Gallery

Lecture held on April 6th 2018 in Leeds.
Marc Joly (*1976) is a French Sociologist and former Norbert Elias Stipend. He is employed at the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
The video starts with an introduction by Stephen Mennell (until 5:52), then follows the lecture, and finally Question & Answering (beginning at 47:53 ).

Ademir Gebara (*1946) is a Brazilian Professor. He studied at the Universidade de São Paulo and the London School of Economics, where he graduated in 1984 with a doctoral degree. He was a Professor for 23 years at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas and a Professor for 14 years at the UNIMEP.
Ademir Gebara has promoted the theory of Norbert Elias in Brazil and has fruitfully applied the method to studies. He has been conducive in organising Elias conferences on the South American continent for two decades and has interceded to the translation of Elias into the Spanish and Portuguese languages. In the interview, we speak about his route towards Norbert Elias theory. Ademir recollects his biographical experience by saying "In a dictatorship, you have to make moments where you are alive." The analysis of society by Elias was an epiphany for him in a dark period of his life. We speak about his biography and educational career, his way of analysing society with the method of Elias, how he conveyed Elias into his teaching activities and how he coined generations of students in this method. Ademir explains to me how, since the 1990s, a larger community emerged that applied Elias for its research approaches. Today, Eliasian theory and practice is used by Brazilian researchers across the country, and the method has supported a wide range of different academic subjects, like sports science, physiology, social history and, of course, sociology.
The interview took place on October 18th in Londrina, Brazil.

From October 16 to 19, 2018 the Elias community met in Londrina, Brazil. The report The report summarizes the topics of the conference and shows moving pictures of the event.

Congress homepage : http://www.simposioelias2018.com.br

Filmed and spoken by A Jitschin
Cut by J Tucker

Nico Wilterdink (*1946) is an emeritus professor in Cultural Sociology. His research covers a wide range of topics; outstanding is his work on long-term trends in socioeconomic (class) inequality as indicated by wealth and income distribution, globalization processes and global inequalities. In 1992 he was appointed Norbert Elias professor in the study of long-term social processes at the University of Utrecht. From 1998 till 2001 he was vice director of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research. He was one of the editors of the 16 volumes Gesammelte Schriften (Collected Works) by Norbert Elias in German.
In the interview, Wilterdink embarks on Norbert Elias’s influence on Amsterdam social sciences, on ‘good’ and ‘bad’ sociology, and the value of the figurational approach.

Oliver Carsten is the son of Francis Carsten (1911-1998), a famous historian and long-time friend of Norbert Elias. Oliver knew him since his early childhood in the 1950s, when Elias was a regular visitor at his father’s house. Only later, when he grew up, Carsten learned about the sociological work of Elias. What bewildered him especially was his expertise in sports. Now he found out that the old family friend was a leading researcher and theorist of sports and leisure. The last time Oliver saw Elias was when he was invited to his 80th birthday party in 1977.
The interview gives a glimpse to the private life of Norbert Elias and how contemporaries perceived him.

Andrew Linklater (*1949) is a professor in International Politics. After receiving his Bachelor in Oxford, his Master at Aberdeen and a PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science, he began a scientific career that took him around the globe. Finally, back in the UK, he received professorships in Keele (1993-1999) and Aberystwyth (ever since). In 2000, he was featured as one of the fifty thinkers in Martin Griffith's Fifty Key Thinkers in International Relations. Only late in his academic career, he discovered Norbert Elias.
In the interview, he explains why Elias’s theory is valuable and a great stimulus for the sociology of International Relations, and how the approach can be made fruitful for this field of research.

Eric Dunning on the Sociology of sport.
This is a recording of the famous sports sociologist Eric Dunning from the 1990s. It was recorded by Stephen Mennell, who helped Eric out when Eric was not able to leave his house because of a broken leg. So they recorded his lectures and Stephen brought the VHS tapes to the students. This is an excerpt from central parts of a much longer video.
Eric Dunning was a master student and later co-author and close friend of Norbert Elias. They collaborated on several studies on the sociology of sport, like 'Quest for excitement' (Blackwell, 1986). Eric Dunning reflected on his work with Norbert Elias for more than three decades in his 2012 book 'Norbert Elias and Modern Sociology' . This book was co-authored by our Foundation board member Jason Hughes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Dunning

Joop Goudsblom (*1932) is a retired professor of sociology. He began his academic career in 1966 in Princeton, since 1968 he is a professor in Amsterdam.
He knew personally Norbert Elias since 1956. He stayed in touch with him and later invited Elias to be a visiting professor in Amsterdam. Norbert Elias became a regular visitor at the town at the Amstel. In 1983 he decided to permanently move over. Joop Goudsblom became the landlord of Elias and they lived under one roof until the death of Elias.
Goudsblom became the first chairman of the Norbert Elias Foundation. He has served in this office for over three decades and enabled countless works and conferences on Elias. Among his personal contributions are the history of figurational sociology in the Netherlands and of course his book on the civilization of fire.

Stephen Mennell (*1944) is a British sociologist, who had taught in England, the USA, Australia and Ireland. He was long time involved in editing Norbert Elias's books in English. Since the death of Norbert Elias he has worked in many fields of the Norbert Elias Foundation: Being a board member for two decades, editor of the Figuration Newsletter and as the General Editor of the English Collected Works.
In the interview we speak about his personal commitment to figurational sociology, the contribution of figurational sociology to the exploration of human societies and his book on America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Mennell