networks raise a central question for the current era – whether human groups can agree on symbols that enable them to exercise greater control over the forces that bind them together. The recent resurgence of national-populist movements, ideologies and symbols underline the scale of the challenge in creating global or cosmopolitan symbols. What are the prospects for closer international cooperation if efforts to change the balance of power between symbols ultimately fail?

The lecture was given on December 5, 2018, at the Elias conference in Brussels.

The book mentioned is now published as "Tegen de vrouwen. De wereldwijde strijd van rechtsisten en jihadisten tegen de emancipatie" (Prometheus 2019)

Abstract:
The extreme and ‘alternative’ right are increasingly present on the internet and more and more also in extreme rightwing parties and in militant groups. Jihadist groups such as ISIS have suffered severe defeat but have by no means disappeared. Although the Islamists and the rightists hate each other passionately, they agree on quite a few issues.
One among those is their shared resistance to women’s emancipation. Decoding their key concepts of ‘Volk’ (Nation) and Caliphate respectively reveals their staunch defense of women’s subordination within traditional family roles. Their advocacy of violent struggle and their insistence on the differences between men and women go against the tenets of pacification and increasing equality, essential elements of the civilizing process.
But are rightists and jihadists, with their insistence on ’natural’ order and harmony, contributing to processes of ‘decivilization’? Or should their visions of society to come be considered as a conception of a different civilizing process, in which arrangements by choice and negotiation are abandoned in favor of arrangements conforming to an imposed religious or moral order?

The video shows the opening session of the 2018 Brussels conference. On the podium from left to right: Jason Hughes (Norbert Elias Foundation), Stephen Mennell (Professor Emeritus, UCD), Barbara Górnicka (University College Dublin), Florence Delmotte (Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique-FNRS/Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles).

First Florence Delmotte introduces the program and the background of the conference, then Jason Hughes (9:35) thanks for organising the conference to Florence and explains the new Fellow scheme of the Elias Foundation. Barbara Górnicka (11:20) expresses her joy about the broad range of contribution to the conference. Stephen Mennell (13:18) emphasises the continuity of the event in the series of numerous previous gatherings. The discussion begins at 34:45.

This shot shows a doctoral workshop held by Jason Hughes in July 2019. He explains how Norbert Elias' work differed from other researchers. According to Jason, Elias challenged the whole concept of sociological theory by turning theoretical questions into researchable forms. This argument is discussed in exchange with the audience.
We apologise for the poor sound quality.

The video contains two presentations, that were held directly behind each other on December 7 at the Elias conference in Brussels.

The first presentation by Marta Bucholc examins how the Rule of Law was applied in post-communist societies that today belong to the European Union. Bucholc applies the Figurational Sociology to the case studies Hungary and Poland.

The second presentation by Helmut Kuzmicz (starting after 38 minutes) deals with the case of the Habsburg monarchy and how this power centre failed. Kuzmicz compares its decay with the crisis of multi-ethnic Europe.

In this talk, Stephen Mennell presents the central theses of his book on America. (The American Civilizing Process, ISBN 978-0745632094) He interprets American Cultural History from an Elisian point of view and explains why more researchers on American Sociological topics should have a look at the writings of Norbert Elias and his concepts of long-term societal change.
The video was initially recorded in Dublin in 2007.

Jason Hughes gave this very personal speech at the funeral of Eric Dunning.
We have provided English and Spanish subtitles.

The lecture took place at The Norbert Elias Conference in Brussels (Université Saint-Louis) on December 6th 2018.
In his lecture, Joop summarises the most important findings of his sociology of the cultural history of fire. He explains how he came up with the inspiration for his famous book on fire, how an audience accepted the book, and what reactions he experienced. Finally, he looks back on how he changed his perspective on this important subject over time.